California, Britain Reach Accord on Global Warming, Clean Fuels

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alifornia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and Great Britain reached an agreement to explore ways to curb greenhouse gas emissions and promote clean-burning fuels, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Schwarzenegger and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the pact Monday in a meeting with business leaders on clean energy and climate issues the Port of Long Beach, part of the largest U.S. port complex along with the Port of Los Angeles, AP said.

The position of the two leaders was stronger than that of the Bush administration regarding global warming, AP reported.

The agreement calls for collaboration on research into cleaner-burning fuels and technologies, and the possibility of setting up a system where polluters could buy and sell the right to emit greenhouse gases, AP said. The idea is to use market forces and market incentives to curb pollution.

California is looking to cut carbon dioxide emissions, produced by fossil fuel-burning power plants and motor fuels, while the Bush administration has rejected the idea of ordering such cuts, AP reported.

Schwarzenegger has called on California to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2010. California was the 12th-largest source of greenhouse gases in the world last year, bigger than most nations, AP reported.

The agreement is not a treaty, a Schwarzenegger spokesman told AP. The governor is up for reelection this fall.