THE REALITY OF U.S. CLIMATE ACTION:NON-FEDERAL LEADERSHIP IS DELIVERINGAMBITION AND ACTIONSTILL IN
A wave of U.S. climate leadership is answering the global call to action to combat theclimate crisis. Cities, states, and communities across the U.S. are executing bold, ambitious
plans to reduce national emissions, even in the absence of federal leadership. This rapidly
expanding coalition is showing the world that the transition toward a transformed, clean
economy generates opportunities and extensive benefits for economies, communities, andecosystems.
U.S. states, cities, tribes, businesses, communities of faith, universities, and others are
already making a difference in U.S. emissions — and are on track to deliver even more.
U.S. emissions declined in recent years in part due to state, city, and business actions.
While 2018 saw an uptick in total U.S. GHG emissions due to a combination of factors,
steps taken by actors outside the federal government are generating growing momentum
toward aggregate emission reductions. These steps, whether individually small or large,
are helping the U.S. advance towards its targets under the Paris Agreement.

Fulfilling America’s Pledge, published in September 2018, found thatcommitments by U.S. non-federal leaders were on track to deliver a full
two-thirds of the U.S. 2025 target agreed to under the Paris Agreement.
Instead of a roughly 3% increase from current emissions levels withoutaction, commitments were estimated to deliver well over a 17% reduction
in 2025 compared to 2005. In the year since the analysis was released,states, cities, and businesses have further accelerated implementation andcommitted to even more action.

Cities, states, and businesses are America’s climate innovators, deploying bottom-up
solutions for the global climate crisis and working with legislatures, city councils, andcorporate boards to set new, science-based commitments and accelerate our cleanenergy economy transition.
• The U.S. Climate Alliance, which represents states and territories whose governors have committed
to ambitious climate action, grew from 17 to 25 members in just one year.
• Climate Mayors has grown to 430 member cities - all of whom have committed to taking meaningfulaction on climate - across 48 states since its founding in 2014.
• The We Are Still In coalition, which includes members of all action groups from municipalities tobusinesses to other communities, now numbers over 3,800 compared to 1,200 at launch in 2017.
• We Are Still In, U.S. Climate Alliance members, and other U.S. coalitions committed to the Paris
Agreement now represent nearly 70% of U.S. GDP and nearly 65 % of the U.S. population. Were
they a country, this group would constitute the world’s third largest economy.

Last September, the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco brought together over 5,000leaders from around the world to showcase climate action taking place at the subnational levelby states, cities, civil society, businesses, and investors. The Summit mobilized over 500 newcommitments to climate action. Since the Summit and the release of the IPCC Special Report on
Global Warming of 1.5°C, significant progress has been made.

ECONOMY-WIDE COMMITMENTS ARE ON THE RISE.
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Nine states adopted new GHG reduction targets in the last year: California, Colorado, Maine, Montana,Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. California and New York joined Hawai’iin adopting a statewide carbon neutrality goal by or before 2050. Montana tasked its newly-created Climate
Council with setting a carbon neutrality goal.
Several U.S. cities committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80-100% by 2050 including Boulder,
Minneapolis, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
In the last year, 61 U.S. businesses with a market capitalization of over $1.7 trillion and over 1.5 million
employees have made long-term commitments on the We Mean Business Take Action platform, including
commitments to set a Science Based Target and engage in responsible climate policy.
The Beyond Carbon initiative committed $500 million to supporting transformational climate policies in U.S.
cities, states, and regions, to ensure the country is already on the path to a 100% clean energy economy before
the next president takes office.

STATES, CITIES AND BUSINESSES ARE MOVING EN MASSE TO
100% CLEAN ENERGY.
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In 2019, New Mexico, Nevada, Washington, Maine, New York, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico joined
Hawai’i and California in enacting 100% clean energy legislation. Together these states represent 16% of thenation’s electricity demand, more than doubling the share from a year ago.
Similar commitments have been made by governors in five more states, which if enacted, would bring nearly
25% of the nation’s total electricity demand committed to 100% clean energy.
So far in 2019, more than 30 additional cities have adopted 100% clean energy targets, bringing the national
total to 133 (and counting), representing a combined population of over 19 million, including the City of Los
Angeles representing the largest municipal utility in the country.
Cities and businesses are increasingly pursuing off-site renewable deals. For example, Albuquerque added
25MW of new solar and Philadelphia is finalizing 70MW of solar. In the last year, businesses brought over
1765MW of utility-scale offsite renewables online.
Nearly 50 utilities nationwide, serving more than 154 million customers, have adopted formal clean energy
or emissions reduction goals, 12 of which are 100% decarbonization goals.
62 companies with American operations, including many Fortune 500 companies, have committed to 100%clean energy. Apple Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America, Starbucks, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and othercompanies committing to the RE100 pledge have a market capitalization of over $7.8 trillion.

NON-FEDERAL ACTORS ARE DRIVING DOWN TRANSPORTATIONEMISSIONS—AND SHIFTING TO ELECTRIC.
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24 governors and 430 Climate Mayors, representing over half of national vehicle sales, committed to stand
together in calling for one strong, national clean car standard and support preserving state authority to protect
their residents from vehicle pollution. They agreed to continue to pursue additional concrete actions anddefend against any threats.
Colorado became the 11th state committed to a zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) standard, which includes a
mandate to increase statewide sales of battery electric or fuel cell vehicles. Together, these states comprise
30% of annual vehicle sales.
U.S. Climate Alliance states are building out electric vehicle charging infrastructure and providing financial
and non-financial incentives to consumers and dealers. These states are leading by example through state
fleet transition programs and electric vehicle deployment.
Ten members of the Transportation and Climate Initiative (Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.) announced that they aredeveloping a new regional policy proposal to cap and reduce emissions from the transportation sector.
157 cities, counties and other public entities are now part of the Climate Mayors Electric Vehicle Purchasing
Collaborative and have committed to purchasing over 2300 EVs, leveraging the purchasing power of major
cities across the U.S to reduce costs and eliminate barriers to public fleet electrification.

SHORT-LIVED CLIMATE SUPER-POLLUTANTS GOT SERIOUS
ATTENTION.
••Washington and Vermont passed legislation that will serve as backstops for federal rollbacks and drive aphasing out of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions — which are thousands of times more potent and harmful
to our health and environment than CO2. New York, Maryland, Connecticut, and Delaware announced theirintention to adopt similar rules, signaling to American manufacturers that greater demand for more climatefriendly alternatives is fast approaching.
New Mexico will join Colorado, Pennsylvania, and California in developing regulations that will reduce
methane emissions and prevent waste from oil and gas sources; Virginia is implementing a regulatory
process for gas infrastructure and landfills to limit statewide methane emissions.

NEW BUILDING EFFICIENCY POLICIES SAVED AMERICAN FAMILIESAND BUSINESSES ON ENERGY COSTS.
•Washington established the nation’s first state-level energy performance standard for large commercial
buildings and provided $75 million in incentives for buildings to retrofit for efficiency under its landmark 2019
Clean Buildings Act.
Berkeley, California became the first U.S. city to prohibit the use of gas in new low-rise buildings to reduce
air pollution and save consumers money. Other cities are following suit.
Washington, D.C. passed the Clean Energy D.C. Act, which established a Building Energy PerformanceStandard requiring existing buildings to reach minimum levels of energy efficiency. The Standard is expected tocut the District’s emissions by almost 1 million tons annually, and add to the existing 12,000 local efficiency jobs.
Colorado, Hawaii, Washington, and Nevada adopted appliance efficiency standards that will saveconsumers more than $3 billion by 2035; benefits that have lawmakers in New York, Massachusetts,Minnesota, and Washington, D.C. discussing efficiency standards as well.

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STATES AND OTHERS ARE LAUNCHING PROGRAMS TO SUPPORTJOB QUALITY AND WORKFORCE TRAINING•••

States and more are recognizing that a truly sustainable economy also requires investment in high-quality,
family-supporting jobs across the many industries involved in a low carbon economy.
California is adopting a statewide approach to climate investments that prioritizes job quality, and investing$35M a year in a High Road Training Partnership initiative that supports the creation of quality jobs and better,more equitable access to them across climate-impacted industries.
Recent legislation in Colorado created a Just Transition Office, tasked with aligning and delivering targeted
programming and funding to communities and workers impacted by a transition away from coal-fired
electricity, in addition to disproportionately impacted communities who have borne the costs of pollution.

Success from these coalitions demonstrates that diversified climate leadershipis thriving, expanding, and leading towards a 1.5 degree pathway—in the U.S.
and around the world. The path to success in global efforts to reach a 1.5 pathway
depends on all actors—not just national governments—unleashing their highest
ambition to achieve these goals.
The work being done in the United States can also serve as a roadmap for how
similar success can be built in other countries—with similar approaches underway
in Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and more. This cross-sectoral, collaborative,
and international approach is essential to advancing national low-carbon
trajectories and addressing a crisis that is impacting the entire global community.

STILL IN
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