In 2017, Michael Bloomberg and former California Governor Jerry Brown launched America’s Pledge in the wake of President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement, to ensure that U.S. climate progress continued despite federal inaction. Since then, America’s Pledge has annually aggregated and quantified the actions of U.S. states, cities, businesses and other non-federal actors to drive down their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, presenting these findings to the United Nations.
America’s Pledge published a progress report in September 2020. The report assesses how states, cities, and businesses are continuing to drive climate progress despite the events of 2020—including the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession—and increasing our confidence in the country’s ability to achieve the 2030 emissions reductions modeled in Accelerating America’s Pledge.
Read the full report here: https://assets.bbhub.io/dotorg/sites/28/2020/09/Delivering-on-Americas-Pledge.pdf
Key Takeaways
- Bottom-up climate leadership has kept the U.S. on a path of progress. Since the launch of We Are Still In and America’s Pledge in 2017, climate action by U.S. states, cities, and businesses has increased dramatically. Despite four years of environmental rollbacks from President Trump’s administration, bold climate actions from non-federal actors have successfully counterbalanced the climate denial and obstruction from the White House.
- Post-election federal leadership can put America back in alignment with the Paris Agreement. If the federal government re-engages, invests in a green stimulus recovery and works together with states, cities, and businesses to enact climate-forward policies, we can cut emissions by 49% from 2005 levels by 2030 and put America back in alignment with the Paris Agreement, reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
- America has passed a tipping point in its clean energy transition. Unprecedented non federal leadership, strong market forces, and overwhelming public demand for climate solutions all suggest that clean energy is here to stay.
- Ambitious, expanded action by U.S. states, cities, and businesses can reduce emissions up to 37% by 2030. Despite the pandemic and economic recession, non-federal climate action can still substantially reduce emissions, with or without help from Washington.
- The global pandemic and economic recession have not impeded non-federal climate action. America’s Pledge identifies five key sectors with the greatest 2030 emission reduction opportunities: electricity, transportation, buildings, methane, and HFCs. Confidence in these sectors’ ability to drive ambitious 2030 emission reductions has increased, with the exception of buildings, in which confidence has remained unchanged.