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appendix The U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement WHEREAS, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has prevIously adopted strong policy resolutions calling for cities. communities and the federal government to take actions 10 reduce global warming pollution; and WHEREAS, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (lPCC). the international community's most respected assemblage of SCientists, has found that chmatc disruption is a reahty and that human activities are largely responsible for increasing concentrations of global warming pollution; and WHEREAS. recent. well.documented impacts of climate disruption Include average global sea level incrca~s of four to eight inches during the 20th century; a 40 percent decline In Arctic sea-ice thickness: and nine of the ten hottest years on record occurring in the past decade; and WHEREAS, climate disruption of the magnitude now predicted by the scientlftc community will cause extremely costly disruption of human and natural systems throughout the world including: increased risk of floods or droughts; sealevel rises that interact With coastal storms to erode beaches, inundate land, and damage structures: more frequent and extreme heat waves: more frequent and greater concentrations of smog: and WHEREAS, on February 16, 2005. the Kyoto Protocol. an international agreemcnt to address climatc disruption, went into effect in the 141 countries that have ratified it to date: 38 of those countries are now legally required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012: and WHEREAS, the United States of America, With less than five percent of tile world's population, is responsible for producing approximately 25 percent of the world's global warming pollutants; and WHEREAS, the Kyoto Protocol emissions reduction target for the US would have been 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012: and WHEREAS, many leading U.S. companies that have adopted greenhouse gas reduction programs to demonstrate corporate social responSibility have also publicly expressed preference for the U.S. to adopt precise and mandatory emissions targets and timetables as a means by which to remain competitive in the international marketplace, to mitigate financial risk and to promote sound investment decisions: and WHEREAS. state and local governments throughout the United States are adopting emission reduction targets and programs and that this leadership is bipartisan. coming from Republican and Democratic governors and mayors alike; and WHEREAS. many CIties throughout the nation, both large and small. are reducing global warming pollutants through programs that provide economic and quality of fife benefits such as reduced energy bills. green space preservation, air quality improvements, reduced traffic congestion, improved transportation choices, and economic development and job creation through energy conservatlon and new energy technologies: and