New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor of London Nicky Gavron Friday joined together to sign the World Mayors and Local Governments Climate Protection Agreement, which was launched on Thursday in Bali, a resort island of Indonesia.
They pledged to reduce emissions 60-80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, the target recommended by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to combat global warming.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged U.S. delegation to the ongoing U.N. climate change conference to join world ministers to fight global warming.
Bloomberg, who was selected to give the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities statement Friday morning to the high-level delegations at the conference, said, "The mayors of the world's cities are the great pragmatists on the world's stage. Results, not ideology, are what matter to us."
"Already, mayors are taking the lead in improving our environment and the U.N. climate change conference should include cities and municipalities as a major part of the solution to reduce our carbon footprint," he said.
"Cities and urban areas are responsible for 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions," said Nicky Gavron, "We have great economic opportunities, and cities will drive the transition to a low-carbon economy, if empowered and resourced by our nations."
Both Bloomberg and Gavron are attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference representing local governments worldwide through Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI). The two-week meeting, which is scheduled to end on Friday, came to a deadlock due to EU-U.S. disputes over a number of goals for emissions in the final text of the meeting.
Source: Xinhua
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