At European Parliament in Brussels, Mike Bloomberg: U.S. Will Meet Our Paris Commitment

Originally posted on www.mikebloomberg.com.

“Thank you, Linda McAvan for that introduction. I want to thank you and David McAllister and the Conference of Committee Chairs for giving me the opportunity to address you here in the European Parliament on climate change. And let me begin by thanking you for your leadership on climate change at a time when we all need to pull together for our common good.

“I also want to acknowledge the continued commitment to climate action that we are seeing in countries around the world, including in Africa. The developed world has made a commitment of mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries, and that is a promise we must make good on.

“I’ve had the chance to see a lot of the great work on climate change that is happening in the world’s cities. But today, even though I serve as a U.N. Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, I would like to speak to you as an American citizen, as a business leader and philanthropist, and as a former mayor of the largest city in the U.S.

“So let me cut right to the chase: I know many of you are dismayed by President Trump’s decision to reject the Paris Agreement. I strongly disagreed with that decision – and the day after he made it, I shared a platform with French President Macron and the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, to let the world know that the U.S. will meet our Paris commitment – and there is nothing Washington can do to stop us.

“It’s important for you, and the world, to understand that the fate of America’s Paris pledge does not lie with Congress or the White House. And today, I’d like to explain why that’s true.

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