By: Earl Richards Central Valley Business Times
A conference sponsored by the University of California Giannini Foundation and UC Agricultural Issues Center will pick apart California’s climate change policies as expressed in a state law called AB 32 scheduled for Oct. 4 at the California Museum, 1020 O Street, in Sacramento.
AB 32 is the target is an oil company-funded initiative on the November ballot, Proposition 23. If approved by voters, it would effectively scuttle AB 32.
At the conference, economists, analysts and executives from academia, the state government and industry will discuss the impacts of climate change and AB 32 on the California economy and the environment.
Assembly Bill 32, or the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, set the 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal into law. It directed the California Air Resources Board to begin developing ways to reduce greenhouse gases while also preparing a plan to identify how best to reach the 2020 limit.
The reduction measures to meet the 2020 target are to be adopted by the start of 2011.
Researchers who have advised the California Air Resources Board's economic analysis of AB 32 impacts, as well as those who have offered independent reviews of that analysis or their own economic assessments, are among the scheduled speakers.
Speakers include Lawrence Goulder, Stanford professor of environmental and resource economics; Matthew Kahn, UCLA professor and author of "Climatopolis: How Our Cities Will Thrive in the Hotter Future;" Mark Newton and James Nachbaur of the California Legislative Analyst's Office; Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard Environmental Economics program; Meredith Fowlie, UC Berkeley assistant professor of agricultural and resource economics; Dan Sumner, UC Davis professor of agricultural and resource economics and director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center; David Victor, director of the UC San Diego Laboratory on International Law and Regulation and author of "Climate Change: Debating America's Policy Options;" and David Zilberman, UC Berkeley agricultural and resource economics professor.
California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura will be the luncheon speaker.
"It is important in the current economic and political climate that Californians have the best possible information about the impacts of AB 32 on the California environment, climate change, and job creation in California," says Colin Carter, director of the Giannini Foundation and UC Davis professor of agricultural and resource economics. "We are pleased to have assembled some of the best and brightest minds in the state and nationally to inform the debate on AB 32."
The registration fee is $35 and includes lunch. The deadline to register is Sept. 15. Click here for Registration Info
The Giannini Foundation was founded in 1930 from a grant made by the Bancitaly Corporation to the University of California in tribute to its organizer and past president, Amadeo Peter Giannini of San Francisco. It supports research in agricultural, environmental, and resource economics at the Berkeley, Davis and Riverside campuses of the University of California. The UC Agricultural Issues Center is a forum for the identification and analysis of issues affecting the agricultural sector. AIC provides information on a range of critical, emerging agricultural issues and their significance for the economy and natural resources through studies, conferences and publications.