This week, the United Kingdom proposed cutting its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 50% below 1990 levels, in its recently released proposed carbon budget for 2023 to 2027. This would put it on track to cut emissions by 80% by 2050, as required under the U.K. Climate Change Act of 2008. Moreover, this target would go beyond the European Union goal of cutting emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. The U.K. has given itself an escape hatch, however, in that its target is tied to the E.U. following suit. Sources reporting the story invariably note that the U.S. has no mandatory GHG emissions reduction targets in place. Being in California, though, I’ll make a mention of our state’s mandate to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 under A.B. 32. That said, as a side note, Bank of America committed this week to reduce its GHG emissions by 15% by 2015. I’ve heard many a pundit declare that the heyday of the nation-state is over, and that the world is increasingly controlled by multinational corporations. If that’s the case, maybe the new trend will be corporations like Bank of America committing to, and actually achieving, GHG reductions where countries don’t.