Governor Andrew Cuomo was joined by former Vice President Al Gore Thursday to announce that New York State is committed to reducing its carbon footprint. Zack FInk filed the following report.
Governor Andrew Cuomo was joined by Al Gore to discuss an issue near and dear to the former vice president's heart: global warming.
The governor signed what's known as the "Under 2 MOU," which commits states, cities and provinces to help prevent the earth's average temperature from increasing two degrees celsius by 2100. If temperatures are to rise two degrees or higher, the United Nations has concluded that the results would be "catastrophic."
New York City signed the same pledge earlier this year.
"We'll be joining 42 other jurisdictions in 19 countries on five continents that have made this same committment," Cuomo said.
Cuomo, who is not running for president in 2016, has made a series of high-profile appearances with prominent politicians this year. That includes a handful of events with Vice President Joe Biden, and Thursday's announcement with Al Gore, where the governor also pledged that New York State would work to develop a North American cap and trade carbon market.
"New York's efforts to reduce emissions and join with others like California, Quebec and Ontario to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy sends a very strong signal to world leaders," Gore said.
Finally, Cuomo said New York State is moving forward with an aggressive plan to install solar panels as an alternate source of energy across the state.
"We put solar panels on nearly 30,000 homes and businesses, and we'll do another 150,000 by 2020," he said.
The state will soon be manufacturing plenty of solar panels when a new plant goes online in Buffalo early next year. How those contracts were awarded is now the subject of a federal probe by the U.S. attorney.