Sacramento, CA – As momentum to combat global climate change continues to build in other parts of the world, Governor Jerry Brown shares plans to host an international summit in San Francisco next September.
Brown aired the news today, the day before the G20 Summit where President Donald Trump will be in attendance. Brown, speaking via video message at the end of the Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg, Germany that he was there to support, stated, “President Trump is trying to get out of the Paris Agreement, but he doesn’t speak for the rest of America. We in California and in states all across America believe it’s time to act, it’s time to join together and that’s why at this Climate Action Summit we’re going to get it done.”
According to the Governor’s Office, Brown’s announcement comes after months of discussions with Christiana Figueres, formerly the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Now an international climate action organizer and activist she encouraged Brown to host a directly supportive follow up event following the successes of the UN Climate Change Conference.
Representatives from other subnational governments along with a spectrum of other global stakeholders will likely attend the summit, which will highlight innovations, economic and environmental transitions already underway while seeking deeper commitments from all parties as well as national governments.
Brown made it clear in his invitation to the public that he hopes to draw broad participation in a global effort to, as he describes it, roll back the forces of carbonization and combat the existential threat of climate change. “Come join us – entrepreneurs, singers, musicians, mathematicians, professors, students – we need people that represent the whole world because this is about the whole world and the people who live here. We have to do something and we can do it.”