Mayors Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, and Annise Parker of Houston kicked off their #ClimateMayors campaign in the final 100 days until the opening of the the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris, France on Nov. 30. Parker, Nutter, and Garcetti, who co-founded the US-focused mayors’ national climate action agenda (MNCAA) after serving together on the President’s climate task force, echoed President Obama’s remarks at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas by calling for their fellow mayors to not only join them in the US-focused MNCAA but to also sign the international compact of mayors and commit to creating climate action plan.

The MNCAA is a domestic mayor-to-mayor initiative to work collectively to help cities set significant emission reduction targets; standardize municipal inventories to be able to better compare data between cities regardless of size; establish a U.S. common template for climate action plans; and develop a municipal offset protocol. The MNCAA mayors announced in June their call for strong federal action on climate change in the face of Congressional gridlock and for the President to negotiate for the strongest possible climate agreement at the UN climate change negotiations in Paris.

“Climate change isn’t a political issue – it’s a reality for cities, many of which are right now enduring drought, extreme weather, and wildfires as a result,” Garcetti, Nutter and Parker said in a joint statement. “As President Obama said at the Clean Energy Summit, the Clean Power Plan and other efforts to produce clean energy are critical for our nation’s economy. These efforts are big steps forward, but we need Congress to step up and support binding U.S. greenhouse gas reduction targets.”

The mayors national climate action agenda in the U.S. includes 28 cities, and is complemented at the international level by the compact of mayors, a global cooperative effort among mayors and city officials committed to reducing local greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing resilience to climate change, and tracking progress transparently that currently comprises over 100 signatories globally.