Nine states and 125 US cities vow to meet Paris Climate Agreement emissions cuts

The United States will remain a "global leader in reducing emissions," according to state governors and city and county mayors who will continue to pursue policies designed to limit the global increase in temperature to two degrees centigrade despite the President announcing he was withdrawing.

The 'We Are Still In' statement underlined that local and regional government representing 120 million Americans including Oregon, Los Angeles, Houston and New York and smaller cities such as Pittsburgh was delivering concrete emissions to help meet the US's pledge under the Paris Agreement. The signatories said that the agreement was "a blueprint for job creation, stability and global prosperity and accelerating the US' clean energy transition is an opportunity, not a liability".

The President said on Thursday that withdrawal was necessary to protect jobs in the automotive industry and was moreover a "reassertion of America's sovereignty," and that he was "elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris".