Pittsburgh to host global climate and energy meeting next year

Pittsburgh will serve as the host city for a global climate and energy meeting next year, officials announced Thursday.

The city will be hosting the 2022 Clean Energy Ministerial and the ministerial for Mission Innovation next September, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said.

She made the announcement Friday at the United Nations Conference of Parties with Chile Energy Minister Carlos Jobet, Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry and virtual remarks from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.

“The City of Pittsburgh is proud and pleased to be chosen to host the 2022 CEM MI to bring leaders from around the world to share ideas about turning our industrial regions into regions of opportunity for sustainable energy,” Peduto said.

The meetings will bring 31 countries together in Pittsburgh.

The federal government chose Pittsburgh because of its commitment to innovation and reinventing itself to focus on sustainability, technology, research and development, moving on from its industrial past, officials said. Officials also considered the city’s prioritization of renewable energies and the goals city officials laid out in the Climate Action Plan.

“Pittsburgh is the city that built America, rooted proudly in our tradition of hard work and innovation,” Peduto said. “Through our partnership with regional leaders in the Marshall Plan for Middle America, we recognize that our economies in Upper Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley cannot depend on fossil fuels.

“But we already have the infrastructure in the companies, workforce and research and development to lead the future of sustainable energy rather than getting left behind.”

Peduto’s Marshall Plan for Middle America emphasizes the region’s potential to become a leader in producing clean, sustainable energy. He is joined by several mayors in support of the measure.

“The U.S. is proud to host the 2022 Clean Energy Ministerial and ministerial for Mission Innovation in the Steel City of Pittsburgh,” Granholm said. “The joint CEM/MI ministerial meetings represent an opportunity to lock in climate commitments through big bets on innovation that empower an energy transition by 2050 — averting the worst effects of climate change and supercharging economic opportunities for the global workforce.”

This comes after former President Donald Trump thrust Pittsburgh to the spotlight in a very different conversation about climate action in 2017. During a speech about withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord, Trump said, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

Peduto had immediately taken offense to the comment and had been critical of plans to withdraw from the climate agreement.