Mayors to Release Green Jobs Report and Work to Shape Climate Protection Agenda for Next U.S. President
MIAMI – U.S. Conference of Mayors President Miami Mayor Manny Diaz will host a national meeting along with CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran, called the Mayors ’08 Action Forum on Environment and Energy, on Thursday, October 2 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami.
During the forum, the Conference will also release a national green jobs report – the first ever report of its kind that estimates current green jobs in cities and their metropolitan areas across America. The report which was prepared by Global Insight, Inc., also highlights the job growth expected within the green jobs sector.
USCM Vice President Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will also be speaking and co-chairs the USCM Climate Protection Task Force. Nickels launched the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement during a USCM meeting in 2005, which challenges mayors who sign the agreement to reduce carbon emissions by 7% below 1990 levels by the year 2012, in line with the international Kyoto Protocol. To date, nearly 900 mayors have signed this agreement. (http://www.usmayors.org/climateprotection/agreement.htm)
This forum will be the fourth in a series of mayoral forums in key cities around the country intended to challenge the next U.S. President to invest in America’s cities and metro areas — the economic engines of the nation accounting for 86 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and where over 85% of people in the country live. The first forum was on Crime in Philadelphia; the second was on Infrastructure in New York City; the third was on Poverty held in Los Angeles; and following the Environment & Energy Forum in Miami, the last forum will be held on the Arts in Palm Beach.
Recommendations from all five forums will be presented to the next President of the United States during the critical first 100 days of the new administration toward the creation of a metro/national/urban agenda.
Mayor Manny Diaz
Mayor Diaz, President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, leads the nation’s premiere bipartisan lobbying organization for America’s cities and metropolitan areas believes that Washington no longer invests in its cities and its people. He has said, “Washington has lost its values – lost its principles – lost its sense of purpose – engaging in endless debate and partisan bickering while people in this country continue to suffer. … Plain and simple, Washington has abandoned us.” Diaz also believes, “National problems demand national investments.”
