The Nation-level Response to our Deteriorating Climate at COP26 Issues a Challenge to Local and Regional Leadership to Chart the Near-Term Path to Net Zero.

BOSTON - Today, the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC) and the International Cleantech Network (ICN) through our combined local and international presence have pledged to help bridge the gap where countries have fallen short on the transition to a clean energy future. The science is clear, as reported by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, our planet now has only 9 years to prove and scale successful models to transition to a carbon-free economy, limit greenhouse gas emissions, and keep 1.5 degrees alive to avoid the devastating consequences of uncontrollable global temperature rise.

In the wake of the latest United Nation Climate Change Conference (COP26), it has become clear we have entered the post-pledge phase of climate action. While COP26 produced several gains including a global acknowledgement of the need to strictly limit coal and fossil fuels, nations are not setting aggressive enough targets to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and are also not embracing policies that will achieve their interim goals.

Incoming NECEC President Joe Curtatone stated, “In many ways, the people at COP26 who were making the most sensible arguments and showing the appropriate level of urgency for the global reckoning we face were the protestors outside the event clamoring for more aggressive decarbonization agreements. As official NGO observers of COP26, we heard those voices loud and clear and are ready to step out and up.” Curtatone continued, “While we know we cannot replace the work nations must do, we can be an unrelenting voice, advocate and actor taking actions and pushing at the local, state and national level to bring together partners with shared vision that fills the leadership gap for climate solution progress and accelerating the just transition to a regional clean economy, and making the 2020s a decade of climate action.”

ICN represents a global network of cleantech clusters, bringing together businesses, research institutions, advocacy groups and regional public sector partners. If nations will not act with the appropriate exigency to avert our shared climate crisis, then we will even more diligently work to fill that leadership void by pushing action at the sub-national, city and private enterprise levels.

We sign this pledge as a statement of resolution.

Peter Rothstein, President of NECEC stated, “We will lead, taking climate action steps both large and small that propel our nations toward net zero in 2050 despite barriers. We will ally with sub-national governments to realize targets our nations lack the impetus to set, we will mobilize our innovation ecosystems to drive change faster than planned, and we will reach out to create this momentum in every corner of the globe. This will all be guided by an understanding that those communities most impacted by climate change, must not only have a seat at the table, but be a driving force of that change.”