Walking and biking will reduce emissions faster California Governor Jerry Brown kicked off the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco last week with two jaw-dropping announcements. Not only would California run on 100 percent clean energy within 25 years, but the entire state would achieve carbon-neutrality by 2045, eliminating or offsetting emissions from manufacturing, agriculture, and the increasing problem of transportation.
Brown?s announcement was the most ambitious climate policy ever proposed?and a total surprise. But it was, in many ways, the perfect opening for a summit focused on audacious local action, launched around the idea that national entities have been too slow to mobilize. His executive order set the tone for the summit, and new partnerships and expanded commitments were dispatched from every level of government and every sector of industry, proposing to hit even more aggressive targets. In attendance were many of the more than 400 ?climate mayors,? who began a series of collective actions pledging to honor the Paris agreement after the federal government backed out last year. It?s working: C40, a global coalition of mayors, says that cities have been more effective at fulfilling commitments than countries, releasing a report at the California summit that showed emissions have peaked in 27 of its member cities.
Over the past year, however, it has become increasingly clear that for U.S. mayors, the greatest climate challenge will be addressin...