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Portland, OR – Oregon produces more greenhouse gas emissions than 60 developing nations combined, according to a new report from the National Environmental Trust. The report says the United States is the top source of climate change pollution and needs to take responsibility to reduce it, but Jenny Bedell-Stiles with the National Environmental Trust in Oregon says that individual states like hers are actually taking the lead.
"Since we're not seeing national action, we need some leadership on this. That leadership has risen at the regional, at the state and at the more local, even city levels."
Bedell-Stiles says there already are efforts to reduce pollution on all these levels.
"Things are happening, but it really needs to be happening faster if we are to reach what the International Panel on Climate Change suggests as the critical threshold that must be reached so that the world doesn't experience the worst consequences of climate change."
Oregon is part of that leadership on environmental issues. The state's lawmakers passed one of the most aggressive renewable energy standards in the nation last year. That means the state will be getting 25 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by the year 2025. About 20 other states also have passed renewable energy standards.
