Cities, Businesses and Non-Country Actors Taking Charge on Emission Reduction in Transportation and Other Areas

September 17, 2018 – When COP21 was signed the agreeing parties were state actors. Accompanying many to the Paris conference, were sub-jurisdictions like provinces, counties, and cities. But the signatories were all the governments on the planet with Syria a notable exception. Later Donald Trump told the world that he was taking the United States out of the climate change agreement because it was “unfair.” Since his announcement Trump has, through executive order rolled back much of the policy of his predecessor who championed a concerted global response to atmospheric warming.

Sub-jurisdictions and non-state actors in the United States, however, have been picking up the slack while the rest of the community of nations remains pledged to make COP21 goals happen. Joining these state actors are cities, corporations, and NGOs who have announced targets to lower emissions.

This week the state of California hosted the Global Action Climate Summit attended by many national governments,  non-government organizations (NGOs), cities, and business executives from across the planet. The goal of the summit was one of sharing successes and issuing challenges. A number of cities made joint pledges to transition to zero-emission transportation technology. Walmart and Unilever announced changes to their supply chains to stop deforestation and eliminate carbon in their practices and processes. Philanthropic organizations pledged billions to fund low carbon and climate change mitigation and adaptation projects.

To counteract the U.S. federal government’s anti-Paris stance, an American coalition of 16 states, Puerto Rico, hundreds of cities, and almost 2,000 businesses has pledged to meet the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of 26-28% by 2025 as set by the former Obama administration. Because of Trump and his executive orders, current emission trending shows the U.S. falling far short with reductions expected to decrease only by 17%.

Part of the C40Cities Group, including mayors from many of the world’s largest cities, at the summit pledged a 50% reduction in garbage sent to landfill, increased building of carbon-neutral buildings, creating more pedestrian and bicycle friendly urban environments, and a rapid expansion of electric vehicle fleets and charging infrastructure.

Global transportation is seen as responsible for the second highest amount of human-contributed greenhouse gas emissions. Because of this numerous cities and corporate partners have pledged to accelerate the mass electrification of cars, buses, and other forms of transit. A zero-emission vehicle challenge was signed by California, Washington, Quebec, Scotland, Australia’s Capital Territory, and 12 global and U.S. cities including Seoul, Tokyo, and Honolulu to name a few.

To expand charging infrastructure, EVBox, ChargePoint, and EVgo, among the leading global suppliers of charge station technology announced rapid expansion of their EV charge station networks. EVBox pledged to expand from 60,000 currently to 1 million by 2025. ChargePoint set a goal of 2.5 million public chargers over the same time period. Numbers in these pledges didn’t include home charging stations. And Lyft and Uber were put on notice to increase their percentages of zero-emission vehicles operating their on-demand ride-hailing services or see them lose urban and state licenses.

The California Summit has been held at a time when California is experiencing what is being described as apocalyptic wildfire events exacerbated by the changing climate that has seen cycles of drought and higher than normal day and nighttime temperatures.