By Lookout Staff

December 10, 2015 -- Santa Monica has added another item to its “green” resume: It is now a member of a sprawling global coalition of cities attempting to make steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, officials announced this week.

Santa Monica City Council member Kevin McKeown announced that the City recently joined the “Compact of Mayors,” which was launched at the 2014 U.N. Climate Summit and now includes 360 cities worldwide, the largest organization of its kind.

“Over the last 20 years, local governments have demonstrated accelerating leadership in tackling climate change, and today, the collective impact of this action has finally been quantified, McKeown said while attending the Climate Summit for Local Leaders earlier this month.

The summit, which ends Friday, is being held as part of the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Le Bourget, a suburb of Paris.

Before this year’s summit began, the Compact of Mayors had collected enough commitments from members to total a 50 percent cut in the GHG emissions their cities had anticipated generating by 2020, McKeown said

“This amazing number proves that Compact of Mayors cities are leading the fight against climate change in every region across the globe,” McKeown said.
McKeown, who just finished his one-year term as mayor, traveled to Paris for the climate talks along with Council members Tony Vazquez, who assumed the post of mayor Tuesday, and Pam O’Connor.

Santa Monica’s own goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from municipal operations by 30 percent by 2020. City officials say Santa Monica has already reduced its emissions 14 percent below 1990 levels. It has also vowed to cut emissions 80 percent by 2050.

A spokesperson said the Climate Summit for Local Leaders represented the largest ever gathering of mayors, governors and local leaders focused on climate change.

It was hosted by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change.