Emboldened by what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called clean energy's "greatest referendum in history," California officials are pushing ahead with a new greenhouse gas deal with foreign countries.

Schwarzenegger on Monday launched his third Governors' Global Climate Summit at the University of California, Davis. He said this month's landslide defeat of Proposition 23, a ballot measure backed by oil companies that would have rolled back the state's landmark climate change law, shows broad support among voters for policies to cut greenhouse gases.

The two-day California climate summit, co-hosted by the United Nations, has attracted more than 1,500 attendees from more than 80 countries.

Held at UC Davis' Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center, its speakers and participants include actor Harrison Ford, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Nobel laureate and climate change expert Rajendra Pachauri.

In many ways, the summit underscores the clean energy achievements of the UC Davis campus and efforts to develop a green energy economy in the Sacramento region.

According to Schwarzenegger, who hosted last year's conference in Los Angeles, Davis is the leading publisher of environmental research in the country and its faculty members are pioneers in the fields of clean transportation and green-building energy efficiency.

"You know, last year we met in Los Angeles, which is the entertainment capital of the world," he said.

"And so this year we thought we should bring this conference to the environmental capital of the world, so this is why we are here in Davis."

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