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Climate Change Fight at Critical Point

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) _ The Climate Change Forum convened in San Francisco this week, with many experts saying that the fight against climate change is facing significant challenges.

Jack Broadbent with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said a lot of the troubles have to do with the struggling economy.

"A lot of it has to do with the economy. We have to have a robust economy to be able to afford the right kind of mitigation measures for climate change," he said. "That's an important constraint."

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Broadbent said federal legislation on climate change has all but stalled and California's AB 32, which established a regulatory structure in 2006, is now under attack.

Proposition 23 on the November ballot would suspend it until state unemployment drops to 5.5 percent or less.

Mat Ehrhardt, president of the California Air Pollution Control Officer's Association said that fighting climate change goes hand-in-hand with rebuilding the economy.

"Creating jobs in ways that don't impact our environment is really going to be a key," he said. "We have to be sustainable moving forward. If we continue our old ways and don't move forward, then we'll be going backward."

The main goal of the Climate Change Forum is to better organize grassroots, local, state and federal efforts.

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