Miami Beach, City of Miami commit to upholding Paris Climate Agreement despite Trump’s withdrawal

Editor's Note: This post has been updated with the most recent information.

As Curbed National posted earlier, the 61 original mayors across the U.S. who previously pledged to ignore President Donald Trump’s climate change policies have stuck to their commitment after he officially announced his intent to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

The number has hit 279 and counting as of June 8, and among them among them are Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado.

"We believe that The City of Miami is ground zero for climate change and sea level rise,” Miami Regalado said. “Now, more than ever, we are undeterred and will vigorously pursue our commitment to this fight. This is not just about ‘the here and now,’ but for generations to come."

Not among that group is Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, but he ended up providing a response Thursday evening, stating they “will always remain committed to a clean and sustainable future for all of our residents.”

The full statement:

It will be business as usual in Miami-Dade County. We will continue to protect our critical County assets from extreme high tides and hurricane storm surge, including calculating for higher sea level rise.

We will continue to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions through energy conservation, expansion of solar energy generation, increased use of electric vehicles, and using innovative new technologies.

I also remain committed to the goals of the U.S.-Climate Leaders Summit. In 2015, I was one of eight U.S. mayors who were invited to sign an agreement with eight mayors from China at the summit in Los Angeles. I signed a commitment to meet certain benchmarks to reduce carbon emissions, most of which Miami-Dade County has been actively doing for several years and as far as we know, are more stringent than the Paris Agreement.

We will continue to work with our 34 cities to prepare a Resilience Strategy in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Program. We will also continue to collaborate with our neighboring counties as part of the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact. Miami-Dade County will always remain committed to a clean and sustainable future for all of our residents.

About 40 minutes before Trump publicly announced his intentions to pull out, the Miami Herald’s Doug Hanks asked Gimenez directly about the matter at a hurricane preparedness presser, but Hanks did not receive a straight answer.

The statement compiled by the “Climate Mayors” is below:

The President’s denial of global warming is getting a cold reception from America’s cities.

As 61 Mayors representing 36 million Americans, we will adopt, honor, and uphold the commitments to the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement. We will intensify efforts to meet each of our cities’ current climate goals, push for new action to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius target, and work together to create a 21st century clean energy economy.

We will continue to lead. We are increasing investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. We will buy and create more demand for electric cars and trucks. We will increase our efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, create a clean energy economy, and stand for environmental justice. And if the President wants to break the promises made to our allies enshrined in the historic Paris Agreement, we’ll build and strengthen relationships around the world to protect the planet from devastating climate risks.

The world cannot wait — and neither will we.