As President Trump announces the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, state and local leaders have stepped forward to announce their commitment to carrying out the spirit of the Paris accords at more local levels. The governors of New York, California, and Washington have announced a “Climate Alliance” that is committed to implementing the U.S. greenhouse gas reduction in the absence of the federal commitment. Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto objected to Trump calling the City out as benefiting from withdrawal from the Paris Accord, and committed the City to implementation of the Paris targets despite the national withdrawal.
As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future. https://t.co/3znXGTcd8C
— bill peduto (@billpeduto) June 1, 2017
This is good leadership and exactly the right response at the state and local level to the total abdication of climate leadership at our national level.
So what does this mean for climate action at the individual level? I think individual climate action is now more important than ever. And I don’t mean just hopping on a plane to march in a protest or camp out in front of a pipeline carrying fossil fuels to destined to fuel the plane you hopped. I mean setting individual climate reduction goals and meeting them.
Governors Cuomo, Brown, and Inslee, and Mayor Peduto are not all saying, “Gee, why should we deprive ourselves of fossil fuel powered economies to meet the Paris goals when red states like Texas and Florida are going to keep on fouling the planet.” Instead, they are making the energy future happen now, taking local action even knowing that in the long run to be effectual national and international commitments will be required.
The same leadership principles apply at the individual level. You can give up, say, “why bother reducing my individual footprint when Texas and Florida and China and India and Brazil are all increasing their emissions?” Or you can recognize that social change starts at the individual level and be a climate leader through conspicuous non-consumption.
The Paris Agreement is a set of non-binding, individually determined commitments. Withdrawal from Paris is completely nonsensical because, if the committed reductions were too onerous, the U.S. could modify its commitments unilaterally, at will. And the U.S. voluntary commitment was never, by itself, enough to limit warming to 2 degrees. But it was a public declaration of a step in the right direction.
Why not each set our own private Paris? The U.S. Individual Nationally Determined Commitment under the Paris Accord was a 17% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020, and a 26% reduction by 2025. If the States of California, New York, and Washington, as well as localities across the country are willing to commit to that reduction, why not each of us personally?
The Paris Accord asks each nation to take stock, decide for itself how much GHG reduction is fair and achievable for itself, and implement those reductions. Any individual concerned about the climate can make this same determination. My own Individual Individually Determined Commitment is to keep my direct individual footprint below 4 tons of CO2E per year, about a 75% reduction from the average American footprint of about 20 tons per year. It is achievable for me without giving up anything that is really important.
What is your Individual Individually Determined Commitment? Not every committed climate activist is willing to make the commitment I have, but are we all willing to make some commitment – set a goal, and check at the end of the year that we have met it? Can we all achieve a 17% reduction by 2020 and 26% by 2025, as the Obama administration committed the nation as a whole? Can we each try and meet the EU average footprint of 7 tons per capita annually? At least keep our footprint below the outsized American average footprint of about 20 tons per year?
The Paris reductions were all voluntary. We can each make our own voluntary commitment to take part in addressing climate change. We are all Paris.
Live! Sustainably! Now! 