Minneapolis and St. Paul are national leaders when it comes to combating climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was the message sent when billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg came to the area to award the two cities $2.5 million each to continue efforts to combat climate change and champion environmental stewardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bloomberg, the United Nations\u2019 special envoy for climate action, came to the Twin Cities this past Monday (Oct. 29) to personally award Mayors Jacob Frey (Minneapolis) and Melvin Carter (St. Paul) the grants. Bloomberg Philanthropies announced Minneapolis and St. Paul as winning cities in the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge. The Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge is a $70 million program that will accelerate 20 cities\u2019 efforts to tackle climate change and promote a sustainable future for residents. The first nine cities were announced during the press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bloomberg said fighting climate change has to start at the local level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd mayors are leading the way on a lot of issues, especially climate change,\u201d said Bloomberg, speaking outside, next to the Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis \u2013 site to the former flour processing plant, Washburn A Mill. \u201cMayors understand curtailing carbon emissions is good for the environment, but ultimately good for their cities because fighting climate change and growing the economy go hand-in-hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two mayors agreed, direction on this issue needs to come from the city level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn a time of a severe lack of leadership from the highest levels of our government, and divisive rhetoric meant to divide us, cities across our nation find themselves in a critical moment,\u201d said Carter. \u201cWith our growing national division, we must be champions of local unity. St. Paul plans to use this support to further prepare for the impact of climate change through measurable carbon reductions and Bloomberg Philanthropies will work the city to achieve the following actions by 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and a possible contender for president in 2020, also called out the Trump administration for what he termed as a dereliction of duties in the arena of climate change. He pointed to Trump\u2019s announcement that the U.S. would pull out of the Paris agreement on climate change. Bloomberg said prior to pulling out, the U.S. had financial obligations \u2013 obligations that Bloomberg and others in the private sector have agreed to pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Paris climate agreement is a promise we made to our children, and we\u2019re going to keep it,\u201d said Rhea Suh in a statement, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. \u201cThe American Cities Climate Challenge gives cities the tools they need to lead the way. With cities generating the majority of the fossil fuel pollution driving climate change, and bearing the brunt of its impacts, fighting climate change begins in city hall. These mayors are committed to delivering a brighter, more hopeful tomorrow for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCities are helping to keep America moving forward on climate change despite the lack of leadership from Washington, and this challenge was designed to help innovative mayors reach their goals,\u201d said Bloomberg. \u201cWe were looking for cities with ambitious and realistic plans to cut emissions in ways that improve people\u2019s lives, and mayors committed to getting the job done. Each of these winning cities brings those ingredients to the table and we\u2019re looking forward to working with them and seeing what they can accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of the 20 cities chosen nationwide, Frey said it is no accident that both Minneapolis and St. Paul were chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMinneapolis does not live in a silo; we are in this together,\u201d said Frey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frey said one of his initiatives is to have all city vehicles operating solely from electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to Minneapolis and St. Paul, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis and St. Louis received awards, joining previous awardees, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Diego, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minneapolis and St. Paul are national leaders when it comes to combating climate change. That was the message sent when billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg came to the area to award the two cities $2.5 million each to continue efforts to combat climate change and champion environmental stewardship. Bloomberg, the United Nations\u2019 special envoy for climate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[640,2775,2582,38],"class_list":["post-4434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-bloomberg","tag-climate-change","tag-jacob-frey","tag-minneapolis","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-22.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4436,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434\/revisions\/4436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}