Architect of Paris Accord Speaks at Marin Climate Action Showcase
SAN RAFAEL (KPIX) -- The College Of Marin hosted the Marin Climate Action Showcase to introduce guests to ways they can reduce their carbon footprint. It wrapped up the week-long Global Climate Action Summit where headliners like Vice-President Al Gore and Governor Jerry Brown spoke.
Saturday's keynote speaker was Christiana Figueres, the architect of the Paris Climate Accord. She urged Californians to concentrate on what can and must be done to tackle climate chants.
"This [Paris] agreement is, let me call it a very good business plan. But if it is not implemented like any other business plan, it remains a document on the shelf," she said. "This is about ensuring that the Paris agreement gets implemented on time, at scale."
San Rafael U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D) says his district is ground zero for climate change with historic, raging wildfires like the Mendocino Complex, along with rising sea levels around the Marin county coastline.
"We feel a responsibility to this planet and future generations and that's something that I'm very proud of in this place and this community," said Huffman.
Huffman says he's proud of the role the state of California has taken under Jerry Brown's guidance, after the Trump administration pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord.
"The state of California has always been a leader," he said. "I think our leadership is more vital today than ever before. It's going to help sustain the progress on this critical issue, while we get things sorted out back in Washington."
For her part, Figueres says she doesn't waste her breath arguing with climate change deniers.
"I honestly don't waste my time with people who don't believe in climate change, because it's a little bit like saying I don't believe in gravity. It doesn't really matter whether you believe in it or not. It actually exercises its grounding strength on you and the gravitational pull is on everyone, whether you believe in it or not -- so it's irrelevant whether you believe in a truth or not."
