Where Republican Mayors Are Taking Leadership on Climate Change

According to an article Nicolas Gunkel, "climate change summits typically feature big-city Democratic mayors rubbing shoulders. Republicans are rarer, with a few notable exceptions, such as Kevin Faulconer of San Diego and James Brainard of Carmel, Indiana."

But those exceptions are evidence of a growing trend of climate leadership from Republican mayors, according to Gunkel, who, along with a team at the Boston University Initiative on Cities, analyzed the political actions of Republic mayors of big cities, finding that they tend to "shy away from climate network memberships" and stop short of mentioning climate change specifically. "But in many cases they advocate locally for policies that help advance climate goals for other reasons, such as fiscal responsibility and public health."

The report, titled "Cities Joining the Ranks," still found a clear partisan divide between Republican and Democratic mayors: "On average, Republican-led cities with more than 75,000 residents belong to less than one climate network. In contrast, cities with Democratic mayors belonged to an average of four networks. Among the 100 largest U.S. cities, of which 29 have Republican mayors and 63 have Democrats, Democrat-led cities are more than four times more likely to belong to at least one climate network."

A lot more detail on the findings of the report, and what they reveal about climate action at the local level, can be found in the source article.