The World Economic Forum (WEF) is applauding California and its strict climate measures as a model for the world to follow, pointing to a recent decree specifying 100 percent of new cars must be electric, hybrid or hydrogen-powered by 2035 as one example of where the future lies.
Praise for the Democrat stronghold is contained in a paper published by the WEF with the exhortation “Learn more about how the state can be a climate role model for other regions.”
It goes on to cite “climate warnings from the IPCC highlight the urgent need to cut global emissions” while applauding “great strides” in California towards decarbonizing energy, although it adds a precautionary note that “greater investment is needed to scale up and accelerate the pace of electrification.”
Author of the paper is Pedro J. Pizarro, President and Chief Executive Officer, Edison International, and a Vice Chairman, Edison Electric Institute.
The paper is quick to assert money – and lots of it – must be spent to ensure change embodied by a carbon-neutral economy is delivered: It says:
A net-zero carbon economy is achievable, although it won’t be easy. In California alone, Pathway 2045 analysis estimates the state will need up to $250 billion between now and 2045 to add 80 gigawatts of bulk renewable power and 30 gigawatts of utility-scale storage, plus the grid enhancements needed to support all of that. Our state’s economy will require further investments for clean end-use electrification technologies.
California Governor Gavin Newsom submitted a 2022 budget proposal with funding to help get the state on track to meet its goals. We support the significant funding requests for clean energy and electrification investments, such as energy storage, pollution-free mobility and building electrification. I am especially pleased to see almost $1 billion earmarked for building decarbonization, which will scale up and accelerate the pace of electrification.
Ultimately the WEF-published paper points out “societies around the world must reduce emissions at a much faster rate than ever before to mitigate the most severe impacts of climate change and adapt to the effects that are no longer avoidable.”
File/A bicyclist rides north on the new Polk Street bike lane in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, May 24, 2014. (Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
It sees carbon neutrality allied with “unprecedented urgency and commitment. Whatever the politics, the tangible steps we’re taking in California to decarbonize the economy can serve as a practical road map for what happens elsewhere.”
Despite the Geneva-based WEF praise for California, it doesn’t look like residents entirely agree it is the future, as Breitbart News reported.
The state ranks second in the nation for outbound moves, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago report released last month, with many middle class residents being forced to leave the state due to California’s strict adherence to “environmentalism.”
California lost 352,000 residents between April 2020 and January 2022, according to the state’s Department of Finance statistics.
The departure of hundreds of thousands of California residents comes after the state lost a congressional seat for the first time in history due to its below-average population increase from 2010 to 2020.
Homeless tents are seen near the City Hall of San Francisco in California, United States on August 29, 2022. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The Democrat-run cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles rank first and second in the nation for outbound moves. California residents are fleeing the state in droves due to its extremely high cost of living, housing prices, crime rates, and homelessness rates.
The data shows Los Angeles residents left the city for areas like Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Antonio, and Dallas. Roughly 41,000 Angelenos left the city in the second quarter of 2022, up from the 33,000 who left the city during the same period in 2021.
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