More Than 250 US Cities Pledged to Use 100 Percent Clean Energy by 2035

The resolution may be non-binding but it is not vague. Where some vocalize support for a particular issue or urge state or federal action, this resolution set a deadline for defined policy goals and offers concrete examples of how to achieve them. It even cites specific cities where these changes are already taking place -- like Aspen, Colorado and Rockport, Missouri, among others.

This year's gathering took a strong, almost combative stance on climate change in sharp opposition to the federal government; their resolution included direct digs at the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Paris climate accords and emphasized the role of cities in fulfilling that treaty's goals.

The conference of local politicians also passed nine further resolutions under the banner of energy and environment, with six of them directly referencing climate change or greenhouse gas emissions. It all affirmed Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine's opening speech, which proclaimed that mayors are neither right nor left, but forward.

This all, perhaps unsurprisingly, got quite a bit of attention. Here was a group of politicians, reaching across the aisle, putting people before party, standing up to Washington, etc, etc, pick your cliché, because they all fit. But this was not the first time local officials here had forged their own path on environmental issues.

In 2001, another Republican president withdrew US support of another global climate treaty: George W. Bush's withdrawal from the Clinton-era Kyoto Protocol. Four years later, the conference, chaired by then mayor of Seattle, Greg Nickels, drafted the US Conference of Mayors Climate Protection treaty, which aimed to meet the goals of the Kyoto protocol by reducing city carbon emissions below their 1990 levels. As a symbolic gesture, it was hoped that 141 mayors would sign on, to match the 141 countries who were signatories to the international agreement. Today, over 1000 have come on board.

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This meant that, by the time Trump withdrew from the Paris accords, cities were already moving on local solutions to carbon emissions, with or without the support of the federal government. And, as seen in the resolution, many of those communities took steps to move to 100 percent renewables.

This resolution wasn't totally without controversy. According to Jodie Van Horn, who heads up the Sierra Club's Ready for 100 campaign, it was almost scuttled when the trash incinerator lobby tried to insert burning garbage as a form of renewable energy.

"There was a little bit of drama honestly in the 24 hours leading up to the 5pm, Friday decision in whether the lobbyists would be successful," she told VICE Impact. But ultimately, those supporting the resolution, in its pure form, were triumphant. (And the text does specifically exclude "the incineration of municipal waste" as a form of clean energy.)

The biggest shift all this caused, according to Van Horn, was in the narrative that clean energy is a partisan issue. "What we saw was that across the political spectrum, Democrats, Republicans and Independents supported this goal."

Now that these mayors are back from Miami and July Fourth break, it's time to watch them put that goal into action.

In the coming weeks, VICE Impact will be profiling mayors, organizers and local leaders supporting the Sierra Club's Ready for 100 movement. If you'd like your city to join, read more here about how to get your leaders involved.