Left Coast vows to continue fight for climate justice as Trump abandons Paris accords

The Unit­ed States is with­draw­ing from the land­mark Paris cli­mate accords, pol­lu­tion lover Don­ald Trump con­firmed today at a shame­ful event iron­i­cal­ly held in the White House­’s Rose Gar­den — com­plete with a jazz band.

The accords, which most of the world’s nations have agreed to, will remain in place, but the U.S. is aban­don­ing the com­mit­ments it made under Pres­i­dent Oba­ma to reduce cli­mate dam­age. Not to men­tion abdi­cat­ing its moral leadership.

In advance of the announce­ment, elect­ed lead­ers from Wash­ing­ton, Ore­gon, Cal­i­for­nia, and oth­er states vowed to con­tin­ue state and region­al efforts to tack­le cli­mate dam­age, say­ing that future gen­er­a­tions are count­ing on us.

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, clear­ly angered by Trump’s deci­sion, released a state­ment ask­ing for­ward-think­ing states and cities to unite in defense of Amer­i­ca’s values.

“The nations that remain in the Paris Agree­ment will be the nations that reap the ben­e­fits in jobs and indus­tries cre­at­ed,” Oba­ma said.

“I believe the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of Amer­i­can lead­er­ship; even as this admin­is­tra­tion joins a small hand­ful of nations that reject the future; I’m con­fi­dent that our states, cities, and busi­ness­es will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help pro­tect for future gen­er­a­tions the one plan­et we’ve got.”

Eigh­teen mem­bers of the Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives this week sent a let­ter to Gov­er­nors Jer­ry Brown, Jay Inslee, and Kate Brown, request­ing that that Wash­ing­ton, Ore­gon, and Cal­i­for­nia form a “green wall” to stave off disaster.

“Giv­en the vac­u­um in cli­mate lead­er­ship that has result­ed from the elec­tion of Don­ald Trump, our states must con­tin­ue to form a ‘green wall’ in the West that will main­tain cli­mate lead­er­ship in the Unit­ed States. The Paris Agree­ment calls for sig­nif­i­cant reduc­tions in green­house gas emis­sions, and if Don­ald Trump’s admin­is­tra­tion won’t lead, our states must,” the law­mak­ers wrote. “We call on you to con­tin­ue to uphold our com­mit­ments made under the Paris Agree­ment, and to show inter­na­tion­al lead­er­ship where the cur­rent Admin­is­tra­tion has failed.”

The let­ter was signed by Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Earl Blu­me­nauer (OR-03), Jared Huff­man (CA-02), Suzan Del­Bene (WA-01), Alan Lowen­thal (CA-47), Adam Smith (WA-09), Doris Mat­sui (CA-06), Derek Kilmer (WA-06), Mike Thomp­son (CA-05), Bar­bara Lee (CA-13), Prami­la Jaya­pal (WA-07), John Gara­men­di (CA-03), Nanette Diaz Bar­ragán (CA-44), Ted W. Lieu (CA-33), Jack­ie Speier (CA-14), Zoe Lof­gren (CA-19), Salud O. Car­ba­jal (CA-24), Susan A. Davis (CA-53), Peter DeFazio (OR-04), Suzanne Bonam­i­ci (OR-01), Adam B. Schiff (CA-28), and Den­ny Heck (WA-10).

The gov­er­nors, for their part, made clear they intend to do just that.

“Wash­ing­ton State is lead­ing the way on cli­mate issues where Wash­ing­ton, D.C., is fail­ing,” not­ed Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee in a state­ment pre­ced­ing Trump’s dicta.

“The Paris Cli­mate Agree­ment is a land­mark inter­na­tion­al pact that rep­re­sents our great­est oppor­tu­ni­ty to secure long-term U.S. and glob­al eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty in the face of grow­ing threats from cli­mate change. One hun­dred and nine­ty-four nations have signed the agree­ment, one hun­dred and forty-sev­en have rat­i­fied it, and more than eighty per­cent of the world’s car­bon pol­lu­tion are now cov­ered by its terms. Count­ed among the sig­na­to­ries are Chi­na and India, two of the world’s largest con­trib­u­tors of green­house gas emis­sions, whose sup­port for the agree­ment emerged through dili­gent U.S. leadership.”

“In Wash­ing­ton State we are tak­ing action to reduce car­bon pol­lu­tion. We have imple­ment­ed a cap on car­bon pol­lu­tion, and we will con­tin­ue work­ing with busi­ness­es and research insti­tu­tions to devel­op and deploy twen­ty-first cen­tu­ry clean ener­gy solu­tions. We are also part­ner­ing with oth­er states who are doing the same, and our states will not stop fight­ing for a clean ener­gy future, regard­less of who is in the White House.”

“Trump is going against sci­ence. He’s going against real­i­ty,” Cal­i­for­nia Gov­er­nor Jer­ry Brown told the Los Ange­les Times.

“We can’t stand by and give aid and com­fort to that.”

“If we want to retain and enhance man­u­fac­tur­ing, we have to do what Cal­i­for­nia is doing, in clean ener­gy and clean tech­nol­o­gy,” the gov­er­nor added. “That’s the future of jobs, the future of sus­tain­abil­i­ty. And we bet­ter get on board. And Cal­i­for­nia will be right there with the best of them.”

“Cli­mate change pos­es the great­est threat to Oregon’s envi­ron­ment, econ­o­my, and way of life,” said Ore­gon Gov­er­nor Kate Brown. “Ore­gon has a strong tra­di­tion of fight­ing cli­mate change, and we will not back down. The con­se­quences of cli­mate change are already impact­ing our com­mu­ni­ties and threat­en the long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty of our nat­ur­al resource-based economies. Lead­ing U.S. com­pa­nies rec­og­nize the need to address cli­mate change risks and oppor­tu­ni­ties through the Paris Agree­ment, and are wise­ly invest­ing in low-car­bon fuels and clean ener­gy tech­nolo­gies to stay on the cut­ting edge of the glob­al economy.”

“It is irre­spon­si­ble for the pres­i­dent to deny these real-world impli­ca­tions. But I will con­tin­ue to work with lead­ers on the West Coast, across the coun­try, and around the world to address the chal­lenge of cli­mate change.”

“While Ore­gon is a small state, we can play a huge role in find­ing inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to pre­serve our nat­ur­al resources, reduce car­bon, and cre­ate a clean­er, and green­er ener­gy mix of the future.”

In a series of tweets, Hawai‘i Sen­a­tor Bri­an Schatz called for action.

“Make no mis­take, cli­mate change is on the bal­lot for every elec­tion until we reverse this immoral action,” he said.

“I’m angry, not deterred. We will win this fight, but we must be smarter, tougher, & more relent­less than the pol­luters and their friends.”

“The good news? Clean tech tax breaks still law — pri­vate sec­tor booms. Clean ener­gy won’t stop. Lead­er­ship from every­where except POTUS.”

“Because the Agree­ment entered into force on Novem­ber 4th, 2016, with­draw­al could­n’t be com­plet­ed until Novem­ber 4th, 2020. So we got­ta win.”

“Elec­tions have con­se­quences. The most impor­tant thing that any­one can do for the plan­et is to vote for and sup­port Democ­rats in 2018 and 2020.”

“Remem­ber this gut punch. Then run for office. Donate. Orga­nize. Just do some­thing. What hap­pens next is entire­ly up to us.”