Seventeen U.S. state governors have signed a green accord that sees them pledge to push clean energy sources in the United States.
Signed on Tuesday, the Governors' Accord for a New Energy Future says that the deployment of "renewable, cleaner and more efficient energy solutions" will make the economy more productive and resilient.
To achieve this states will look to expand clean energy sources, diversify energy generation, modernize infrastructure and encourage people to use clean transport, among other things.
The bipartisan agreement is signed by the governors of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
"With this accord, governors from both parties have joined together and committed themselves to a clean energy future. Our goal is to clean up the air and protect our natural resources," Edmund G. Brown, Jr., governor of California, said in a statement.
Clean energy and the environment is a hot topic right now. In August 2015, President Obama unveiled his Clean Power Plan, which will look to reduce pollution from power plants in the United States. Last week the initiative was dealt a blow when Supreme Court "stayed implementation of the Clean Power Plan pending judicial review," according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Governors' Accord comes several months after an historic global agreement was reached at the COP21 summit in Paris. There, world leaders from 195 countries agreed to limit global warming to "well below" two degrees centigrade.
Commenting further on the Accord, Michigan's governor, Rick Snyder, said it was a "great collaborative effort… This partnership will help us further adapt and identify best practices as we work to make energy more affordable, reliable and environmentally protective."
