Mayors from 50 world cities flew to Denmark last week to discuss ways to address the “global climate emergency,” pledging to “do something about it” before they headed homewards again on Sunday.
Telling adults to eat less than 300 grams of red meat – about the equivalent of two fillet steaks – a week was one initiative they could agree on.
The World Mayors Summit, which brought together more than 50 mayors from the world’s biggest and wealthiest cities, was addressed by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who said, “Because of what’s happened to our national governments, mayors are on the [climate change] front line now.
“A lot of this is up to you; we need you, we need your help, the world needs your help, the next generation needs your help and the young people are saying in ever louder, more passionate terms that they depend on us to do the right thing.”
Gore cautioned that mayors, “do not have the luxury of just going away and reading reports about what is going on. You run into your constituents every single day.”
Over the past decade, C40 has convened six Mayors Summits, hosted by London (2005), New York (2007), Seoul (2009), Sao Paulo (2011), Johannesburg (2014) and Mexico City (2016).
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres flew from U.N. headquarters in New York to deliver a 20 minute address of his own to the municipal leaders on Friday. He urged voters and lawmakers to pressure governments to fight climate change and achieve carbon neutrality.
“Today, we can see businesses, cities and society moving faster than governments are,” Guterres said. “And so it’s very important to go on putting as much pressure as possible on governments to make sure that they always, they always, all of them, accept our carbon neutrality objective.”
The mayors promised to create a Global Youth Initiative to help deliver a Global Green New Deal.
“It is not even about a specific piece of legislation, it is about a global change of values, ideals, and ways of relating to each other and the Earth,” said Jamie Margolin, Zero Hour founder and co-executive director.
As Breitbart News reported, freshman “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) flew in as well, praising the coalition and calling climate change “our greatest threat.”
Federal govs are failing to act on the climate crisis.
We can’t wait for others to lead.
That’s why I’m in Copenhagen w/ C40 mayors, trade unions, youth climate strikers, business & citizen reps from around the world to rally for a Global #GreenNewDeal. https://t.co/uJjcrkjbTH
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 9, 2019
“I am inspired by this coalition and the commitments made for a global Green New Deal,” she said. “If we work to join forces globally, we will be able to defeat our greatest threat and realize our greatest opportunity.”
“Federal govs are failing to act on the climate crisis,” she followed up in a tweet. “We can’t wait for others to lead”:
Mayors from 14 of the world’s biggest cities also pledged to radically cut down the amount of meat they serve in schools, hospitals and other public buildings, so adults will get less than 300 grams of meat – about the equivalent of two fillet steaks – a week.
The “Planetary Health Diet” is designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions and will be adopted by cities – including Barcelona, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo and Toronto – according to the C40 Good Food Cities Declaration signed on Thursday.
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