Assessing the effectiveness of city leadership on the climate Last June, during a press conference in the Rose Garden, President Trump announced the United States would be leaving the Paris climate accord, seeking a better deal for the country and more control over its own destiny.
It was a low point for environmentalists in the United States. As soon as Trump stepped to the podium, the country symbolically stepped away from its leadership role.
But almost instantaneously, other politicians filled the vacuum. Hundreds of city leaders pledged to live up to the Paris agreement and signed on as members of the Climate Mayors, a bipartisan, peer-to-peer network of mayors working to demonstrate leadership on climate change.
The coalition, which now boasts 405 members representing 70 million Americans, was one of the most visible in a growing list of coalitions and organizations seeking to demonstrate U.S. commitment to fighting climate change and lowering emissions. Along with We Are Still In (a group of corporations and civic leaders), C40 (an international group of mayors united to enact progressive climate policy), Ready for 100 (a Sierra Club campaign pushing renewable power), and others, the Climate Mayors pushed back against the narrative that the U.S. is abandoning its commitments, and embodied the grassroots energy for change. But a year later, how should the organization?s accomplishments by evaluated" The ?come as you are? ethos to membership eschews addit...