20 states, 50 cities sign pledge to abide by Paris agreement even if US withdraws

A coalition of U.S. cities, states, companies and universities said on Saturday that they still plan on meeting the commitments of the Paris climate accord, despite President Trump’s announcement earlier this year that the U.S. would withdraw from the deal.

“It is important for the world to know, the American government may have pulled out of the Paris agreement, but the American people are committed to its goals, and there is nothing Washington can do to stop us,” former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a climate conference in Bonn, Germany, according to The Associated Press.

The group, called America’s Pledge, said that many states, cities and private entities in the U.S. would continue to pursue efforts to reduce carbon emissions, including promoting renewable sources of energy.

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The group consists of 20 U.S. states and more than 50 major cities.

But in a report released by America’s Pledge, the group acknowledged that any effort to meet the Paris accord’s carbon-reduction commitments by 2025 would require some level of federal action.

“[W]e cannot underscore strongly enough the critical nature of federal engagement to achieve the deep decarbonization goals the U.S. must undertake after 2025,” the report reads.

Trump announced in June that the U.S. would pull out of the 195-nation climate agreement as soon as it is able to, saying that the accord was “unfair” to the U.S. and would ultimately hurt American business interests, while allowing developing countries, like India, to continue to rely on fossil fuels.

At the time of that announcement, only one other country, Syria, had not joined the pact. That changed this week when Syria said during the climate conference in Germany that it would sign onto the deal.