Mayors Use Social Media to Fight Climate Change

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Three city leaders on Monday signaled their support for international action on climate change by launching a social media campaign and calling on other cities to develop clean energy plans.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and mayors Michael Nutter of Philadelphia and Annise Parker of Houston created a social media campaign called #ClimateMayors, 100 days before the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris, France on Nov. 30, 2015.

Founders of the US-focused Mayors' National Climate Action Agenda (MNCAA), the mayors launched the campaign as President Barack Obama spoke today at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas.

At the summit Obama urged states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with renewable energy projects.

The mayors want other city leaders to join the MNCAA and a global compact of mayors committed to climate action plans for U.S. cities.

"Climate change isn't a political issue - it's a reality for cities, many of which are right now enduring drought, extreme weather, and wildfires as a result," Garcetti, Nutter and Parker said in a joint statement. "As President Obama said at the Clean Energy Summit, the Clean Power Plan and other efforts to produce clean energy are critical for our nation's economy."

Calling Obama's efforts "big steps forward" the mayors said that Washington lawmakers and other city leaders should support binding targets to reduce emissions.

"As we said in June, we call on our federal leaders to pursue the strongest possible agreement at the UN climate talks in Paris and urge our fellow mayors to help send a signal that the United States is serious about climate change by signing the international compact of mayors, commit to a climate action plan, and join with us in the MNCAA," the mayors said.

They want all members of the mayoral initiative, which includes 28 cities, to commit to reducing emissions, offer carbon offsets, and create a template for climate action plans for all U.S. cities.

"Cities not only suffer the consequences of climate change, they generate 70 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions," Garcetti's office said in a statement announcing the social media campaign.

Garcetti wants to reduce LA's greenhouse case emissions 80 percent by 2050, wean the city's Department of Water and Power off of coal and create solar power and green building projects.

Parker has pledged to reduce Houston's greenhouse gas emissions 42 percent by 2016 and 80 percent in 2050.

Philadelphia has a seven-year old sustainability program called Greenworks and has worked with scientists to develop a climate action plan.

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