TALLAHASSEE — Against the backdrop of Florida’s first summit on global warming, Gov. Charlie Crist this week will unleash an aggressive campaign to cut air pollution by joining California and 11 other states in adopting the nation’s toughest auto emission standards.

Crist’s attack on what many world scientists think is a leading cause of climate change also mandates a major reduction in the greenhouse gases emitted by the state’s electric power plants.

“It will make Florida cleaner and healthier. Florida can be a leader in this area,” Crist said Wednesday. “I think it’s very realistic.”

On Friday, the second and final day of the Serve to Preserve Florida Summit on Global Change in Miami, Crist plans to sign three executive orders to get the process rolling. Though Crist himself would be term-limited out of office in 2014, his vision would require the volume of carbon dioxide released from all sources to be lowered to 1990 levels by 2025.

By 2050, current levels would be slashed by 80 percent.

The executive orders stress the vulnerability of Florida’s coasts to rising ocean levels linked to an increase in global temperatures. They require Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection to impose strict emissions controls on electric utilities by 2017 and the implementation of California’s motor vehicle emissions standards as soon as they receive federal approval.

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