Washington’s next notable export

Airplanes, apples… climate policy!

The Climate Commitment Act, part of a suite of climate policies enacted here in Washington state, has been described as “the new gold standard for other states to follow”. 

As other states follow, we’re working to help them benefit from our experience, to replicate the best features of our program while making improvements based on our early learnings.

New York state is putting Cap-and-Invest to work to cap greenhouse gas emissions and invest in their clean economy. As they do so, they are importing expertise, including advice from Clean & Prosperous Washington’s Olympia lobbyist, Isaac Kastama.

Recently, Georgetown Climate Center, Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, and Resources for the Future sponsored a series of Zoom Learning Sessions for New York state policy makers and stakeholders, to inform the development of the New York Cap-and-Invest program. 

Recordings of those sessions are available for all to watch, including this one, Lessons from Washington State’s Cap-and-Invest Program, featuring Isaac as well as Washington House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, and Kelly Hall of Climate Solutions:

Collaboration among states during the design of climate policy helps to ensure optimal outcomes. And it helps to make possible the future linkage of subnational carbon markets, bringing efficiency of scale and more options for compliance. 

Washington state is well-positioned to lead in climate policy, and to export our expertise to other states. Per the State Climate Scorecards published by Climate XChange and RMI, “Washington is the only state projected to reach an NDC*-aligned target with its current set of policies.”
(* UN’s Nationally Determined Contributions)