When President Trump announced that he would be withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement, he noted that he “was elected to represent the people of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto — along with 60 other mayors from the nearly all of the largest cities in the country, representing a combined 36 million Americans — disagrees.
“We will intensify efforts to meet each of our cities’ current climate goals, push for new action to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius target, and work together to create a 21st century clean energy economy,” Peduto and the 60 mayors affirmed in a statement published by Climate Mayors, a group of 88 green-friendly mayors across the country.Mayoral signatories supporting the Paris agreement include Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti, New Orleans’ Mitch Landrieu, Milwaukee’s Tom Barrett, New York City’s Bill DeBlasio, and Atlanta’s Kasim Reed.The United States Conference of Mayors, a separate, non-partisan group that represents the leaders of cities with more than 30,000 people, released its own statement penned by Phoenix, Arizona’s Greg Stanton. He said that the Paris agreement “positions the world’s nations, including the United States, to be energy independent, self-reliant, and resilient.”Another group of governors that includes California’s Jerry Brown and New York’s Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, announced the formation of a “United States Climate Alliance” to “convene states committed to upholding the Paris Climate Agreement.”