Leaders call for emissions cuts to accelerate climate goals

Now that the United States has returned to the Paris Agreement, thousands of non-federal climate leaders–led by Michael Bloomberg, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, Charlotte, North Carolina, Mayor Vi Lyles, and CommonSpirit Health CEO Lloyd Dean–have launched America is All In, a coalition to drive a society-wide mobilization to bolster existing U.S. climate goals and align them with science-based targets, accelerating institutional and regional climate action.

The goal is to help the country meet a target of reducing emissions at least 50% from a 2005 baseline by 2030 and achieve net zero pollution by 2050.

The coalition describes itself as the evolution and combination of two existing climate action groups: We Are Still In and America’s Pledge. Over the last four years, We Are Still In has worked to unite cities, states, tribal nations, companies, colleges, health, faith and cultural institutions committed to ambitious climate action.

America’s Pledge is a Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative co-led by Rocky Mountain Institute and the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability with contributions from World Resources Institute, which has quantified and reported on member actions to drive down their greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The analyses published by America’s Pledge have shown that non-federal actors have, in the past few years, created a significantly enhanced basis for a new, “All-In” climate policy, an all-of-society approach that, combined with federal policy starting this year, could deliver the emission reductions that the Biden administration is looking to achieve.

Further, America’s Pledge analysis show that the non-federal actors could drive emissions up to 37% below 2005 levels by 2030 entirely without new federal action. In a signal of support for this approach, America Is All In reissued a declaration signed by more than 1,700 non-federal actors committing to prioritize climate action in their own operations and work to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.