Thirteen states plus Puerto Rico (highlighted in navy blue) are members of the U.S. Climate Alliance. The states highlighted in aqua are other areas whose governing officials have expressed support for the Paris Agreement. Image: Wikipedia.

By Green Energy Times Staff

The United States Climate Alliance was announced immediately after President Trump announced that the U.S. was withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement. It is currently made up of thirteen states and Puerto Rico and seeks to achieve the U.S. Paris goals. The Alliance’s member states and P.R. are home to over 107 million people, about 32.3% of those living in the U.S. Their website is www.usclimatealliance.org/.

Nine other states and the District of Columbia are not members but have also expressed support for the goals. Their population, totaling 67 million, is 20.8% of the U.S. population.

In addition to these states and territories, hundreds of municipal governments have expressed their intentions of achieving the U.S. climate goals. The Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, or Climate Mayors, are one group of these. Climate Mayors includes 364 cities in 44 states. All of the ten most populous cities in the country are included among its members. Their website is climatemayors.org/.

A number of other, similar groups have sprung up. There are advantages to putting them all into the same umbrella group, especially considering that France, India, and China have all expressed willingness to have the position that the U.S. had occupied at Paris Climate talks, which was vacated by President Trump, filled by some representative organization. For that reason, Governor Jerry Brown of California and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York have started America’s Pledge. This organization is not limited to government bodies, but can be joined by educational organizations, businesses and others.

The state of all this activity is constantly changing. It has only been a short time since the president reneged on the U.S. promise on climate change, and the situation has not settled yet. One thing is quite clear, however. Well over half the people in this country live in areas where state or local governments are pursuing the U.S. pledge on climate change. America is still doing its job, even though the president is not.