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<br />8A <br />Attachment 3 Page 10 <br /> <br />ENDORSING THE U.S. MAYORS' CLIMATE PROTECTION AGREEMENT <br /> <br />WHEREAS, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has previously adopted strong policy <br />resolutions calling for cities, communities and the federal government to take <br />actions to reduce global warming pollution; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the <br />international community's most respected assemblage of scientists, is clear that <br />there is no longer any credible doubt that climate disruption is a reality and that <br />human activities are largely responsible for increasing concentrations of global <br />warming pollution; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, recent, well-documented impacts of climate disruption include <br />average global sea level increases of four to eight inches during the 20th century; <br />a 40% decline in Arctic sea-ice thickness; and nine of the ten hottest years on <br />record occurring in the past decade; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, climate disruption of the magnitude now predicted by the scientific <br />community will cause extremely costly disruption of human and natural systems <br />throughout the world including: increased risk of floods or droughts; sea-level <br />rises that interact with coastal storms to erode beaches, inundate land, and <br />damage structures; more frequent and extreme heat waves, more frequent and <br />greater concentrations of smog; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, on February 16, 2005, the Kyoto Protocol, an international <br />agreement to address climate disruption, went into effect in the 141 countries <br />that have ratified it to date; 38 of those countries are now legally required to <br />reduce greenhouse gas emissions on average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by <br />2012; and <br /> <br />\^JHEREAS, the United States of .L\merica, with less than five percent of the <br />world's population, is responsible for producing approximately 25% of the world's <br />global warming pollutants; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, the Kyoto Protocol emissions reduction target for the United States, <br />would have been 7% below 1990 levels by 2012; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, many leading Unites States companies that have adopted <br />greenhouse gas reduction programs to demonstrate corporate social <br />responsibility have also publicly expressed preference for the United States to <br />adopt precise and mandatory emissions targets and timetables as a means by <br />which to remain competitive in the international marketplace, to mitigate financial <br />risk and to promote sound investment decisions; and <br />