Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday filed an Executive Order formalizing Chicago’s commitment to adopt the guidelines of the Paris Agreement after President Trump withdrew the United States, reneging on a consensus with 196 countries on environment protections. The Executive Order doubles down on the Paris Agreement’s goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Mayor Emanuel’s Executive Order commits the City of Chicago to the goal of reducing citywide greenhouse gas emissions to levels equivalent to or greater 26-28 percent reduction from 2005 levels to 2025, which is the original commitment made by the Obama Administration as part of the United States’ commitment to the Paris Accord. It also requires City departments to work jointly on and accelerate the development of policies and strategies that will assist Chicago in meeting the goal and order departments to develop and implement standards, policies and practices. The Mayor’s Office will seek input from Sister Agencies, environmental advocates, environmental justice groups, community organizations, scientific experts, other cities, state actors, and the business community on efforts to collectively reduce Chicago’s greenhouse gas emissions and protect Chicagoans from the resulting effects of a changing climate. From 2010 to 2015, the City increased the numbers of tons of recycled material from 58,000 to 97,000. The Mayor recently announced that since implementation of the City’s check-out bag tax in February, residents have reduced their plastic bag use by 40 percent.