SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) – Hoping to drum up global support for climate-change policies without a skeptical President Donald Trump, California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday invited world leaders to a climate summit in San Francisco.
In a video message released from Hamburg, Germany, on the eve of the G20 Summit, Brown implored government and business leaders to cooperate in the battle against climate change. The announcement comes after Trump issued an executive order in May pulling the United States of the Paris climate change accord.
Brown, 79, encouraged the world to “get it together” and join him at the inaugural Climate Action Summit in September 2018 in San Francisco and rebuke Trump’s environmental policies.
“President Trump is trying to get out of the Paris Agreement, but he doesn’t speak for the rest of America,” Brown said in his message. “We in California and in states all across America believe it’s time to act, it’s time to join together and that’s why at this Climate Action Summit we’re going to get it done.”
The announcement, which drew applause from the attendees of the Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg Thursday, further solidifies California’s commitment to stringent climate change measures.
Brown has routinely signed international climate agreements throughout his fourth and final term and committed the state to generating half its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. A proposal to mandate 100 percent renewable energy by 2045 is currently being taken up in the Legislature.
California’s Democratic leaders attribute the state’s prolonged economic upturn to recently passed clean-energy and climate laws. According to the state, it has wiped out a $27 billion budget deficit over the last seven years largely because of its growing solar and clean-energy industry.
State Senate leader Kevin De León said California looks forward to taking the global stage at the summit in San Francisco.
“The growing threat of climate change demands an immediate and unified global response,” De León said in a statement. “California remains committed to a clean energy future and we welcome the responsibility to lead on America’s behalf.”
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