Let me have your attention. I asked the mayors that are in the room to please be seated at the table, and others please feel free to sit along the wall. We are going to go ahead and get started, so that we may make an attempt to get ahead of schedule. I wish you good morning to this special climate section special climate session. Todays leadership confronting tomorrows challenges. I will talk more about that soon. I am jim brainard. Carmel, mayor of indiana, and cochair of the Energy Independence in Climate Protection Task force. Colleague,oduce my san jose mayor sam mcardle. Let me ask all of the mayors present here to introduce yourselves, so that speakers and others will know who is participating. Start with greg stanton. Good morning. Im the mayor of phoenix, and chairman of the Energy Committee. Good morning. I am hobbie r gonzales, mayor of the city of santa fe. Javier gonzalez, mayor of the city of santa fe. Good morning. I am david miller. I am former mayor of the city of toronto in canada. Glass, director of a coalition of some of the Largest Labor groups in the United States. Good morning. I am vice chair with javier gonzalez. Mike summers. Lakewood, ohio mayor. Robert kennedy. Village of freeport mayor, new york. Water creek mayor. Mayor of the city of honolulu. Good to see. Mayor of a town just north of ottawa, the capital city. Mayor of edmonton, canada. Mayor of niagara falls, new york. Organization founded by the late richard daley, consisting of 131 cities on the u. S. And canadian side on the great lakes. Working on environmental issues. Tim keller, brandnew mayor of albuquerque, new mexico. Ethan berkowitz, mayor of anchorage. Mayor of dubuque, iowa. Mayor of knoxville, tennessee. Good morning. Mayor of lancaster, pennsylvania. Mayor of the city of key west. Mayor of santa monica, california. Mayor of richmond, california. Mayor of bonn, germany. Mayor of des moines, iowa. Bedford,of new massachusetts, and chair of the Energy Committee. Id like to thank everyone for being here. Our work here supports. I would like to turn now to my mary mcardle, for some brief comments. Thank you. It is an honor to be with all the. As mayors, we recognize increasingly in a nation in which we have seen in which the paris accords have seen, a congress that is not terribly interested in leadership for Climate Change. That is really up to all of us in our own communities to see how we can leave. Are doing, i think, important work. It is important for all of us to learn from each other and i look forward to these opportunities. As we police strongly and steal other peoples good ideas, i have been working on a Community ChoiceEnergy Program in other parts of our state. We happily stole that idea. We want residents to be able to choose the source of their electricity. We have seen in other jurisdictions where that is a vast increase in the use of renewables, and that will enable us to gain traction. Identifiedred to be as a ranking city in the country. We think if we continue to Learn Together collectively, we will be able to move this country together as mayors. Ive look forward to learning from all the. I just want to comment on some of the folks who are here today. As i look around the table, there are so many people who have been so involved for so long. I look at dave miller. At the robertago redford climate meeting in sundance. I look over at my friends from canada who are here. The mayor of bonn, who i just had the good fortune of meeting. This subject this challenge is going to take collaboration among people from all over the world. This andyors from other organizations representing people from all over the world is very encouraging. Rarely, we talk about partisanship. But i want to step back for a moment. As most of the mayors know, all of the forces here are chaired by republicans and democrats. In the case of this task force, i am the republican. Good fortune of serving on president obamas task force on Climate Resilience before he left office, and representing the United States as part of the speakers bureau. Prior to the Paris Agreement. I have been fairly outspoken since the advent of the current administration. A lot of the people that i net in germany and india and other have said, what has happened to the republicans . I point out to them that i think this is a passing phenomenon. The other republican mayors in the room, think about this. Roosevelt who set aside most of our National Park land. He was republican. It was Ike Eisenhower who set aside the reserve. He was republican. It was Richard Nixon who signed laws that put our federal First Time Ever we had federal environmental laws with the epa, he put it into existence, as well as the endangered species act, Migratory Bird act. And, dozens more. It was ronald reagan, another republican, who went to montreal. So there is this history in our republic of nonpartisanship. At least when it comes to the environment. I want to say to other republicans in particular in this room that given the inaction of one part of our government, and i pointed out to many folks from other countries, you know, the federal government often speaks for our country, but it is only one part of our government. Divided intot is parts federal, state, and local. If you talk to republican mayors as well as democrat mayors across the country, almost everyone of them is committed to meeting the goals that we are committed to that we committed to in paris. Even that mayors represent the vast majority of the u. S. Population, i suggest that mayors without any help from the federal government hopefully can make certain that the United States meets its goals. I think the responsibility falls to people in the Republican Party to get out and explain that when it comes down to the care about, they getting the job done. They see all of the impacts, whether changes caused by Climate Change. And want us to do something. Thank you for that discussion about partisanship. I think it is important we have that discussion at the conference. In our attempt to move forward. At this time, i would like to call on the phoenix mayor, the chairman of the conference, mayor the mayor will be the first of three to discuss our various conference priorities that are relevant to our climate work. Thank you very much mayor brainerd. I want to say that ive had a chance to share the stage with att just here but on various National Conferences and he has always spoken out with courage and conviction on this important issue making the case anbusiness leaders why it is important and bipartisan issue. I am proud to say here with my fellow mayors and i want to thank each of them for being here and allowing me the opportunity to provide a quick update on Climate Change issues including the important issue of the paris accord, the Clean Power Plan and more. Now more than ever it is americas mayors leading the way on Climate Change and reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions. We have done that Work Together. To do ourpolicies part since at least 2000 five. And we have done it individually in our own cities since at. East 2005 and we have it individually in our cities. Our cities doing in is becoming more important. Last june, the president made the shortsighted decision to withdraw the u. S. From the paris climate accords. Which as you know is a monumental, global agreement in which every nation voluntarily agreed to reduce its Greenhouse Gas emissions. If the u. S. Withdrawal becomes complete, we will become one of the only nations in the world not to participate. That is a total abdication of leadership. But it is important for us to keep in mind that just because the u. S. , at the federal level can withdraw from the agreement, it does not mean that we as americas and the worlds cities cannot meet the goals that the Obama Administration set out. We can still do our part. Our countrys commitment was to 26 by 2025. Ons by we are already on our way to getting there. Of some anyadership people in this room as well as other mayors, governors, and the Business Community. The average he reduced emissions i 12 . I want to highlight the last group i mentioned. The Business Community. Withesses have partnered my city and i know with many of your is to adopt smart policies because they are learning that becoming more sustainable house their bottom line. In fact, one of our partners, the senate for climate and Energy Solutions believes that all of the commitments that cities and businesses have made we can get close to the reduction goal that was set out in the paris accord. But it is not all good new. Good news. The center also warned that if the federal government reverses meetingn the policy those goals will be in serious jeopardy because under the plan, each of our states required to develop plans for new and existing Power Generators to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions. Without a doubt, the result would be substantial reductions across the country. As you know, the implementation of the Clean Power Plan was delayed by the courts and now the new epa leadership is in the process of asking the court to continue the courts stay. For a stay asing it is simultaneously trying to withdraw from the clean power role. Theents with regarding roots draw have been extended. Withdraw havehe been extended. Our conference of mayors has been supporting the curtailment of Greenhouse Gas emissions. Continued to submit additional briefs and comments age time the issue has come up. I encourage each of the mayors and leaders in this room to weigh in on these important issues with comments of your him. Re is a lot of cut uncertainty about federal policy in the future but one thing we know we can do is to create real change at our level. At the city level. Across the United States. And that is why i am excited that we are having this meeting today with all of the various important committees that touch Climate Change and i am excited about the past, current, in future leadership of this organization. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Let us hold questions until we hear from all three speakers. Bedford, whale oil. I am not suggesting we go back to whaling. [laughter] he chairs our Energy Committee. To es me great pressure pleasure to introduce mayor john mitchell. Mayor mitchell thank you very much. Work is as timely as ever and i want to thank all of the mayors for the work in their cities and for leading our world, our country to a cleaner and brighter future. Onant to give a quick update what we are doing in the Energy Committee to advance some of the things that we have been talking inut and to hone specifically on one industry emerging now that will play a big part in those efforts. Over on the Energy Committee, we held a, in new bedford in september to talk turkey about our goals. Likelk about what we would to see emerge from congress and the years are ahead in the ways either anpolicy in energy or infrastructure bill or both. We spent about a day and half hashing that out and continued that work yesterday in our committee. What emerged in september is something that tom cochrane dubbed the new bedford principles. A title by fully embraced. And i told everyone to go and even evangelize it. It is a set of policy goals for the years ahead that really reinforce, we it will reinforce the work that mayors have been doing across the country in the last 10 years in this space, to diversify our sources of Renewable Energy, to experiment and do the things in our cities in the way of Energy Generation that fit the needs of our city specifically what advance more generally the overall goal of 100 renewables nationally. Something that everyone has embraced formally or informally through the initiatives that we have had here. We are talking specifically about advancing and embracing programs that have worked in the past like the Energy Block Grant program that works so well in so many cities and every city has some big win they can point to that was supported by that program. In addition, in view of the natural disasters that our country had last year, there is a lot of work to do in makingzing the grid and it more resilient and doing it with renewable sources. We believe strongly that congress has a role to play in supporting those efforts. And we are taking up the conversation now with folks on the hill as well as the administration to think hard about how that might work. Add was ii wanted to has been asked to talk about this because it is going to be very relevant in our efforts to get to 100 . The emergence of the offshore wind program in the u. S. Some 84w, there are utility scale offshore wind farms in northern europe. And there are zero in the United States. In europe, it is an industry that has been maturing for the last 25 years. It is an industry that employs, over 50,000, well direct jobs in germany and the u. K. And denmark and elsewhere and it is powering aliens of homes. And it is coming to the United States. There are five offshore windmills off the coast of rhode island that power rhode island. In the years ahead, states like massachusetts, new jersey, new york, maryland all the way done the eastern seaboard are jumping in as well as honolulu, aroundf, the great Lakes Cleveland and many other places in view of major bodies of water. The reason for that is this. The technology has evolved rapidly so that it is foreseeable in the years to come that offshore wind will be cost competitive with fossil fuel generated resources. And it can scale up in a huge way so it will have an impact we believe on the u. S. , first on the used seaboard and then going around our coast. So mayors have a role to play in that. It all happens out at sea but it is deployed from places on land. Speed onyors get up to how they can serve the advance of that industry and the development of it will be an important topic for this task force and all of our committees to talk about. A waye, it is to my mind for all of us to achieve our goals. We will be talking about it more as things emerge. There is a lot more detail to layer on but i won it to raise it so everyone becomes sensitized to what is happening. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mayor mitchell. Our final speaker on this topic is the mayor from santa fe, new mexico. Cities. He original i was fortunate to be there earlier this year for a conference. Gonzalez mayor javier gonzalez. He is part of the committee developed under the last administration. Gonzales good morning, everyone. And thef of myself mayor of Salt Lake City, i want to brief you on our groups work. The alliance racist a noble future is a joint effort between the u. S. Conference of mayors for climate and Energy Solutions. We are joined today by the , former epa deputy administrator. The Alliance Brings together businesses to find ways that we can Work Together to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions and promote sustainability. In the year and a half that we have been around, we have held two events and published two bestys and published a practice report. In our survey, we asked cities about their policies and programs regarding green buildings, both new and existing. Green vehicle purchases. And city commitment to invest in low carbon resources. We took the detailed responses and today we are making them available on our website. Now findy staff can out what other large, medium, and small cities are doing in these areas along with details about those policies and programs. We have also published a best practice report featuring six case studies providing indepth information and a howto manual for any said he that may want to replicate the program. Desktoport is on your in front of you. Some featured cities and programs included bostons program renewed trust which 200 56 municipal facilities more energy and water provision. Efficient. From kansas city, they make loans to homeowners to improve the efficiency of their homes. , 100 Renewable Energy for City Government programs. Duke energys work with charlotte to reduce their energy use for their buildings. And Salt Lake City mayors climate positive 2040 plan as well as our own from santa fe which focuses on mitigating the impact of Climate Change on People Living in poverty. In addition, we will be holding a series of webinars in the coming months on electrifying city fleets and procuring Renewable Energy and partnering with local utilities. Totrongly encourage you utilize all of these resources and take advantage of the Information Available on our website to build or enhance your own programs. I also want to encourage you to respond to our next survey which will go out this spring and encourage you and your staff to submit a best practice case study or Innovative Program you think would be helpful to your fellow mayors. We need to do more if we are to curtail the impact of Climate Change. It is fine to sign onto various pledges but it is more important that we do everything we can to reduce our environmental impact. If youd like to learn more about the alliance or become an active member of our work, please see i self or judy sheehan. I would like to ask mayor jackie to add any final remarks. Thank you. I would like to say one thing. I has been attending many meetings throughout the year. What i is what i have realized is that it would be powerful for the global covenant of mayors in the u. S. Conference of Mayors Alliance to work momentr in seizing this and in doing so, that will protect help us to protect our future. There is no time to waste in full collaboration. There are Practical Solutions available locally and globally that are vital to Climate Change, to environmental ourection, and to reducing solution. Collaboration will only speed up deployment across the country and we need to seize that moment together. Thank you. Thank you. I would like to thank all of the four mayors that spoke on the subject. We appreciate you very much. Are there any questions for the mayors who had just presented . Any questions from any of the other mayors . Mayor gonzales, you mentioned a report that has been made available. I am not sure that everyone has that. Could you hold that up . Gonzales there are two reports that should be in front of you. The first highlights some of the case studies. The best practices that we were able to learn about through the country. Survey that we were able to conduct earlier in the year. Both should be in front of you. We have also been informed that it is on the website of the conference so you can access them there as well. Fewer trees cut. Will speakeaker about the ongoing collaboration between the u. S. And europe. I did not mean to rush. Yes . One question or comment. We as a municipality have our own power supply. Because of the renewable electric, i can see that our sales have dropped which causes an increase in rates because our sales have dropped. Our purchase power agreements have been a lemonade it and the assessed values on these properties have dropped. It is great using renewables it does have a residual effect on the residents. Our engine is becoming outdated because of the renewables. If we are using that much in renewables, maybe we should concentrate on the areas with outdated equipment such as what we have which is considered outdated. Our turbine engine. If i could suggest one thing. Inking about those increased rates. Inc. About the costs to the country in dealing with millions if not billions of people having to be relocated in the world because of coastal flooding. The billions of dollars spent on adverse weather. The increased rate will be miniscule compared to the potential impact of Climate Change if we do not get it under control. I agree with you 100 and we are located on the ocean and we were decimated by sandy. My thought is if they could bring some of this Renewable Energy and labor and development into areas that are being affected by it, it would be of great assistance. Thank you. Any other questions . Let us move onto to the next portion of the agenda. Talkollowing speakers will briefly about the ongoing collaboration between the u. S. And the european cities on climate. Across the region continue to make progress on the climate in terms of mitigating emissions, and improving resiliency. I important to remember think we forget to consider this many times. Those of us living in the u. S. , i wont say a america because we have canadian friends here as well. We produce, as citizens of the u. S. , more carbon per person than any other country on earth. From what people in other countries are doing. I encourage all of us to do that. In fact, there have been a number of mayors working with european cities on climate issues including our past president. As i mentioned earlier, i have had the opportunity to work with my german colleagues. Entertained the mayor nnom des moines and from boo for the followup to the paris talks. The mayor to offer some initial remarks and then ask him to introduce the mayor of bonn. Thank you, mr. Chair. As we sitresting around this table and we think about the impact of mayors and sometimes all of the work that is done at the national level, especially at some of these gatherings that mayor brainard has referred to. Remembering back in copenhagen, we all had great hopes that we were concerned about the environment and we would come together and there would be an put together that the world would embrace. Exciting a very conference of the parties, it did not happen. And it was interesting that ,uring that time, mayor coutts with european mayors initiated a Bilateral Agreement between u. S. Mayors represented by the u. S. Conference of mayors and european mayors to Work Together on, quite frankly, saving the world. And what we could do as local government representatives. It is interesting to look at the history of that since copenhagen to today. , in mytell you that heart and in my mind, as i look at what happened, copenhagen was a classic example of the failure of topdown politics. And happened between then terrorists, i believe, was driven by local government. Participation. Of state, theads leaders of countries that there was a very broad support to do Everything Possible to deal with changesronment and the that are taking place that adversely impact people around this world. With the encouragement of mayors all over europe, all over asia and africa, and all over south america and australia. Almost everywhere around this planet. And were given the courage they gave it to the heads of state to make a commitment to the paris accord. Attendhe opportunity to many of those and watched the work that local government had working with their heads of state, encouraging them, showing what we are doing at the local level, and trying to make it National Policy in countries across the planet. This year, as mayor brainard , we, when we were in bonn had an opportunity to meet with and others to eu think about how we as local government folks Work Together. And with the possibility and the commitment on the part of the u. S. Conference of mayors to work with members of the eu to renew our agreement that we put 2010 and we are very hopeful we will put together a new protocol and understanding and a Bilateral Agreement. One of the people i worked with was the mayor of bonn. And he was very gracious in hosting mayors from around the hadd and as we aboutsations and talks the future work of local ,overnments and how we can together, share our best practices and best ideas and tolectively move our efforts lower Greenhouse Gas emissions and to hopefully offset the consequences of carbon in the atmosphere and preserve this planet for future generations. And so it is with great pleasure that i introduce to all of you the mayor who i worked with and we have become friends since he has taken office. Commentsw he has some that he would like to share with us. Welcome, mayor. Thank you, very much. Mr. Chairman and my dear fellow mayors, ladies and gentleman, thank you for inviting me to the United States conference of mayors and to have me speak here in my double capacity as mayor of bond and as first Vice President of the local government for sustainability. Bond is a proud home to some 2001 organizations, particularly to the time it change secretariat of the united nations. Has also been the venue for climate 23. It has been the voice of cities in the Global Climate debate since 1995. The u. S. Has launched more than two decades ago and looks back on fruitful cooperation with cities across the country. This showed that Climate Action is unstoppable and irreversible. And it shows that likeminded been leadership has beneficial across the globe. I am convinced that we are still all in. Movement has been vital. I therefor applaud the mayorsries to the u. S. And governors united in their support for a Better Climate future and i think those leaders from u. S. Cities and states who came to bonn and stood by their peers from all over the world. Des moines, new york city, pittsburgh and california as well as oregon and washington. Over 330 localof and regional leaders from more than 60 countries who mated to the Climate Summit of local and regional leaders on november 12, last year. The organizations , the summit was a dedication andf drive unprecedented in number and diversity of local and regional leadership. The commitment expresses our willingness to be full partners in the process to, before and beyond 2020. Toaffirm our commitments raise our Climate Action and connected to the rest of the sustainability agenda in a holistic way. We will make Sustainable Urban Development a driving force in the climate agenda. We also call on the parties of the u. N. And the nations of the u. N. To collaborate with us to enhance the nationally determined contributions. We also call for an inclusive and ambitious architecture implemented by a coalition of all levels and stay cold all levels of stakeholders. We bring action and accountability to the negotiating table. The commitment lists action oriented statements and supporting initiatives ranging from flood frontline islands and cities to new global reporting standards. We are at the climate crossroads. 23 ery happy that the process of addressing the architecture of the implementation of the Paris Agreements. That there is agreement is irreversible the Paris Agreement is irreversible and it is gaining speed that there is a gap between commitment and needed reductions. Cities and regions are indispensable partners of a grand coalition. Climated regional action will help close the emission gap. We are all in together and we will take next steps with our joint vision capacity and energy. I am feeling encouraged by the engagement of u. S. Mayors with the agreement as also reaffirmed by the chicago charter adopted one week after the previous agreement. With myuitful Exchange Dear friend the mayor from des moines. And i see steppingstones in our mutual cooperation. Congress in april is ready and eager to welcome u. S. Mayors and i have brought the invitation to this event to distribute it to you and i would be very happy to see you at this conference in bonn. A delegation of mayors is looking forward to being part of the mayors meeting in boston as well. Thetend warm invitations to meeting in april and the meeting in montreal. In june. I have also brought those invitations to this event. On my other hand on the other that many other mayors are able to travel to support this climate course with us. Thank you again for lending me your attention. I hope this will be leading to an intensified cooperation and mutual support on our way toward a Better Climate future. To bring our expertise in order to help live up toit and this ambition. I am looking forward to the next steps and a rich exchange. Let me end with a quote from a Prime Minister, the Prime Minister of fiji. Who said we are all sitting in the same canoe and therefor we have to build coalitions. Coalitions between our cities and between organizations such as this. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you, mayor. Those comments were greatly appreciated. And thank you for your leadership and support for our mutual efforts. I am going to turn the meeting over to mike cochair, the mayor of san jose to moderate the remainder of the program and apologize for leaving the room. I need to attend the executive Committee Meeting that is going on simultaneously. Thank you. Thank you, mayor brainard. We are now turning to an issue raised earlier by our colleague from freeport. The intersection of Economic Development and environmental sustainability. There is no one better to lead us in that discussion in the former mayor of toronto. In addition to demonstrating extraordinary leadership in toronto the between 2003 and 2010, has demonstrated greater leadership since that time as the Life Foundation canada. And now the north american 40 cities. R c i would like to reintroduce david miller. Mr. Miller thank you for that gracias introduction. Asked to speak a little bit about the perspective and experience in trying to link Climate Action with economic success in jobs. I have a couple of comments on that. I do need to put this in context. The Climate Leadership Group is 92 of theation of Worlds Largest cities. Cities over 3 million. We have a number of members in though wend canada are a worldwide organization. And our work is based on two studies we have undertaken recently. One study shows that cities must lead and need to become Carbon Neutral by 2050 starting with real actions in 2020. That, our cities are implementing plans to do that. New york city for example has a leading climate plan to become Carbon Neutral by 2050 starting with actions now. Secondly, the mckinsey study showed that there were 12 key actions in the areas of waste, how we heat and cool buildings, transportation and how we generate our electricity. There are discrete and clear actions to be done and our cities are leading with plans to do exactly that. Cities, the work is underway. And in the leading cities, the plans are also including thinking about how to include those least welloff who are being the most impacted by Climate Change and what is the impact on jobs and the economy. Los angeles is doing great and i applaud the mayor there doing excellent work on electric buses. And i would like to give three examples from International Cities of how they are incorporating thinking about jobs in the economy with their climate strategies. Has aver in canada is plan specifically measuring actual jobs created through green initiatives and through Green Companies in areas like food, energy. , and it has goals based on those measurements to double the number of jobs in those sectors and double the number of companies in those sectors in the next five years. Copenhagen, which is leading in so many ways, is also has also integrated the thinking on jobs, and Economic Growth into Climate Change strategies. It includes a cleantech accelerator being undertaken in partnership with the city, the National Government and the National Governments economic agency. They are attempting to create oriented jobs based on their own expertise in clean energy and high tech through their Climate Change strategy. And i would be remiss if i did not mention toronto which in our own climate work which were doug which resulted in the house gas emissions there was a direct focus on jobs in the economy. The slide i have up shows that today we no longer need to accept the idea that economic success requires pollution. Stockholm example of which has decoupled Economic Growth from pollution. As you can see, carbon is dropping and jobs are going up. I think it is extremely important to take that message that we do not have to rely on dirty jobs in order to succeed economically. If stockholm has done it, we can all do it. In toronto, we combined a variety of initiatives. Part of the strategy was a significant expansion of public transit. Cars,w buses, news street and subway cars were all manufactured in canada. The buses in a suburb of toronto bringing direct jobs to our people and direct technology. Secondly, we found in working neighborhoods, when we spoke to them, people said if you are going to be investing in improving our buildings, we want to see the jobs go to our families. Regenta project called park, a revitalization of public housing, which included green energy, we required that 25 of the jobs be People Living in the housing. It was phenomenally successful. From the overall strategy of a city like vancouver, the specific Economic Development activities of the city like copenhagen, he example of stockholm decoupling economic success from carbon or specific initiatives like toronto, these cities around the world are producing jobs directly tied to reducing Climate Change. I think these are examples we can all learn from and as the mayors Work Together and the way that they are around this table, across the United States and internationally, i believe that we can see far more success and more jobs directly linked to the same object of of Climate Change. Chairare my comments, mr. And thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Thank you, david and thank you for your extraordinary work. Moving quickly, kim last is the executive director of bluegreen an Bluegreen Alliance, an initiative founded 10 years ago by the United States steelworkers and the sera club. It demonstrates how we can both and make more green our economy. Sayglass i would like to that i have been inspired by some of the stories i heard today. We were founded under this premise that you do not have to choose between a good job and a clean environment. So you are aware, my partner on the labor side we represent oil refineryrs, workers, teachers, Service Employees and others. And i think one of the founding reasons for our partnership is that we cannot go it alone and we have to talk to each other and figure out how to create quality jobs in the clean energy economy. Partnership r we work with states in the midwest and on the west coast, very heartened conversations in the bluegreen space of how to quality as cities and localities are transitioning to a cleaner energy economy. I would say to you, and i know a lot of you work closely with labor unions, oftentimes solutions to some of your problems on workforce training, apprenticeship programs, creating a pipeline of workers, giving opportunities for those is advantaged communities to get into the pipeline of having a quality job some of the answers lie in your local community. A lot of engagement with labor aions at the local level is way to create some solutions to some of the Biggest Challenges you are facing, both policy wise and politically. I want to mention a few areas that i have been heartened to see that kind of partnership. One, david you mentioned, the city of los angeles. Let me just tell you on the electric buses that came together because the sheet Metal Workers and the Environmental Justice community and the Environmental Community came together in a coalition with the mayor to figure out ok, how do we take advantage of the opportunity that an organization is investing in the city to manufacture . These buses . To manufacture these buses . Thatwas a phenomenal model can be replicated in so many other places. Block island. I spoke with the mayor of new bedford to talk about the offshore wind. The work on block island was done by union and construction labor. We took two ferry rides to the wind farm and it was filled with Union Members so proud to show that they had a part in making that project and they could honestly say back to me that it was a family sustaining quality job. Examplesave a time of across the country of those kinds of partnerships but i would say to you that there is a real opportunity with your leadership to convene some stakeholders who might seem like sides ofon different the issue to figure out a solution. That is what the Bluegreen Alliance is all about. I think there is some low hanging fruit in terms of infrastructure development. Thoseow you make investments in your community can make a world of difference in the quality of jobs, whether it is water in for infrastructure investments. Gallons a dayion that never get to peoples homes. Efficiency Energy Investments to ensure high workforce standards. That are good paying jobs give people a chance at the middle class. We would love to work in partnership with you. We are not everywhere across the u. S. But we are in certain locations that i think we can make a difference. I am in spy or two here what i have the day and just know that we are a resource for you. Thank you for all you are doing in the country. With deep apologies to the final speakers, i would like to see we could engage in a speed round. These organizations have been important parts of the mayors conference. Withe introduce Suzanne Philips sliding. She has been partnering with mayors across the country to create infrastructure. Suzanne thank you, mayor mitchell. We will do this quickly but i do appreciate the opportunity to lead you all with a few thoughts on how the Business Community is still in. Mayor stanton highlighted the importance of the private sector and we talked about how we are still in. We want to highlight the fact that being in is actually doing something. I want to report on what we did in the last year that was commemorated in bonn. We signed on to the global lighting challenge where we vowed to focus on selling more than 2 billion led light bulbs. We have passed the one billion mark in november and we were celebrating that. Focus onpled with a what that translates into in terms of climate outcomes. The equivalent of reducing energy or Greenhouse Gas emissions from 60 media coalfired power plants. Between24 million cars now and 2020. That is a Significant Impact that everyone of your citizens is making by making a choice when they decide how to light their homes. Broaderks up with a array of initiatives we are going for because we stop to do another alien. We are far from being done. And we hold ourselves accountable. Looking at our own sustainability dashboard, we look at the Energy Footprint of our factories. We are focused on trying to get to 100 Renewable Energy in our industrial footprint. That is something we are really looking at. Entrance leads into our own employees focus. Thinking about a simple switch that you can make personally and that your citizens can make that can really reduce electricity consumption i 80 or 90 in some cases. By making a choice in terms of what lighting you choose for your home. Before i highlight switched to this that policy does matter. It is not that things happen on their own. I want to highlight a report that i think is in front of you called the lightbulb revolution. I want to highlight the figure with the map on page five. It shows you how the introduction of more sustainable Lighting Technology has been driven by utility programs. Linking and partnering with your utilities and creative ways to come up with incentives that allow people to make better choices is key. You can see how policy does i want tow close on a lighter note. The good thing that comes up with freeing the capacity around Energy Choices is that it also allows you to do new things. Im leaving you with an image from minneapolis which is something that will be lit up very soon on a special day that i cannot mention coming up in the near future. Bridge that isa very important. It is the bridge that collapsed. This is reemerging in a new light. It is playing the Aurora Borealis which can be seen well in minnesota. Theit is linked with campaign for the host city. We are pleased that making sustainable and new Technology Choices really opens up the campaign for thepossibilities. I think that is how we should all think about it. Thank you for being so inspiring. Inspiring is what you have just demonstrated. It is wonderful. It is good to see that sustainability can be beautiful as well. I want to introduce mora mcdonald. She is leading incredibly important innovations for the gulf coast. As the other speakers are saying i would like to echo how inspiring it is to be here. I work for the Walton Family foundation. A family Led Foundation that tries to tackle tough social and environmental problems with a togterm approach that tries create opportunities for people and communities. Our Environment Program is built on the idea that sustainability and taking smart approaches to benefit the environment actually pays out the bottom line. We are doing this work in the midwest to bring agriculture into this discussion. We are focusing on the river to improve Water Quality and to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions by working with farmers. By jumpingg that right into the heart of agriculture. Into how we take your of and manage our soil. We think that by improving the way we manage our soil, we can turn agriculture from a carbon and greenhouse emitting activity sink. S being a so we can cluster carbon in the soil and produce better crops because that increases the fertility of the soil, but we can do it with less fertilizer. Fertilizer, when you put it down, it emits a noxious nitrates. By changing the way that we farm, we think that we can do great things for the environment and we can begin to knit , ruralr farmers, cities and urban people in the service of food security, cleaner water, and reduced emissions. We have been doing this for a while and we feel we are getting some traction. Primarily because we think we can make it pay for farmers. At the end of the day, we think it can also pay for cities. We have been doing a lot of work with a group of mayors in mississippi that have come together and formed a group called the mississippi rivers and Towns Initiative to explore how cities can partner with farmers to improve Drinking Water and to explore how cities can use their procurement power to purchase food to demonstrate consumer demand for food produced in Climate Smart agriculture. In the service of keeping the short, i want to thank you guys for letting me come and talk a little bit about how agriculture can fit in a more Climate Smart future and how cities can have an Important Role in helping farmers make that transition. Thank you. I want to thank all of our speakers and apologize to my colleagues without really any opportunity for question and answer that we typically value. I think we have had a pretty jammed agenda. We are going to head off to the incheon session now but certainly encourage the mayors to approach these experts to my right and left to see how we can partner together. Thank you all for your leadership across the country. We are so excited that everyone is here