- In The News
- April 2023
Maryland Matters: Md. Taking Tentative Steps Toward Clean Construction Rules: ‘How We Buy Things Matters’
April 3, 2023
Alliance Senior Policy Analyst Kareem Hammoud talks about state-led action on Buy Clean.
“Buy Clean is also now on the radar of the U.S. Climate Alliance, the coalition of two dozen states and territories, including Maryland, that formed after former President Trump pulled the U.S. out of international climate pacts. While there are no formal agreements yet between the states, one goal, said Kareem Hammoud, a senior policy analyst at the U.S. Climate Alliance, is ensuring that whatever Buy Clean standards they enact are reasonably well-aligned with one another, so construction industry suppliers do not have to scramble from state to state.
‘We’re not just target-setting organizations,’ Hammoud said. ‘Governors commit to real action.’
‘But for many states,’ he conceded, ‘this is a very new area.’”
About the Alliance
Launched in 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by the U.S. federal government’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the Alliance has grown to include 24 governors from across the U.S. representing approximately 60 percent of the U.S. economy and 55 percent of the U.S. population. Governors in the Alliance have pledged to collectively reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28 percent by 2025, 50-52 percent by 2030, and 61-66 percent 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 advance innovative and impactful climate solutions to grow the economy, create jobs, and protect public health, and have a long record of action and results. In fact, the latest data shows that as of 2023, the Alliance has reduced its collective net greenhouse gas emissions by 24 percent below 2005 levels, while increasing collective GDP by 34 percent, and is on track to meet its near-term climate goal of reducing collective greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
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