Apple, Bloomberg, Google, Nike, Gap, Tesla, Microsoft and Estée Lauder are some of the Fortune 500 companies that have pledged their continued support for “climate action to meet the Paris Agreement” after President Trump decided to pull the U.S. out of COP21 Paris Climate Accord last week.
Within hours of Mr. Trump’s announcement last Thursday, Americans opposed to the decision came together in various groups across the country, culminating over the weekend in a coalition named ‘We Are Still In,’ led by billionaire former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg.
COP21 (The 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) is the climate change agreement signed in Paris in December 2015 to combat extreme weather events and other effects of increasingly high temperature across the world. Unlike Kyoto Agreement and others before it, COP21 was a turning point because a record 196 countries which includes low carbon emitters like all 55 countries in Africa, and major polluters like the United States and China signed the agreement.
In a press release dated Monday, June 5, ‘We Are Still In’ announced that “a grand total of 1,219 governors, mayors, businesses, investors, colleges and universities from across the U.S. or with significant operations in the U.S., representing the broadest cross section of the American economy” are part of the coalition and have declared their “intent to continue to ensure the U.S. remains a global leader in reducing carbon emissions.”
Mayors and chief executives of cities and counties that have flocked to the ‘We Are Still In’ movement include leaders of so-called liberal cities like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Honolulu, Washington DC and also cities in the conservative states of Utah, Arizona, Texas and South Carolina that voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Trump in the presidential elections last November.
An open letter published on the new coalition’s website, wearestillin.com, declared that Mr. Trump’s decision is “out of step with what is happening in the United States.”
“In the U.S., it is local and state governments, along with businesses, that are primarily responsible for the dramatic decrease in greenhouse gas emissions in recent years,” the letter stated.
The coalition emphasises that no matter what policies Mr. Trump adopts, its signatories will deliver “concrete emissions reductions that will help meet America’s emissions pledge under the Paris Agreement.”
“It is imperative that the world know that in the U.S., the actors that will provide the leadership necessary to meet our Paris commitment are found in city halls, state capitals, colleges and universities, investors and businesses. Together, we will remain actively engaged with the international community as part of the global effort to hold warming to well below 2°C and to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy that will benefit our security, prosperity, and health.”
The Governor of California, the largest state in the U.S., took opposition to Mr. Trump’s about-turn on the Paris Agreement a step further when he travelled to China for conference on climate warming at about the same time the President was making his announcement. News reports on Tuesday indicate that Governor Jerry Brown signed agreements to expand trade between California and China with an emphasis on renewable energy sources.
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