(Oil Change International) -- As wildfires devastate regions of California, the impacts of climate change couldn’t be hitting much closer to home for Governor Jerry Brown while he gears up to host the Global Climate Action Summit in September.
While the Governor has been a long-time champion of ambitious and innovative approaches to tackling the problem, he has sidelined one critical piece of the puzzle: He has not yet advanced any policies to confront and address California’s own fossil fuel production. In fact, since he took office in 2011, Governor Brown’s administration has issued more than 20,000 permits for oil companies like Chevron to drill new wells in California. Ignoring fossil fuel production is like trying to solve the climate crisis with one arm tied behind your back. We need to address both supply and demand if we are going to wind down fossil fuels in line with what it will take to meet the Paris goals.
The latest voices to call on California and Governor Brown to tackle fossil fuel production are five Nobel Peace Laureates (Spanish version here). These laureates add their voices to calls from local California elected officials, scientists and academics, a massive global civil society coalition, and grassroots and frontline communities in California.
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