U.S.-China climate agreement critical step on path to Paris

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Environment California

Washington, DC – Last night President Obama and President Xi Jinping announced an historic agreement to cut greenhouse gas pollution, well ahead of the international climate summit scheduled for December 2015 in Paris.

Environment America Executive Director Margie Alt issued the following statement in response:

“This announcement is huge. The path to Paris should be paved with concrete actions to cut emissions and invest in clean energy, and last night the world’s two largest global warming polluters pledged just that.

“Now it’s up to the U.S. to make good on its commitment to slash pollution.

President Obama and leading states around the country already have laid a solid foundation. Wind energy in the US has tripled since 2009, and solar has tripled in the last two years. Our cars are on track to nearly double their efficiency. The Environmental Protection Agency is poised to limit carbon pollution from the largest single source, coal and gas-fired power plants.

“Environment America and our allies are backing up President Obama’s leadership with an outreach campaign to millions of Americans connecting the dots between the real impacts of global warming and the clean energy solutions already at hand.  We owe it to future generations to seize this moment and chart a course to a truly clean energy future.”

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Environment America is the federation of state-based citizen-funded advocacy organizations working for a greener, cleaner healthier future.