I support Mike Bloomberg because of his exemplary leadership on cities and climate change
It can be tough to determine what most presidential candidates care about. Not so with Mike Bloomberg. He has been outspoken with his voice, his money, but most importantly, with his actions. I am fortunate to have had a front row seat to Mike’s leadership on cities and climate change for over a decade.
I became aware of Mike when he ran an unorthodox and successful campaign to become the Mayor of NYC where I lived. He was so passionate about providing a healthier, wealthier, safer and greener city for millions of New Yorkers that he stepped away from a multi-billion dollar company to accept a $1 a year salary to improve the lives of others. I was an environmental consultant at the time with large engineering firms and most of my work was focused on the public sector with a large number of my clients being MTA, SCA, DDC, DEC and the like. It soon became apparent to me that he was going to be a different type of mayor, particularly evident through the release of PlaNYC, a groundbreaking climate and sustainability plan released in 2007.
For those who aren’t familiar with it, here is a simple overview from Wikipedia: “PlaNYC was a strategic plan released by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2007 to prepare the city for one million more residents, strengthen the economy, combat climate change, and enhance the quality of life for all New Yorkers. The plan brought together over 25 City agencies to work toward the vision of a greener, greater New York and significant progress was made towards the long-term goals over the following years.”
PlaNYC specifically targeted ten areas of interest: Housing and Neighborhoods; Parks and Public Spaces; Brownfields; Waterways; Water Supply; Transportation; Energy; Air Quality; Solid Waste; and Climate Change.”
Not only was the plan itself a game-changer but more importantly, so was the follow through. “Over 97% of the 127 initiatives in PlaNYC were launched within one-year of its release and almost two-thirds of its 2009 milestones were achieved or mostly achieved. The plan was updated in 2011 and was expanded to 132 initiatives and more than 400 specific milestones for December 31, 2013.”
It was my time working as a consultant in NYC helping achieve the various goals laid out in PlaNYC that I became even more committed to tackling the issues of climate change. As a result, I left consulting and entered the world of NGO’s. I started off working with the U.S. Green Building Council and then the Clinton Foundation developing a program called Climate Positive. And that’s when my path with Mike crossed again. We had developed another program at the Clinton Foundation called C40. It was a network of megacity mayors around the world committed to tackling climate change. In 2010, Mayor Bloomberg became the Chair of C40 and effectively became my boss.
As chair, he immediately brought his same data driven, results oriented approach to our small NGO and demanded clarity of purpose, theory of change, and results oriented impact. But he also brought his own experience having run the largest city in the US and knew the complicated nature of what he was asking of us in trying to develop a scalable, replicable model with which to help mayors all over the world tackle climate change.
Right around this time, as if Mike wasn’t busy enough, he set up Bloomberg Philanthropies. Again — if you want to understand what Mike cares about, simply look to his philanthropies — which has given away some $8 billion — to get a good idea of his priorities. He has pledged to donate most of his fortune to good causes. His first climate focused grant from Philanthropies was to C40. Some of that funding was to establish a research department which I was asked to head up. What fell to me was the responsibility and opportunity to provide new methods and mechanisms with which to collect climate action data from cities around the world. To create new methodologies like the Global Protocol for Community Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions, establish tools like CURB to help cities develop climate action strategies, and to transparently report on this data via report series like Climate Action in Megacities. Mike took this a step further by heeding a call from the UN to work on climate with cities of all sizes through the Global Covenant of Mayors — bringing together the world’s city networks and 10,000+ city commitments to deliver on the Paris Agreement.
Over the years, as the issue of climate change became more acute, coupled with the lack of national government action around the world, I began broadening the scope of my work to not only engage with cities, but also other forms of government such as regions and national governments by setting up initiatives like the Coalition for Urban Transitions. This also led me to begin working with the academic community to help increase the focus and need to study, research and apply solutions to urban issues on climate change. This resulted in my work as a lead author on chapter 4 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5oC and my role as Co-Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee for the Cities and Climate Change Science Conference held in Edmonton, Canada. The first conference ever co-hosted by the IPCC. But in the midst of my work with the IPCC, there was an underlying crisis going on. President Trump infamously pulled the U.S. out of the international climate treaty known as the Paris Agreement. And while that legally is not in effect until after the coming presidential election this November, what most people don’t realize is that he immediately pulled the U.S. funding supporting these organizations. The UNFCCC gets money from member states (national governments), which in turns provides funding to the IPCC to coordinate the hundreds of volunteer scientists from around the world to write the reports. The reports that the IPCC write are critical and have become the global gold standard of peer reviewed literature and the bedrock of knowledge with which national governments around the world use as a guide on international negotiations. This left a massive hole in the operating budget of the IPCC and the UNFCCC to the point that the work we were doing, on what turned out to be perhaps the most impactful report in the history of the IPCC, was in jeopardy of not being finalized.
In the middle of this, Mike stepped up to the plate yet again. He became the Special Envoy to the UN Secretary General on Global Climate Action, and in that role, he donated money to the UNFCCC to backfill the U.S. government’s financial commitment! Single handedly. But he didn’t stop there. He also helped establish America’s Pledge. Rallying cities, states, universities and businesses across the U.S. to show the rest of the world that the U.S. would still fulfill our pledge under the Paris Agreement.
Time and time again, when the issues confronting me and my colleagues over the years looked bleak, Mike Bloomberg has been there. Providing leadership, vision and a force of will. He has not done this with his money alone, but also by taking on personal roles and being tough by demanding accountability and impact. He deeply cares about making this a better world for everyone in it. I can’t think of a candidate I am more proud to support. He has been there for all of us as a stalwart on climate change. It’s time for us to be there for him.
I am proud to announce that I stand with Mike. I am supporting his candidacy for President and I hope you do as well. I am officially working with his campaign on cities, climate change and the environment. If you are interested in supporting his campaign as well, please reach out.