Menu
“Earlier Friday, during the climate leaders’ call, Govs. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, and Jay Inslee of Washington, echoed the sentiment that state and local governments would lead the charge on climate goals like increased development of clean energy and striving to meet emissions reductions benchmarks set out in the Paris Agreement.
‘We know we have a responsibility to continue to address the climate crisis and to engage in every way possible, and to remind not just everyone in the United States, but frankly globally, that governors act as sub-nationals, irrespective of what the agenda is by leadership in the White House,’ Lujan Grisham said. ‘We’ve been in this position before. We are going to continue our commitments.’
Lujan Grisham and Inslee are both members of the U.S. Climate Alliance, which calls itself ‘a bipartisan coalition of 24 governors securing America’s net-zero future by advancing state-led, high-impact climate action.’
Inslee said that in his home state of Washington, ‘We look at Donald Trump as a speed bump on the road to progress towards a clean energy economy, and we are rolling big time.’
‘My number one message is progress is going to continue in the United States,’ he said. ‘It will be driven by states who have already demonstrated that if you adopt clean energy policies, you will simultaneously grow your economy and reduce carbon emissions.’”
Launched on June 1, 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by the previous administration’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, the Alliance has grown to include 24 governors from across the U.S. representing approximately 60% of the U.S. economy and 55% of the U.S. population. Governors in the Alliance have pledged to collectively reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28% by 2025, 50-52% by 2030, and 61-66% by 2035, all below 2005 levels, and collectively achieve overall net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as practicable, and no later than 2050.
The Alliance’s states and territories continue to demonstrate that climate action goes hand-in-hand with economic growth, job creation, and better public health. The Alliance reduced its collective net greenhouse gas emissions by 19% between 2005 and 2022, while increasing collective GDP by 30%, and is on track to meet its near-term climate goal by reducing collective GHG emissions 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. The coalition’s states and territories are employing more workers in the clean energy sector, achieving lower levels of dangerous air pollutants, and preparing more effectively for climate impacts and executing more pre-disaster planning than the rest of the country.
###
