Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, speaks with Fiji prime minister and COP president Frank Bainimarama, beside him, and California Gov. Jerry Brown, right, in the U.S. Climate Action Center at the COP 23 Fiji UN Climate Change Conference on Saturday in Bonn, Germany.


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American leaders rip Trump, pledge to do Paris climate accord without him

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NOVEMBER 11, 2017 7:49 AM

American leaders pledged their allegiance to the Paris climate accord Saturday, pummeling President Donald Trump’s promised retreat from the global coalition as a temporary diversion that won’t impede their progress toward keeping global temperatures below catastrophic levels.

“It is important for the world to know the American government may have pulled out of the Paris agreement, but the American people are committed to its goals and there is nothing Washington can do to stop it,” Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, said at a launch for America’s Pledge in Bonn, where talks are continuing at the 23rd “conference of the parties,” or COP 23.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts said while Trump wants to “cop out” on climate action, “we know that C.O.P. really stands for ‘can’t obstruct progress, that climate outlasts presidents.’ That’s what C.O.P. stands for.