|
NEW YORK, NY — As the U.S. federal government continues its retreat from global climate efforts, governors and mayors representing America’s top state- and city-led climate action coalitions — the U.S. Climate Alliance and Climate Mayors — came together today at Climate Week NYC to announce a new joint partnership that supercharges non-federal climate collaboration, reinforcing the strength and durability of American climate leadership.
The new agreement was announced during an event featuring leaders of both organizations, including Climate Mayors chair Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and Alliance co-chair Delaware Governor Matt Meyer, as well as Alliance executive committee member New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who provided remarks via video message. Alliance co-chair Washington Governor Bob Ferguson was originally scheduled to participate, but was unable to attend due to flight disruptions in the Northeast.
The Alliance is a bipartisan coalition of 24 governors — representing approximately 60 percent of the U.S. economy and 55 percent of the U.S. population — sustaining America’s fight against climate change with bold, state-led action.
“We’re facing a hostile federal administration, intent on taking us backward,” said Alliance co-chair and Washington Governor Ferguson. “The governors and mayors in our partnership are not going to let that happen. Together, we are a force. By working together, we can continue to make meaningful progress on climate, clean energy, electrification, and more.”
“The partnership we’re announcing today is built on a simple idea: When governors and mayors get together, we get things done. We don’t make promises, we make plans, and we turn those plans into real progress for real people,” said Alliance co-chair Delaware Governor Matt Meyer. “Let’s be clear about what we’re fighting for — we’re reducing pollution, we’re building resilience, we’re expanding clean energy. We’re leveraging the technologies of tomorrow for generations to come and we’re doing these things because they improve people’s lives.”
Climate Mayors is the nation’s largest and most diverse coalition of city leaders — representing more than 350 mayors across 47 states — committed to advancing climate action that lowers costs, cuts pollution and strengthens communities.
“Our progress is not happening in isolation. It is the result of cities and states working together, sharing what works, and bringing proven solutions to deliver cleaner air, stronger communities, greater affordability, and a more resilient future for our residents,” said Climate Mayors Chair and Boise Mayor Lauren McLean. “We are accelerating the solutions already working in our cities and states, turning local innovation into national momentum, and demonstrating what’s possible when leaders across levels of government work together.”
Despite federal rollbacks and attempts to undermine the irrefutable science underpinning climate action, America’s states and cities retain significant authority to continue developing, adopting, and implementing solutions to climate change. In fact, states and cities in the U.S. have long worked together to advance policies addressing climate change, serving as laboratories of innovation for impactful and scalable climate solutions.
These solutions have already delivered meaningful progress in communities across the country. Since 2005, the Alliance’s members have collectively cut electricity sector emissions by 44 percent and quadrupled electricity generated by wind and solar, while growing their economies by 37 percent.
In Climate Mayors cities, as the collective population grew 1.2 percent and collective economies grew 11.3 percent between 2019 and 2024, fossil fuel consumption per person fell 3.5 percent — a clear sign that cities are decoupling economic growth from fossil fuel use. This shift translated into $27.2 billion less fossil fuel spending over five years in Climate Mayors cities. Lower fuel use is putting money back into household budgets, saving people on average $1,000 a year.
Through this new partnership, the Alliance and Climate Mayors will work to achieve a series of shared objectives, including to:
-
Accelerate the deployment of clean energy and technologies across U.S. states and cities, including to lower household energy costs, grow the economy, and bolster U.S. energy security.
-
Reduce greenhouse gas pollution consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
-
Build resilience to the impacts of climate change.
-
Support the creation of good-paying jobs in climate and clean energy fields.
-
Promote consistency and minimize disruption across federal administrations and fluctuations in federal policy priorities.
-
Leverage opportunities for collective action to drive policy innovation, transform markets, and lay the foundation for future federal action.
-
Share U.S. state and city progress with the global community.
Together, the coalitions will advance bold and sustainable climate change solutions through peer learning, intergovernmental exchanges, and shared resource development. The cross-sectoral work will focus on clean electricity and energy affordability, healthy buildings and communities, transportation decarbonization, climate resilience, building and supporting a climate-ready workforce, and more.
These areas of engagement build on the already strong foundation of state and local climate partnership over the past two years. This includes the Alliance and Climate Mayors spotlighting U.S. climate progress together at London Climate Action Week and leading a delegation of leaders to COP30 and the Local Leaders Forum in Brazil, in partnership with America Is All In. The coalitions also joined forces to encourage Americans to take advantage of cost-saving federal clean energy tax credits before they expired, following passage of President Trump’s H.R. 1. The coalitions will build on this partnership later this year at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye.
Today’s event was part of America Is All In’s Local to Global Exchange, which brought together local, state, and global leaders to highlight how they’re collaboratively deploying ambitious climate solutions that create tangible community benefits — from lowering energy costs to reducing air pollution.
“After so many years in government, there is one thing I know to be true: real and lasting progress always comes from the bottom up. The more local leaders are supported and empowered across the United States, the faster and farther we’ll go, which is why I’m thrilled to see these two great organizations working together to lead our clean energy revolution,” said America Is All In Chair and former White House National Climate Advisor and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy. “States and cities are laser-focused on tackling ‘kitchen table’ issues and grabbing every opportunity they can to invest in technologies that lower costs, cut pollution, deliver healthier homes, and create good-paying union jobs to protect their communities.”
The full joint partnership agreement signed today by the executive directors of the U.S. Climate Alliance and Climate Mayors can be found here.
###
|
