© 2024 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Des Moines Mayor Commits to Paris Climate Accord

John Pemble
/
IPR
Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie.

Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie signed on with more than 200 mayors last week to uphold the Paris Agreement. That’s the global accord from which President Donald Trump withdrew the United States. Cownie says it’s a challenge for the city to move forward with clean energy goals without more buy-in from state leaders who regularly fall in line with the president.

“To ignore that factual piece and the science around it and all the data that’s out there is really unfortunate for the citizens of the state of Iowa and looking at our future and how we preserve our resources,” Cownie says.

The city of Des Moines has a goal of a 25 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in three years over 2005 numbers by the year 2020. Cownie says some of the city’s tracking currently shows it is at a 17 percent reduction. 

Clay Masters is the senior politics reporter for MPR News.