Bill Text: NJ A5043 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires State to uphold goals of Paris Climate Agreement.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-12-04 - Combined with A5040 (ACS) [A5043 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-A5043-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JAMES J. KENNEDY
District 22 (Middlesex, Somerset and Union)
SYNOPSIS
Requires State to uphold goals of Paris Climate Agreement.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act requiring the State to uphold the goals of the Paris Climate Accord, and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The State shall uphold the Paris Climate Accord by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and addressing and mitigating the threats posed by climate change in accordance with the goals established in the accord.
b. The State shall expand strategies and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Statewide that will reduce energy use, develop renewable energy sources, and control air pollution from government, industrial, commercial and transportation sources. The State shall use the best available science, technologies, and policies to design those strategies and measures. The State shall closely align its policies and goals with those established in the Paris Climate Accord.
c. The State shall formulate long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies and shall take any actions that will conserve and enhance long-term reservoirs of greenhouse gases by prioritizing the conservation of open space, parks, greenways, forests, and wetlands.
d. Within 30 days after the effective date of this act, the Department of Environmental Protection, in consultation with the Board of Public Utilities, shall prepare and submit, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Legislature a report on the measures the two agencies recommend to be taken in and by the State toward establishing and implementing the goals of the Paris Climate Accord, including, but not limited to any legislative, regulatory, or administrative actions that should or must be taken. In the report, the department shall also evaluate the requirements established in the "Global Warming Response Act," P.L.2007, c.112 (C.26:2C-37 et seq.) and compare the emissions reductions, policies, and strategies required under that act with those established in the Paris Climate Accord. The department shall set forth the most effective strategies and measures in achieving the highest level of greenhouse gas reductions and mitigation strategies for the effects of climate change.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would require the State to uphold the Paris Climate Accord by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and addressing and mitigating the threats posed by climate change in accordance with the goals established in the accord. The bill would require the State to expand strategies and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Statewide that will result in the reduction of energy use, development of renewable energy sources, and the control of air pollution from government, industrial, commercial and transportation sources. The bill requires the State to use the best available science, technologies, and policies to design those strategies and measures. The bill requires the State to closely align its policies and goals with those established in the Paris Climate Accord.
The bill also requires the State to formulate long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies and to take any actions that will conserve and enhance long-term reservoirs of greenhouse gases by prioritizing the conservation of open space, parks, greenways, forests, and wetlands.
The bill would also require the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), in consultation with the Board of Public Utilities, to prepare and submit to the Legislature a report on the measures recommended to be taken in and by the State toward establishing and implementing the goals of the Paris Climate Accord. The DEP would also be required, in the report, to evaluate the requirements established in the State's "Global Warming Response Act," enacted into law in 2007, and compare the emissions reductions, policies, and strategies required under that act with those established in the Paris Climate Accord.
The Paris Climate Accord, joined by 195 countries, sets forth a five-year goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature below 2 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels and aims to further limit the increase in global average temperature to 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels. The signatories to the agreement also pledged to undertake rapid reductions in greenhouse gases thereafter in accordance with best available science. Before and during the Paris conference, countries submitted comprehensive national climate action plans. In June, President Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the agreement. The United States' goal under the Paris Climate Accord was to reduce national emissions by 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
