NC Policy Watch: “Gov. Roy Cooper signed an ambitious executive order today designed to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide and to emphasize environmental justice in agency decisions, beyond the NC Department of Environmental Quality.
Executive Order 246 sets several targets to mitigate the damage of climate change, including the reduction of statewide greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% over 2005 levels by 2030; and net-zero emissions as soon as possible, no later than 2050.
The 50% reductions are in line with U.S. commitments under the international Paris Agreement.
“One of the main goals of my administration is to move us toward a clean energy economy to fight the existential threat of climate change and to create good paying jobs,” Cooper said at the signing ceremony at NC A&T University in Greensboro. “We know that climate change has caused more severe storms and often the effects of these storms hurt most the people who can afford it the least.””