Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, distinguished delegates and guests:
Maine won’t wait.
Our small state of 1.3 million people, which juts out of the northeast corner of this country, bordering Canada, bending toward Europe, 90 percent forested, with clean water, rolling hills, fertile farmlands, mighty rivers and deep ports, 3,000 miles of bold rocky jagged coast …
Our whole state is experiencing climate change – our weather, our iconic lobster industry, our insect populations; the warming, rising fish-rich seas that bathe our shores.
Maine won’t wait.
So we have enacted the most significant renewable standards in the country. We are investing in clean energy and conservation, electric vehicles and energy efficiency, community resiliency, sequestering carbon in our soil and forests.
We are cutting our appetite for fossil fuels, on which we have come to depend too much for heat, electricity and transportation.
And we have invented the most innovative floating offshore wind platforms in the world.
These investments will not impair our economy; they will improve it.
We are doing these things now, because we believe the irrefutable science.
Maine won’t wait.
Will you?
We all have what it takes to combat climate change, to protect the irreplaceable earth we share and care for.
What is more precious than water, air, soil, the health and happiness of our children, and our children’s children and yours?
For all of them, today, by executive order, I am pledging that Maine will be carbon neutral by 2045.
And if our small state can do it, you can.
We’ve got to unite to preserve our precious common ground, for our common planet, in uncommon ways for this imperative common purpose.
Maine won’t wait.
Will you?
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