Portland mayor brings his climate-change tour home for summit.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales has been to Paris, Washington, D.C., and the Vatican to talk about climate change.
He’s now bringing the tour home for a summit with other West Coast mayors.
“I think the willingness of mayors to support reducing greenhouse gas emissions had an impact on the U.N. negotiators,” Hales says. “We are doing it by building transit, planting trees, and making buildings more efficient. They aren’t sacrifices — they are making cities better places to live.”
The Paris mayors meeting was hosted by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. It started in October 2005 when the former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, convened representatives from 18 megacities to pursue action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.The group paid travel and other costs for Hales and a city staffer, and the mayor says it was an honor to represent Portland there.
(READ MORE: Portland Tribune)
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will be in attendance.
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