U.S. mayors and governors defy Trump, will stick to Paris agreement anyway

Cities and states across the U.S. will keep fighting climate change, despite President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the country from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Local leaders from across the country say they're not backing down from America's commitments under the historic climate accord. In recent days governors and nearly 200 mayors — from small towns to megacities — have vowed to collectively reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and adopt clean energy technologies.

Their swift response offers more than just a dose of cheerful optimism. It signals that America's hard-fought progress on climate issues won't be so easily dismantled just because climate deniers and fossil fuel industry allies hold the top seats in the U.S. government, observers said.

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"The fact of the matter is, Americans don't need Washington to meet our Paris commitment, and Americans are not going to let Washington stand in the way of fulfilling it," Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and a special U.N. envoy for cities and climate, said in a recent statement from Paris.

Image: michael bloomberg/flickr

At the White House last week, Trump announced he would pull the U.S. from the agreement and seek to negotiate a "deal that's fair." Yet the non-binding, unenforceable Paris treaty is far from the "draconian" economy-killer that Trump made it out to be, according to many policy experts and legal scholars.

Under the agreement, which entered into force last year, the U.S. voluntarily committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2025, compared to 2005 levels. America is already about halfway to meeting that target, in large part because cheaper, lower-carbon natural gas has replaced coal in many U.S. power plants.

Following Trump's June 1 announcement, local officials — as well as the heads of giant U.S. tech companies, manufacturing firms, multinational banks, and universities — pledged to slash their own emissions to ensure America meets the target.

"Mayors understand that it is a false choice ... that you either can care about the environment and climate action, or prosperity and growing your local economies," said Sam Adams, a former mayor of Portland, Oregon, and U.S. director of the World Resources Institute. 

Bloomberg is coordinating an effort called America's Pledge, which initially included 30 mayors, three governors, about 80 university presidents, and more than 100 businesses. Since last Thursday, the numbers have snowballed to "many hundreds," a spokeswoman for Bloomberg Philanthropies said on Sunday.

The group is negotiating with the United Nations to have its emissions-reduction pledge submitted to the Paris climate deal, akin to the commitments submitted by national governments.

Separately, 187 U.S. mayors so far have pledged to intensify their local climate efforts to meet the Paris agreement's aspirational goal to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels through 2100.

The treaty's official target is to limit warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, through the end of the century.

Bill Peduto, the mayor of Pittsburgh, is among the growing number of so-called Climate Mayors. Last week, Peduto unexpectedly found himself in the global spotlight after Trump said he would withdraw from the 195-nation agreement because he "was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris."

Trump's "misguided decision to withdraw from the Paris climate does not reflect the values of our city," Peduto said in a statement last Friday. He said the former steelmaking capital would not only "heed the guidelines of the Paris agreement" but also strive to get 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2035.

Governors from at least nine states have also banded together under the newly created United States Climate Alliance, which similarly commits states to upholding the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement. 

The group so far includes the Democratic governors of California, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island, plus the Republican governors of Massachusetts and Vermont.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, who said he was disappointed in Trump's decision to withdraw from the treaty, said the state remained committed to an earlier promise to exceed the emissions reduction targets of the Paris agreement.

"Our administration looks forward to continued, bipartisan collaboration with other states to protect the environment, grow the economy, and deliver a brighter future to the next generation," Baker said in a statement.

Trump's Paris decision has ramifications far and wide for emissions reductions, clean energy investments, and plain old respect in diplomatic circles. But local policies and pledges outside of Washington prove the fight isn't over just yet when it comes to climate change.

"The wind is still at our backs," said Mindy Lubber, president and CEO of the sustainability nonprofit Ceres. Cities, states, other countries, citizens, and businesses are all "prepared to move forward to continue creating jobs and to build a clean energy economy that will survive our children's future," she added.

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