Bloomberg leads battle against climate change

Led by former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, nearly 1,000 business and government leaders declared their intent to honour the Paris climate accord, days after United States President Donald Trump announced a US exit from the 190-plus nation pact on Tuesday .

“Today, on behalf of an unprecedented collection of United States cities, states, businesses and other organisations, I am communicating to the United Nations and the global community that American society remains committed to achieving the emission reductions we pledged to make in Paris in 2015,” said the former New York mayor in a statement.

“I am confident the broad array of leaders and organisations that have signed Tuesday’s declaration, and many others that will join in the days to come, will work together to reduce US carbon emissions by 26 per cent by 2025, just as we had pledged in Paris.”

Big names like Apple, Google and Microsoft are in the group, called “We Are Still In,” along with more than 100 mayors and governors and a range of colleges and universities.

A full list of the signatories is available at wearestillin.org.

A statement by the group calls the US President’s decision to pull the US out of the climate accord “a grave mistake that endangers the American public and hurts America’s economic security and diplomatic reputation.”

It said said, “in the absence of leadership from Washington, states, cities, colleges and universities and businesses representing a sizeable per centage of the US economy, will pursue ambitious climate goals.”

Since US President Donald Trump’s announcement on Thursday, at least 211 mayors adopted the Paris goals for their own cities, and at least 17 governors have released individual statements saying they stand by the Paris deal, agreed in late 2015 by every country in the world except Syria and Nicaragua.