“In an executive order — which he signed Thursday at Baltimore’s Living Classrooms campus in Harbor East, as young summer campers played outside — Gov. Wes Moore (D) ordered his administration to ‘use this new, improved, data-driven map to inform their policy work and to inform the decisions of their agencies and departments.’ Speakers called it a first-ever executive order in the state on environmental justice.
‘Since the new Trump-Vance administration took office, we haven’t been able to rely on federal data because that data is not being released, and that data is not now readily available,’ Moore said. ‘But in this administration, that won’t be enough to make us give up.’
The executive order also creates an interagency advisory council focused on environmental justice and equity that Moore said will serve as a “hub for collaboration across 13 different state agencies,” which will be required to designate environmental justice officers and create environmental justice strategic plans within a year.”
Launched on June 1, 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by President Trump’s initial 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 will 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 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.
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