International | Global problems, local solutions?

California leads subnational efforts to curb climate change

Local authorities and companies are crucial if global carbon-emissions targets are to be met

Sep 15th 2018|SAN FRANCISCO

SUPPOSE Britain’s prime minister ordered civil servants to make the world’s fifth-biggest economy fully carbon-neutral by 2045, and thereafter to extract more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it emits. In a sense that is what happened on September 10th, when Governor Jerry Brown of California—whose economy last year overtook Britain’s—inked an executive order mandating state agencies to begin such preparations.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Local government v global warming”