Major US Cities Join Climate Emergency Declarations

Climate Emergency Declarations now have been made by 790 government jurisdictions in 17 countries around the world, covering 141 million citizens, according to the list maintained at climateemergencydeclaration.org, which you can see HERE.  The number is growing rapidly.  Perhaps most importantly, many of these jurisdictions are using the declarations as a springboard for local actions to fight climate change.

In recent months and days, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Oakland and other major towns and cities around the country have joined the movement, declared climate emergencies and begun enacting plans both to limit the increasingly disruptive impact of climate change – floods, hurricanes, sea level rise, fires, health and other effects – and to mobilize to prepare their citizens for the disruptions we’re already starting to see.

Earlier this year, Los Angeles became the first city in the world to establish a Climate Emergency Mobilization Department:

“In a hearing packed with community members, the five members of the City Council’s Energy, Climate Change and Environmental Justice Committee (ECCEJ) unanimously agreed to carry forward a variety of proposals to create the world’s first Climate Emergency Mobilization Department (CEMD), which will be powered by LA’s version of Green New Deal policies. In a proposal he developed in partnership with the Leap LA Coalition, Council member Paul Koretz outlined what such a department could look like, with a mission “to protect all residents, especially the most vulnerable, from the health and economic impacts of the climate crisis by ensuring a rapid and equitable just transition… and the right to a healthy, egalitarian quality of life for future generations.”

“While this work preceded the proposed federal Green New Deal, we have welcomed the inclusion and support of the Sunrise Movement and now the Youth Climate Strikers in our efforts,” said Councilmember Paul Koretz. “We believe the CEMD can be the mechanism by which LA’s version of a Green New Deal can quickly and effectively be developed, implemented and the vital regional mobilization on climate action launched.”