Last week, our state, along with Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and Utah, as well as the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba, agreed to set a goal for their region: reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020.

That might sound like big talk about far-in-the-future solutions to global warming -- but they're talking cleaner air in just over 12 years; a blink of an eye, really. And the idea isn't just to slow the growth of carbon emissions; it's to actuallly reduce them.

Gov. Bill Richardson met with colleagues back in February to create the Western Climate Initiative. One of its major goals is a 15 percent reduction in the region's greenhouse-gas emissions from 2005 levels.

Richardson and his environment secretary, Ron Curry, will work with their counterparts on many approaches to carbon reduction.

The states-and-provinces group that gathered last week in Phoenix has given itself a year to figure out ways of reaching that 15 percent goal.

One of the likely ways is a complicated system called "cap-and-trade." The states could put a limit, a cap, on the amount of pollutant an industry or its products -- cars, say -- can emit. Companies exceeding their caps would have to buy the right to do so from companies that come under the limit; that's where trade comes in.

This is being worked out on the national level by a private-public organization called the Chicago Climate Exchange. Private-sector members include DuPont, IBM and Ford Motor Company; the state of New Mexico is one of the public members.

Curry has been heavily involved in the climate exchange. Our state was first to join it. He'll likely take a lead in guiding the states and provinces through the intricacies of trading in pollution credits.

We'll be curious to see how this works out. Meanwhile, we salute the United States and Canadian subdivisions who've agreed to pool their efforts. As Arizona's Gov. Janet Napolitano told the assembled experts and political leaders, the states need to act because the federal government "is choosing to delay action."

Curry notes that the feds' laxity lies mainly with Bush administration regulators. He's encouraged by the great efforts at energy and conservation legislation being made by New Mexico's Sen. Jeff Bingaman. A House-Senate conference won't meet to resolve energy-bill differences until Congress reconvenes in September.

It'll take dedication at the state and federal levels to turn back the tide of global warming -- so what was formalized in Phoenix is a laudable beginning.