WHEREAS the climate crisis, a grave threat to life on earth, is a paramount moral imperative of our time.

WHEREAS climate change is already causing severe stress on life across the globe such as intense storms, extreme heat, extinction, floods, droughts, crop failures, disease, water and food shortages.

WHEREAS the climate crisis is a moral crisis that requires, as Pope Francis has said, justice for the earth and for the poor.

WHEREAS the climate crisis is caused by the rapid increase of greenhouse gases through burning of fossil fuels.

WHEREAS there is a fierce urgency to act. As Martin Luther King, Jr. warned us there is such a thing as being too late.

NOW, THEREFORE

We, the Citizens of Western New York, call on the President of the United States to lead the world to a universal, legally binding agreement to cut greenhouse gases at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference (COP21) and to use the power of his office to mobilize public support for climate justice. 

We call for 40% reductions by 2025, 60% by 2030 and 85% reductions by 2050 (People’s Climate Covenant).

NOW, THEREFORE

We call on all of our elected and civic leaders to advance the energy transition to renewables through policies and practices, and to ensure that the transition is democratic and just.

NOW, THEREFORE

WE PLEDGE to take action on climate to protect the EARTH, our common home, to ensure a sustainable, just world for ourselves and all future generations.