Governor Kaine signs onto The Climate Change Registry

RICHMOND (May 22, 2007) – Governor Timothy M. Kaine today announced that Virginia has joined The Climate Registry and will work with other states and tribes to develop a common accounting system to track greenhouse gas emissions.

The Climate Registry is the nation’s only state-sponsored initiative to standardize methodologies to record and measure greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The data is to be collected in a way to support a variety of greenhouse gas reduction policy options.

“There is mounting scientific evidence that global warming is real and over time will bring about negative economic, environmental, and ecological impacts,” said Governor Kaine. “If states are to play a leadership role in developing science-based approaches to reducing the nation’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, we must have a multi-state emissions reporting and accounting system that is commonly used, efficient, transparent, and verifiable.”

The Climate Registry is a non-profit cooperative currently comprised of more than 30 states and several tribes. The registry does not endorse any particular greenhouse gas reduction policy; rather, it is to provide a widely accepted set of emissions data that state and tribal policymakers can draw upon in developing their own emissions-reduction strategies.

The Climate Registry is scheduled to begin accepting voluntarily reported greenhouse gas emissions data on January 1, 2008. For more information about the Registry and participating states and tribes, please visit www.theclimateregistry.org.