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A warmer-than-average winter and early maple sugar tapping give weight to a recent study that shows that New Hampshire’s climate could resemble North Carolina’s by the end of the century if New Hampshire does not address global warming today.
“The good news is that New Hampshire is taking the first steps to address potentially harmful carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions,” said Environment New Hampshire Advocate Erika Staaf.
The New Hampshire Legislature is considering several bills that would prepare the state for cutting global warming emissions in the near future.
A climate action plan
The most prominent of these bills is HB 467, which would establish a committee of legislators and administrators to develop a climate action plan to take on global warming in New Hampshire.
Under HB 467, a commission of state officials would create a Climate Action Plan, no later than September 2007, to address global warming in New Hampshire across several key sectors: electricity, industry, transportation and residential.
The plan would likely mimic those that other New England states have enacted, and would bring New Hampshire one step closer to fulfilling the agreement that the New England governors and Eastern Canadian premiers signed in 2001 to reduce global warming emissions to 1990 levels by 2010.
One of the most important, and timely, suggestions within the Climate Action Plan will likely be enactment of the regional agreement to lower global warming emissions from state power plants, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
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