Last week, President Obama announced more than 300 public and private sector commitments to enlarge the growing “cloud” of commitments to action on climate change. The pledges come from leaders across the United States in response to the President’s call to make 2014 a “year of action.” Leaders from cities and school districts, to companies like Apple and IKEA, committed to expand the use of solar energy and energy efficiency, thereby creating jobs and cutting carbon pollution.
The President called private and public sector leaders to action – and leaders answered the call. For example, IKEA committed to use renewable energy at new US locations, while Apple committed to power all its facilities with clean energy in addition to its new headquarters that will run entirely on renewables. GM pledged to improve energy efficiency in 31 of its plants. Cities like Little Rock, Kansas City, and Detroit committed to replace old streetlights with efficient LEDs. The solar energy commitments represent enough to power nearly 130,000 homes – as well as energy efficiency investments that will lower bills for more than 1 billion square feet of buildings.
The commitments announced by President Obama prove that there is a growing groundswell of action on climate change. But it’s not just happening in the US. Across the world, there are literally tens of thousands of commitments to climate action from mayors, governors, and CEOs, as well as Presidents.
Commitments to action from all our leaders will be necessary to fight climate change. That’s why NRDC is calling for leaders across the US and the globe to bring bold commitments to the upcoming Climate Summit in New York this September. We must challenge our leaders to lead. We must ensure that all of our leaders add their commitments to the ever expanding “cloud” of actions on climate change.