Climate, Clean Tech, and the Environment/Harvard Business Review

Over the next few days, we'll bring you the top stories in sustainability as listed by HBR:

1. U.S. leaders from the public and private sectors rejected Trump’s decision on the Paris accord and committed to climate action.
On the day of the president’s announcement about the Paris climate accord, 25 multinationals — including Apple, Facebook, Google, HPE, Ingersoll Rand, Intel, Microsoft, PG&E, Tiffany, and Unilever — ran a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal asking Trump to stay committed to the agreement. By that weekend, dozens of big companies declared, We Are Still In. This public statement includes thousands of signatories — not just companies, but states, cities, and universities.

On the governmental side, the states of California, Washington, New York, and others representing a third of the U.S. population and GDP announced the formation of the U.S. Climate Alliance. California Governor Jerry Brown emerged as the de facto climate leader for the United States, holding his own meetings in China and headlining a delegation to the global climate talks in Bonn. A growing list of 385 local leaders have joined the U.S. Climate Mayors pact as well. A group of high -profile business leaders offered their thoughts on the sustainability agenda right here at HBR (I am also an adviser to that effort). In total, the message to the rest of the world has been clear: “sub-national” support for climate action is very strong in the United States.