At the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP-23) in Bonn, Germany earlier this month, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. and Michael R. Bloomberg, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, released a report highlighting the work that U.S. states, cities and businesses have done to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs). The purpose of the America’s Pledge, Part 1 report according to Bloomberg and Brown, is to demonstrate how non-federal actors are working toward meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, in light of the Trump administration’s announcement to withdraw from the agreement. A future Phase 2 Report will “aggregate and quantify” all of the expected U.S. non-federal action to reduce GHGs including how these actions will contribute toward reaching the U.S. targets set for the Paris agreement.
According to the report, 20 states, 110 cities and over 1,400 businesses with U.S. operations representing USD $25 trillion in market capitalization have adopted quantified emissions reduction targets that will move the U.S. toward meeting the emissions targets set in the Paris agreement. According to the press release announcing the report, “if non-federal actors were a country, their economy would be the third largest in the world.”
The U.S., led by the State Department’s Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Ambassador Thomas A. Shannon, participated in the COP-23 meeting. The State Department released a press note on November 13 reiterating the Administration’s position to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement as soon as it is eligible “unless the President can identify terms for engagement that are more favorable to American businesses, workers, and taxpayers.” Until that time, the U.S. remains a party in good standing to the UNFCC, “to ensure a level playing field that benefits and protects U.S. interests.“