Hyattsville joined a list of U.S. cities pledging to try to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Mayor Candace Hollingsworth signed a pledge from 279 mayors to move ahead with commitments to the climate change agreement, which President Trump withdrew from earlier this month.
“As 279 US Mayors representing 59 million Americans, we will adopt, honor, and uphold the commitments to the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement,” the statement from Mayors National Climate Action Agenda reads. “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.”
Hyattsville is only one of four Maryland cities on the pledge; the mayors of Baltimore, Takoma Park and Salisbury also signed.
The city is already certified through Sustainable Maryland, and the real efforts to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions will come from things like shuttering coal plants, using more natural gas and renewable energy and raising car and truck mileage standards.
But like the vote in April to become Maryland’s second “sanctuary city”—essentially refusing on principle to cooperate with federal immigration authorities—the move sends a signal about the kind of community that Hyattsville wants to be seen as.
