SR24

WHEREAS, the White House is convening a Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change with seventeen invited countries at the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, Inc. (East-West Center) on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa on January 30 and 31, 2008, to discuss potential international agreements on global climate change; and

WHEREAS, for more than half a century, researchers have used atmospheric samples taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory on the island of Hawaii to track a steady annual increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and have concluded that concentrations are now higher than they have been in the past eight hundred thousand years; and

WHEREAS, scientific consensus links the anthropogenic increase in greenhouse gases to global climate change; and

WHEREAS, the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that global emissions of greenhouse gases need to peak in the next ten to fifteen years and be reduced to levels well below half those in 2000 by the middle of this century in order to stabilize greenhouse gases concentrations in the atmosphere at the lowest levels assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to date in its scenarios; and

WHEREAS, achieving the lowest levels assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to date and its corresponding potential damage limitation would require developed countries as a group to reduce emissions in a range of twenty-five to forty per cent below 1990 levels by 2020; and

WHEREAS, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the signatory nations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have recognized the special dangers of climate change to island states, territories, and nations; and

WHEREAS, global climate change is causing rapid melting of ice at both the north and south polar regions, which, in conjunction with thermal expansion due to warmer water temperatures, is leading to a rapid rise in sea level; and

WHEREAS, University of Hawaii experts have demonstrated that a one meter rise in sea level would inundate much of Hawaii's coastline, including the world renowned Waikiki resort area, the Honolulu International Airport's reef runway, the majority of Hawaii's wastewater treatment facilities, many historic sites, and many populated areas, including lands up to a mile away from the existing shoreline in parts of Honolulu; and

WHEREAS, global climate change also threatens Hawaii with stronger hurricanes, prolonged drought, shifting weather patterns, warmer temperatures, shifting micro-climates, increased spread of invasive species, and saltwater intrusion into its aquifers; and

WHEREAS, increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations foster greater carbon dioxide uptake by the world's oceans, leading to ocean acidification and the resultant decreases in reef health and decreases in survival of ocean life that rely on calcium carbonate shells; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii is doing its part to reduce its contribution to global climate change by adopting progressive energy policies that promote the use of clean energy technologies such as wind, solar, wave, and biomass energy; and

WHEREAS, Act 234, Session Laws of Hawaii 2007, placed a binding statewide cap on Hawaii's greenhouse gas emissions, by requiring Hawaii to reduce its non-aviation greenhouse gas emissions to their 1990 levels before 2020; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, that in recognition of Hawaii's overwhelming vulnerability to global climate change, the President of the United States is urged to use the January 30 and 31, 2008, Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change, which is being hosted in Hawaii, to commit to an economy-wide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the President of the United States is urged to consent to binding and quantified commitments for the United States under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that would result in the rapid stabilization and decrease in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, and the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Greenhouse Gas Reduction

THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	24
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII