UPDATE: Mayor Berkowitz signed the Climate Mayors Agreement shortly after we launched our petition so we updated it to thank him!
Click HERE to thank Mayor Berkowitz for joining the Climate Mayor Agreement!
Dear Major Berkowitz,
The world is aghast at the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, our planets best hope for a stable climate. It is now up to our municipalities and states to fill the gap. We urge you to join more than 80 majors around the country in signing the Climate Mayors Agreement, in declaring:
As 86 Mayors representing 40 million Americans, we will adopt, honor, and uphold the commitments to the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement. We will intensify efforts to meet each of our cities’ current climate goals, push for new action to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius target, and work together to create a 21st century clean energy economy.
We will continue to lead. We are increasing investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. We will buy and create more demand for electric cars and trucks. We will increase our efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, create a clean energy economy, and stand for environmental justice. And if the President wants to break the promises made to our allies enshrined in the historic Paris Agreement, we’ll build and strengthen relationships around the world to protect the planet from devastating climate risks.
The world cannot wait -- and neither will we.
We acknowledge your exceptional leadership on climate change and appreciate the actions you have taken to date, including:
Your inspiring welcoming speech to the 2015 GLACIER Conference acknowledging that Alaska is on the front lines of climate change and the multitudes of ways it is already effecting our communities.
Your leadership in adopting LED streetlight technology citywide that saves the city $350k/year while reducing our carbon footprint significantly (overview here).
Your participation in the "Our Cities, Our Climate (OC2)" initiative in 2015 in which you acknowledged that Alaskans needn't "be captive to the dysfunction that happens in
D.C. any more" and noted the "opportunity for cities to take the lead" in using "our market power individually and
collectively". Your commitment to the Compact of Mayors, launched at the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit, an agreement between 40 global city networks to "set ambitious, voluntary city climate commitments or targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and to address climate risk" in a transparent manner. At the time the Compact represented the greatest opportunity to bring attention to and quantify city action leading up to the Paris Agreement.
Implementation of a Resilience AmeriCorp city $25,000 grant to engage residents and community leaders in the Mountain View and Fairview neighborhoods to make "housing stock more energy efficient, enhance the reliability and affordability of the energy grid through micro-grid development, and encourage more local food production".
Your inspiring speech in support of truth, knowledge and science at the recent March for Science, and many other efforts and venues around our city.
You understand that Alaska is on the front lines of climate change. We respectfully request that you join the growing number of Majors across the US in taking bold municipal action to overcome Federal and State inertia in fulfilling the goals laid out by the Paris Agreement. We look forward to your leadership in taking Anchorage and Alaska into a clean, sustainable twenty-first century.
Sincerely,
The undersigned...
Ceal Smith, MSci.
Policy Director
AK Climate & Energy Action Network
AK Climate Caucus, Chair
Eagle River, AK
