New York, NY - April 26, 2017 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today joined a coalition of 14 Attorneys General in urging the Trump Administration to reconfirm the United States’ commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, which was adopted by countries at COP21 in Paris in December 2015. In a letter to President Trump, the Attorneys General highlighted the agreement’s importance in addressing and limiting climate change and vowed to continue rigorously enforcing environmental laws in their respective states regardless of the directives from the White House.
“I’m proud to stand with my fellow Attorneys Generals in support of the Paris Agreement – because we know how essential it is to mitigating climate change’s growing harm to our global health, environments, and economies,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “If the Trump Administration refuses to uphold its legal obligation to New Yorkers' public health and environment, I am prepared to use every tool in my power to protect our people and our state.”
Today, the Attorneys General, led by Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh, urged President Trump to maintain the United States’ commitment to the groundbreaking agreement:
“The Paris Agreement, by securing commitments from countries the world over, reflects this collective interdependency and constitutes an unprecedented global effort to address a problem threatening the well-being of everyone on Earth. The United States showed exemplary leadership in the years-long effort to secure the Paris Agreement, and our Nation should continue to lead by fulfilling its promise to abide by and implement this historic accord.”
The Attorneys General note in the letter that climate change is a threat to national security, the economy, and every citizen’s health and well-being.
“As we commemorate the 47th anniversary of that first Earth Day, we confront threats to our planet greater than ever envisioned by those who sounded the alarm almost half a century ago. Climate change, if left unchecked, will lead to global environmental dislocation and disaster on a scale we likely cannot imagine or survive. Yet at the same time, we have reason to be hopeful. The Paris Agreement on climate change, negotiated under American leadership and ratified by the vast majority of the world’s countries, has the potential to achieve a reversal of our current trajectory.
The letter was signed by the following Attorneys General: Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of Columbia, and American Samoa.
Attorney General Schneiderman has led a coalition of states and localities in protecting our natural resources and opposing the Trump Administration's environmental rollbacks, including defending the Clean Power Plan against efforts to discard the plan and opposing the Trump Administration’s efforts to delay court proceedings regarding the Clean Power Plan in the U.S. Court of Appeals; fighting back against the Administration's weakening of vehicle emission standards; opposing President Trump’s Executive Order that seeks to eliminate the Clean Water Rule; and suing the Administration for its delay of energy efficiency standards.