Jerry Brown, Mike Bloomberg Unveil Phase One Of “America’s Pledge On Climate”

Steve Zwick

Twenty US states have pledged to make sure the United States keeps its Paris Agreement pledge to reduce emissions 28 percent, as have more than 50 major cities and 60 major corporations, representing a $10 trillion economy. Today, California Governor Jerry Brown and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg unveiled the plan for getting there.

11 November 2017 | BONN | California Governor Jerry Brown offered a lesson in handling hecklers as he and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg unveiled “America’s Pledge” on climate: a detailed plan to not only meet but exceed the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement, despite impotence and recalcitrance at the federal level.

“I’m re-framing my speech,” said Brown, as hecklers demanded an immediate end to the use of fossil fuels. “Beyond noise to real climate action!”

California Governor Jerry Brown tells protesters, "We need action, not noise."
California Governor Jerry Brown tells protesters, “We need action, not noise.”

The two spoke at the US Climate Action Center, the unofficial US pavilion at year-end climate talks here in the former German capital of Bonn. They appeared alongside Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who is the President of the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as the talks are officially called, and they focused on the importance of “non-party stakeholders” – which are cities, states, companies, and anyone who doesn’t have a seat at the UNFCCC table.

They also announced the publication of the America’s Pledge Phase One Report, a 127-page analysis of existing and proposed climate efforts. We will be providing more details on that later in the day.

Twenty US states have endorsed the We Are Still In initiative, as have more than 50 major cities and 60 major corporations, representing a $10 trillion economy. If they were a separate country, they would be the third largest economy, behind the United States and China.

The report does address the need to improve forests and soils, which is the element we will be focusing on throughout these talks. Among other things, the report notes that 40 of the largest 51 cities have adopted an urban tree canopy cover goal or urban temperature-reduction target and that more than 3,400 communities are committed to implementing basic urban forestry standards through Tree City USA.

Check back later for details, or subscribe to the Bionic Planet podcast, which is co-produced by Ecosystem Marketplace publisher Forest Trends and will be providing coverage throughout the second week of the talks. You can access that on iTunesTuneInStitcher, or listen directly on this device here:

Steve Zwick is a freelance writer and produces the Bionic Planet podcast. Previously, he was Managing Editor of Ecosystem Marketplace, and prior to that he covered European business for Time Magazine and Fortune Magazine and produced the award-winning program Money Talks on Deutsche Welle Radio in Bonn, Germany.

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4 thoughts on “Jerry Brown, Mike Bloomberg Unveil Phase One Of “America’s Pledge On Climate”

  1. ‘California Governor Jerry Brown offered a lesson in handling hecklers as he and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg unveiled “America’s Pledge” on climate: a detailed plan to not only meet but exceed the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement, despite impotence and recalcitrance at the federal level.’

    Strange, I don’t remember making any commitments, nor giving anyone else permission to do so….I guess that Brown et al just pulled those commitments out from their collective donkeys….

  2. But you will not find any of these save the earthers doing anything unilaterally. If we are in such peril why do they stall? If they are all in a car ready to fall off a cliff why are they all sitting there debating who will get out first? Has Bloomberg moved into a normal house instead of owning huge eco-monsters? Has any of these people given up their planes, cars, boats, and phones for the sake of their cause?

    Hypocrites all..

  3. With 7 Billion people and growing, placing ever increasing demands upon earth’s resources, these puny actions by various entities are an exercise in futility. Even if man made climate change, AGW, is true we have neither the technology or the expertise to do anything about it. As a matter of fact we know so little that whatever we do may actually exacerbate the problem. The best thing we could do IMO is prepare for the worst, in whatever way we can, and hope for the best.

  4. Good! Someone needs to show some gumption, and reflect the will of the people about cleaning up the environment.

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