Mayors of Pittsburgh and Paris Say They Have Their Own Climate Deal

The mayors of Pittsburgh and Paris have united in voicing their support for the Paris Agreement after President Donald Trump invoked the two cities while discussing his reasons for pulling out of the accord.

“Last week, President Donald Trump tried to pit our two cities against each other,” Mayor Anne Hidalgo of Paris and Mayor Bill Peduto of Pittsburgh wrote in their joint op-ed published in the New York Times Wednesday.

“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” Trump said in his statement on the Paris Agreement last week.

But the mayors’ article his back at Trump: “Though separated by an ocean and a language, we share a desire to do what is best for our citizens and our planet,” the pair wrote.

In the op-ed, the mayors address Pittsburgh’s history as an industrial and polluted city continuing to make stride toward cleaning up its air. The article notes that 13,000 Pittsburgh resident are employed by the renewable resource industry. The Pennsylvania city is also planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2023 and move toward 100% renewable energy power by 20135.

The op-ed also highlights what the two cities have in common, despite their distance.

“In the absence of executive leadership in the United States, an unprecedented alliance is emerging among cities like ours to push progress forward,” the op-ed reads. “We are both members of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, which represents more than 7,400 cities around the world committed to local climate action.”