A day after President Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg rearranged his schedule to arrive in France's capital with an alternate reality. Josh Robin filed the following report.

As President Trump pulls out of an accord crafted in Paris, New York's former mayor landed there with a message to a jolted world. 

"Americans don't need Washington to meet our Paris commitment, and Americans are not going to let Washington stand in the way of fulfilling it," Michael Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg is willing to put up money to the United Nations that Trump is denying.

It comes as New York's governor and mayor also say they're sticking with Paris.

"We're going a different way as the state of New York. We're going to follow the accord," Andrew Cuomo said.

"And I think cities right now have to take the lead, so we are going to follow the goals of the Paris Accord," Bill de Blasio said.

They are goals shared by other cities, states and businesses. And while details are unclear, Bloomberg is aiming to have the UN recognize these non-national contributions.

He stressed he's not criticizing Trump.

"In the United States, emission levels are determined far more by cities, states and businesses than they are by our federal government," 

But can local governments be counted at the UN in defiance of the federal government? Yes and no, says Justin Gundlach, who attended the Paris Conference as a legal adviser.

"It would be a way of telling not just the UN, but cities and other regions around the world, this is what New York City or New York State plan to do," Gundlach said. "It's not in any way binding. It's not, technically speaking, a legal act. It is informational." 

Closer to home, as buildings light up in green, some environmentally conscious New Yorkers are lighting into de Blasio. De Blasio says New Yorkers should step up their games and change their wasteful habits, even as he is driven to his old Park Slope haunts for frequent workouts.

"Again, the issue is not cheap symbolism here," de Blasio said. "The issue is, are we going to take action? Are we actually going to change the way things are done?"

Sounds like one change not happening: the mayor getting out of his car.