Glen Rock Mayor Promises To Uphold Paris Agreement Climate Goals

GLEN ROCK, NJ — Mayor Bruce Packer is joining with nearly 190 other mayors across the United States in the fight against global warming.

Packer said Saturday he would join with 187 other mayor across the country and agree to meet the Paris Agreement climate goals. The Paris Agreement went into effect Nov. 4, 2016 when 196 nations agreed to hold global temperature rise to "well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and cut net greenhouse gas emissions to zero in the second half of the 21st century.

President Donald Trump said last week that the United States would withdraw from the agreement, prompting the response from the mayors.

In announcing the withdrawal, Trump said he was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh and not Paris.

"There are times when decisions that are made on the National level have a direct impact on the local level and, in this particular case, a decision has been made that impacts us on all possible levels," Packer said in a Facebook post early Sunday morning. "Climate change is not a partisan issue. It is real. It represents one of the greatest threats to our planet, and thus our town."

Although Packer is not one of the initial 187 mayors to join the initiative, eight other New Jersey mayors, including Ras Baraka of Newark and Eric Jackson of Trenton, did.

For more information about the United States Climate Mayors initiative, click here.

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