We Are Still In to Deliver America’s Pledge
A Retrospective
We Are Still In to Deliver on America’s Pledge provides a look back at the past three years of state, city, and business climate leadership, since the founding of We Are Still In and America’s Pledge. The retrospective documents emissions reduction efforts from a diverse coalition of non-federal leaders, showcasing the historic progress that has kept the U.S. on a path of climate progress.
Since the launch of We Are Still In and America’s Pledge in June 2017, climate action by US states, tribes, cities, counties, businesses, investors, universities, healthcare organizations, cultural institutions, and more has increased dramatically. These state and local leaders have taken unprecedented climate action that has kept the U.S. on a path of climate progress.
In the face of opposition and climate denialism from the federal government, U.S. non-federal leaders have doubled down on cross-sector climate action that is helping reduce emissions from the bottom-up. Today, one in three Americans live in a jurisdiction committed to 100% clean electricity; three years ago, only Hawaii and 33 cities had committed to 100% clean electricity, now 13 states, Puerto Rico, and 165 cities have 100% clean energy commitments. Up from zero, 16 states have passed or committed to pass regulations and legislation that would phase down the use of HFCs, a potent greenhouse gas. And in three years, the U.S. electric vehicle market has doubled.
This action adds up. Last year’s Accelerating America’s Pledge analysis found that ambitious and rapidly expanded bottom-up action could reduce US greenhouse gas emissions up to 37% below 2005 by 2030 with or without federal leadership.
Yet, if we are going to keep the world on a 1.5°C trajectory, and avoid the worst impacts of climate change—impacts which disproportionately harm people of color and other marginalized populations in the United States—the US federal government must re-engage and lead.