Tag Archives: WeAreStillIn

Mongabay: @COP23 — U.S. subnationals shoulder climate role in Bonn, Trump sidelined

Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York and global leaders on cities and climate, at COP23 in Bonn, Germany. By Justin Catanoso

Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York and global leaders on cities and climate, at COP23 in Bonn, Germany. By Justin Catanoso

Here’s the link to my first story from COP23, which posted Monday Nov. 13, 2017.

I arrived in Bonn, Germany in a sleep-deprived fog on Friday Nov. 10, 2017 to prepare to cover my fourth consecutive UN climate summit, this one hosted by the Pacific Island nation of Fiji.

While that Friday was spent learning my way around the sprawling site — I walked five miles that never and never left the venue — Saturday was consumed with the rise of the US subnationals, a coalition of 15 states, 455 cities, 350 universities and 1700+ businesses.

Their central message: There is the United States and there is the Trump Administration. The latter does not speak for the former. Gov. Jerry Brown of California and former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, among others, stressed #WeAreStillIn — meaning, the equal to nearly half the US economy is still in the Paris Agreement, no matter what Trump says he intends to do. It was a stunning, blunt and blistering rebuke of a sitting president.

The US Climate Action Center, not paid for by the Trump Administration, but rather private interests. Photo by Justin Catanoso

The US Climate Action Center, not paid for by the Trump Administration, but rather private interests. Photo by Justin Catanoso