We the People Pledge to Fight Climate Change

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/opinion/pledge-fight-climate-change.html

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Turning Point: The United States announces its withdrawal from the Paris climate accord.

President Trump’s declaration on June 1, 2017, that he was withdrawing the United States from the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change, which I helped to design, was framed as a call to nationalism, saying he was “elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

But 75 percent of Pittsburghers voted for Hillary Clinton, who was in favor of the agreement, and since then the mayors of Pittsburgh and Paris have together endorsed the Paris agreement, in the joint goal of building a cleaner, safer world.

As local governments see how climate change is linked to citizens’ well-being, they are taking concrete actions such as setting milestones for air quality, banning diesel cars or combustion engines, and implementing renewable energy systems.

This was demonstrated just days after Mr. Trump’s announcement, when American governors, mayors, businesses, universities and others declared “We Are Still In,” pledging to meet the goals of the Paris agreement. The commitments of more than 2,500 such leaders are now formalized in the “America’s Pledge” effort, as they work to build upon those promises. It is an extraordinary, innovative move: citizens implementing a global agreement, a government obligation, standing as responsible actors of the global community.

The private sector can see this is the future and companies are investing accordingly: The automotive industry is competing madly in the rush to switch to electric vehicles, while private investors are reluctant to invest in new coal power plants.

The battle over climate change at this year’s G-20 meeting starkly illustrated Mr. Trump’s growing isolation. Despite a failed attempt by the United States to rally a pro-fossil fuel coalition, including a pre-G-20 visit to Poland and an appeal to climate skeptics, often through social networks and the far-right press, trying to equate climate action as a clash between global elites and ordinary people, all 19 other countries reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement, leaving the United States out in the cold.

Mr. Trump’s claim that this move will help the American economy does not hold up. In the fast-changing area of electric power generation alone, twice as many Americans work with solar technologies as in fossil fuels, and his slashing of federal research funding will hurt the country’s competitiveness.

We are also in a time when extreme events are becoming more frequent and more costly. Every year we have a once-in-500-years storm, and every year is the hottest on record. Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall on the mainland in southeast Texas, will be the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States: Its estimated $190 billion price tag may exceed the combined costs of Hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Sandy in 2012.

Climate change is what is called a “threat multiplier,” both contributing to instability and making its effects worse. Drought and desertification lead to famine and conflict over water, fueling regional conflicts and political unrest, and increasing migration. The severity of Syria’s drought from 2007-10 was caused by climate change, and researchers have found that drought was a significant driver of the civil war that is today the world’s greatest humanitarian disaster. Altogether, an estimated 203 million people were displaced by natural disasters from 2008-15.

Though Mr. Trump is choosing to ignore reality on the federal government levels, we are seeing unprecedented action by leaders at the sub-national and local level, along with those in business and civil society.

Further discussion about the withdrawal by the United States could be a deadly, costly distraction from our work ahead. We cannot let that happen. There is a clear need for leadership in order to bolster the coalition around the Paris agreement, which is remaining steady.

Let’s focus on going much faster and further, toward achieving peak emissions in 2020 and net-zero emissions by the end of the century.

Many regions still face pressing issues around decarbonization of power and industry. Europe needs to do better at home and, with leadership from France and Germany, to continue engaging China and India, encouraging them to meet more ambitious targets.

The global movement that was founded upon the statements in the Paris agreement is about people, citizens’ concerns, economic expectations and technological development. It is not a technocratic legal document, nor about abandoning national sovereignty. We are working toward a shared vision of a common future, with the goal of safeguarding the planet for all.