Bucking Trump, These Cities, States and Companies Commit to Paris Accord -
By HIROKO TABUCHI and HENRY FOUNTAINJUNE 1, 2017
Representatives of American cities, states and companies are preparing to submit a plan to the United Nations pledging to meet the United States’
greenhouse gas emissions targets under the Paris climate accord, despite President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the agreement.
Mr. Trump’s plan to pull out of the Paris agreement was motivating more local
and state governments, as well as businesses, to commit to the climate change fight, said Robert C. Orr, one of the architects of the 2015 Paris agreement as the United Nations secretary-general’s lead climate adviser.
The company, best known for its candies, remained committed, he said, to achieving “the carbon reduction targets the planet needs.”
It was unclear from Mr. Trump’s announcement what commitments the United States would honor in the Paris accord, which
include contributions to the operating budget of the accord’s coordinating agency, the framework convention.
The unnamed group — which, so far, includes 30 mayors, three governors, more than 80 university presidents
and more than 100 businesses — is negotiating with the United Nations to have its submission accepted alongside contributions to the Paris climate deal by other nations.
Ms. Figueres, who described the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw as a “vacuous political melodrama,” said the American government was required to continue reporting its emissions to the United Nations
because a formal withdrawal would not take place for several years.
But Ms. Figueres, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change until last year, said the Bloomberg group’s
submission could be included in future reports the United Nations compiled on the progress made by the signatories of the Paris deal.
