BOSTON – A regional report card released today by the New England Climate Coalition, an alliance of environmental advocates in New England and Canada, gives Rhode Island a C+ for its actions to reduce global warming pollution.
“Rhode Island’s score reflects real steps to reduce global warming pollution but also the need for broader action across the board, especially in the transportation sector, if we are [to] avert the devastating impacts climate change will have on the state’s coast and inland environment,” said Cynthia Giles, director of the Rhode Island chapter of the Conservation Law Foundation, an NECC member organization.
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Over the past year Rhode Island has moved to reduce the state’s global-warming emissions from electricity plants by joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and implementing for the first time an efficiency program for the state’s natural gas users.
However, the state can do much more to reduce its carbon emissions, the NECC said in its annual Report Card on Climate Action Change. In particular, Rhode Island needs a comprehensive and enforceable plan to reduce its carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.
The only way the state can achieve those reduction levels is by sharply cutting its emissions from the transportation sector – the largest contributor to global warming pollution in the state, according to the report. On Nov. 5, hundreds of Rhode Islanders attended a rally at Roger William Park Zoo for the kick-off of the GO BIG little rhody campaign, a push by more than 25 environmental groups to reduce the state’s carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.
“While we have made some progress, Rhode Island needs solutions as big as the problem global warming presents,” said Denise Parrillo, a campaign organizer for Clean Water Action.
Additional information, including the annual Report Card on Climate Change Action, is available from the New England Climate Coalition at www.newenglandclimate.org.
