By Devin Dubon
Every year an international climate change summit is held on December 12th in Paris, bringing together world leaders from all over the globe. This year, President Donald Trump is not invited.
This decision comes after Trump began the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement — the global accord signed by nearly 200 countries in December 2015 that attempts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius.
Barack Obama joined the deal via an executive order in 2016 in order to bypass the numerous climate change deniers in Congress.
Trump’s decision to revoke this stemmed from his belief that it supposedly puts US workers — specifically coal miners — at an “economic disadvantage.”
Despite this, over a thousand mayors, businesses, investors, and academic institutions have signed a pact to continue fighting climate change and meet the guidelines put into place by the Paris Agreement. Among the signatories are the mayors of Detroit, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Pittsburgh (whom Trump mentioned in his speech announcing the withdrawal saying, “I was elected to represent the people of Pittsburgh, not Paris”), and Miami Beach, as well as the governors of New York, California, and Washington.
The “We Are Still In” initiative represents over $6.2 trillion of the U.S. economy and incorporates twenty Fortune 500 companies such as: Apple, eBay, Gap, Google, Intel, Microsoft, and Nike.
So far, California is leading the nation when it comes to environmental standards. They’ve enacted stringent automobile emission standards and set lofty targets for the share of energy that comes from renewable sources. California governor Jerry Brown has been a vocal advocate of climate change prevention.
On a European tour he addressed the world on this very problem. “Human civilization is on the chopping block.” The problem is global, Brown said, so no single person is in charge. “Everyone is creating the problem, and unless everyone contributes to the solution, then the job won’t get done.”
Many states have followed his example and have set laws and regulations to limit carbon emissions or have enacted “climate action plans”.
In fact, every state has at least one climate change mitigation law in place, and many have over ten. In the Northeast, nine states are part of a carbon dioxide cap and trade system.
This league of states and companies are pledging to do what they believe the president has failed to do: protect the environment.
By taking up the cause separately from the government they are showing the international community that the U.S. is still dedicated to this very important project.
