On Monday, October 28, 2013, the governors of California, Oregon, and Washington and the premier of British Columbia signed a non-binding agreement in which the sub-national governments agreed to common steps to combat climate change and increase the development of clean energy and transportation. In the agreement, entitled the "Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy," Oregon agrees to set a price on carbon emissions. Washington agrees to set binding limits on carbon emissions and use market mechanisms to achieve those limits. California, under a cap-and-trade program, and British Columbia, under a carbon tax, already have systems in place to set pricing on certain carbon emissions. The agreement also calls on Oregon and Washington to establish a low carbon fuel standard, a program that California recently defended in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The leaders of the four governments agreed to use the latest science and cooperate with other governments to build support for an international agreement on climate change at the Paris Conference of the Parties in 2015. The Pacific Coast agreement may foreshadow greater regional cooperation on climate change in the absence of national and international action. California officials are actively seeking partners to help enlarge their successfully established carbon market, which will hold its next carbon allowance auction on November 19, 2013.
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