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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)– Governor John Bel Edwards had a busy morning in Scotland. He joined leaders across the world to take part in the Climate Resilience Adaptation Panel with the Environmental Defense Fund.

Governor John Bel Edwards says he’s focused on reducing Louisiana’s carbon footprint by using more renewable energy sources, especially in the chemical industry.

Monday he discussed how he plans to keep the state Louisiana at the top of the oil and gas industry.

“We’re actually emitting more CO2 per capita than just about any other state in the country,” he said.

Governor John Bel Edwards participated in a climate summit in the United Kingdom to discuss the impact climate change has had on the state with leaders across the world

“We are suffering the effects of climate change and Louisiana to a degree not being experienced in any of the other states. So, for example, sea level rise is contributing to our land loss across coastal Louisiana. Also we have more severe and frequent weather events,” said Edwards.

He suggested working together between the state and local levels is key in resolving these growing issues.

“We have to do more things like embrace wind energy. There will be Lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico for wind energy.  We are bringing on utility size solar projects in Louisiana. We announced a four and a half billion dollar blue hydrogen project in Louisiana last week with carbon capture and sequestration,” he explained.

Edwards hopes that using these alternative methods, along with closing off abandoned oil and gas wells can significantly reduce Louisiana’s CO2 and methane emissions.

“We’ve actually committed ourselves in Louisiana to a 40 to 50 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 and to be net 0 by 2050.

He also created a task force to help accomplish these goals.

“It’s important for me that we be a leading energy state, not just in the present, but decades from now. And that means we have to get involved on the front end of the transition,” Edwards said.

Governor Edwards will be in Scotland through Thursday. He plans to announce his official climate plan in February.