On Friday the Public Health Institute, together with business groups, environmental organizations and an array of others, sent an open letter to California Governor Jerry Brown objecting to his decision to grab $500 million in cap-and-trade revenues for use in the state’s general fund. 

As part of its landmark Global Warming Solutions Act, California set up a cap-and-trade system to utilize market forces to reduce carbon emissions. The state has already held several carbon auctions, the revenue from which is supposed to go towards climate-change mitigation and adaptation. 

It is well established, if insufficiently acknowledged, that climate change is having and will continue to have significant harmful impacts on human health. A 2009 article in The Lancet described climate change as perhaps “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.” The American Public Health Association (APHA) has called climate change an “urgent threat” to health, and has emphasized that “local public health professionals around the country increasingly will be dealing with the impacts of climate change on the ground, every day.”  These threats to health from climate change require robust, comprehensive action that engages all levels of government. That is why the Public Health Institute has signed on in support of U.S. Representative Lois Capps' Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Act, which would give the Department of Health and Human Services the mandate to prepare the nation’s public health systems to address those impacts.

Since 2009, when the last attempt to enact comprehensive federal climate change legislation succumbed to a high-profile political failure, expensive and deadly natural disasters have refocused national attention on our changing climate. In his inaugural acceptance speech and his State of the Union address, President Obama devoted considerable attention to the issue. The U.S. Government Accountability Office recently identified climate change as a “significant financial risk for the federal government.” House Democrats have established the Safe Climate Caucus. And on last Thursday, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Climate Protection Act of 2013, a bill that would take a major step by imposing a fee on the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Sustained and serious federal policy-making to addressing climate change is good news for health; and those interested in health must help shape and push for climate policy.

Last week, Lois Capps (D-CA) reintroduced legislation, the Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Act, which calls for a national strategic action plan that would help public health agencies prepare for the health impacts of climate change. In a nation seemingly bent on keeping its head firmly buried in the sand on this issue, this is a welcome move.

Strong synergies exist between addressing climate change and promoting 
public health, yet climate change mitigation and adaption policies do not
 always harness these opportunities to achieve win-win
 solutions. The atmosphere in California is ripe for synergistic efforts and
 knowledge sharing focused on climate change and public health. Work
 continues throughout the state to reduce emissions from transportation, building energy use, waste, and land use patterns.

Benjamin Schreiber, a climate and energy tax analyst with Friends of the Earth, published a guest post on Grist today arguing that  a tax on carbon could and should be a part of the federal government's strategy to rein in the deficit.

Nothing will come of the Cancun climate talks, pundits predict, and the Republican-led Congress is poised to do exactly nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And yet two tiny nuggets of news suggest that we might see some environmental progress yet.