American companies, local leaders pledge to uphold Paris Agreement

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published 2 June 2017

A group of American mayors, governors, university professors, and businesses will submit a plan to the United Nations to uphold the promises the U.S. made in the Paris Agreement, despite President Trump announcing Thursday he will withdraw the U.S. from the climate pact.

The group is crafting a proposal to ensure the U.S. meets its goal of lowering greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent by 2025, which it pledged to do when former President Barack Obama accepted the Paris Agreement in 2015. The coalition hopes its plan can be recognized alongside the other 195 nations' contributions to the Paris accord. The U.S. will join only Nicaragua and Syria as countries who are not committed to the pact.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is spearheading the effort and has offered $15 million to the U.N. to match the funding it stands to lose from the U.S.'s withdrawal from the pact. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Bloomberg insisted that "non-national actors" — which he argued make "the bulk of the decisions which drive U.S. climate action in the aggregate" — remain "committed to the Paris accord."