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California’s Bold Conservation Push Is Part of a Hopeful Global Trend

Environmental stewardship pays economic and other dividends. Fortunately, many are acknowledging that natural capital is just as important for human prosperity and security as financial, physical, and human capital.

Originally published at World Politics Review

<p>A rainbow is seen across the Yosemite Valley in front of El Capitan granite rock formation in Yosemite National Park in California, on March 29, 2019. </p>
A rainbow is seen across the Yosemite Valley in front of El Capitan granite rock formation in Yosemite National Park in California, on March 29, 2019. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

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  • Stewart M. Patrick
    James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program

In my weekly column for World Politics Review, I argue that California and other countries around the world are betting that environmental conservation and economic dynamism are not contradictory but mutually reinforcing.

California’s State Senate is slated to vote this month on a monumental piece of environmental legislation that, if approved and signed into law, would reaffirm the state’s status as a pacesetter in global conservation. AB 3030, which has already cleared the State Assembly, would commit the state to permanently protect 30 percent of its land and coastal waters by 2030. At a time when the Trump administration is rolling back environmental regulations, opening wild public lands to drilling and mining, and abandoning the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Golden State is betting that environmental conservation and economic dynamism are not contradictory but mutually reinforcing. The good news is that others around the world are reaching the same conclusion.

Read the full World Politics Review article here.