World’s Mayors Step Up (again) on Climate

While Congress is playing the always fun game of who can be a bigger denier of science and climate change, other elected leaders are talking about who can reduce emissions more.  At the World Mayor’s Summit on Climate in Mexico City, 138 mayors from Los Angeles to Jakarta signed a pact to reduce urban emissions of greenhouse gases.

This follows up on one of the most impressive displays of climate leadership (and unfortunately one of the few displays of climate leadership from elected US officials) by the US Conference of Mayors Climate Pledge, which has over 1,000 signers.  Of course it’s very easy to sign a pledge or a pact, and substantially harder to follow through on the promise, especially if it’s your predecessor who signed the pledge when he or she was Mayor and you’re left figuring out how to actually reduce emissions. However, while many of us climate hawks bemoan the lack of climate action in the US, it’s uplifting to know some leaders are listening.

A side – and not surprising – anecdote  is that this story was covered by CNN’s world/international coverage, but not, despite the presence of a number of US Mayors on the pact, in CNN’s US Politics section.