In 2000, Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources published a report on what climate change could mean to Wisconsin entitled: Warming Trends. Citing research from many organizations including those mentioned above, the DNR outlined “credible scenarios” in which Wisconsin could see a host of weather related phenomena, some dangerous to human health and costing the state untold millions in damages. As a result of a tidal wave of evidence that governmental initiative was required the State of Wisconsin and the City of Madison adopted policy measures to address Wisconsin’s contribution to global climate change.

The goal of WICEC is to move Wisconsin to meet and exceed the protocols to reduce world-wide emissions of green house gases established in the 1997 United Nations Kyoto Treaty. Understanding that Kyoto was intended to be the first step towards sustainability, WICEC recognizes the need of evolving past a fossil fuel economy by 2050.