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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Climate Alliance — a bipartisan coalition of 25 governors representing approximately 60 percent of the U.S. economy and 55 percent of the U.S. population — today launched a new website and first-of-its-kind Climate Policy Database, which, together, provide one of the country’s most detailed snapshots of state-led climate action to date.
“Since the launch of our climate action coalition more than six years ago, the role and importance of states and territories in securing our net-zero future has only grown,” said U.S. Climate Alliance Executive Director Casey Katims. “We’re excited to show the rest of the country — and the world — the scope and scale of this leadership, and these new information hubs do just that.”
The new Alliance website illustrates the coalition’s commitments, impact, and reach as its members advance solutions throughout the country to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. It profiles each Alliance state and territory and spotlights the collective actions they are taking across each of the Alliance’s 10 key policy areas, from decarbonizing the buildings and transportation sectors to tackling industrial emissions and integrating natural climate solutions. Additionally, the website provides easy access to a wide variety of Alliance publications and resources, and it highlights the work of the Alliance Secretariat, which provides a broad range of technical, analytical, policy, and capacity assistance to coalition members and helps coordinate federal engagement to drive solutions across government.
Today’s launch of the interactive, user-friendly, and searchable Policy Database complements the new website with even more detailed information on climate action from the Alliance’s states and territories. The database offers a wide-ranging, comparative, and up-to-date view of state-level climate action across the U.S. — enabling users to search climate policies by sector, geography, policy or action type, keyword, and timeframe. Unique among other policy trackers, it allows users to view the chronological sequence of steps taken by a state or territory to reach a policy outcome, tracing policy pathways through multiple stages and tracking how established policies have evolved over time. While the Alliance Secretariat has long tracked this information internally, this marks the first time the data has been standardized and made available to the public.
In addition to supporting Alliance members, the tool will benefit governmental, non-profit, and academic partners at the local, state, national, and international levels interested in tracking U.S. state-led climate action. The Alliance Secretariat will continue to enhance the platform’s content and functionality over the coming weeks and months utilizing user feedback, which can be provided directly through the database website.
The launch of the Alliance’s new website and Climate Policy Database comes on the heels of the Alliance’s announcement that Washington Governor and founding member Jay Inslee and Maine Governor Janet Mills will serve as the coalition’s newest co-chairs. They join California Governor Gavin Newsom, and co-chairs elect New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on the Alliance’s executive committee charged with overseeing the strategic direction of the coalition.
In addition to naming new leadership, the Alliance continues to grow and diversify its membership. This week, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs announced that her state has joined the Alliance. Earlier this year the coalition welcomed six other new governors, including Governors Maura Healey (Massachusetts), Josh Green (Hawaiʻi), Tina Kotek (Oregon), Wes Moore (Maryland), and Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania), who continued their states’ membership in the Alliance, and Governor Lou Leon Guerrero, who made Guam the second U.S. territory to join the coalition.
To continue to reach new audiences, the Alliance also relaunched its Instagram page (@US.Climate) today.
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 greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025, at least 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030, 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. While reducing collective greenhouse gas emissions by 19%, Alliance members increased their collective GDP by 30%. 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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