Duke, Durham React to U.S. Withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement

In response to the U.S. exit from the Paris Climate Agreement, the city of Durham and Duke University have reaffirmed their commitment to combating climate change. Nicholas Institute faculty fellow Billy Pizer suggested that when national government is less polarized, signals from sub-national actors could begin to shape national policy. “My feeling is that the problem will only be tackled successfully when there is either national-level policy or a large enough number of state-level actors who take action like California and New York," Pizer told the Duke Chronicle. He added that acting without federal coordination states could simply shift emissions to each other without meaningfully reducing emissions. Nicholas Institute Environmental Economics Program director Brian Murray noted that cities can exert economic influence. “Most of the economic activity throughout the world happens in cities,” Murray said. "Individual cities can impose ordinances or have policies or create incentives for companies to act in more climate friendly ways, in addition to using their bully pulpit to say that we don't believe that what the president did is good policy.”

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