I write regarding the Press Herald’s Jan. 28 editorial (“Our View: Climate change calls for fast state action,” Page A4), hoping Gov. Mills might find my comments helpful as she considers the most efficient and effective means to address the challenges posed by the global climate disruption confronting us.

On June 1, 2017, hours after learning the administration had withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris agreement, the governors of New York, Washington state and Massachusetts established the nucleus of the U.S. Climate Alliance. Within four days, seven additional governors had joined. Currently, 21 governors are enrolled.

The Climate Alliance is a bipartisan coalition whose members are committed to uphold the objectives of the 2015 Paris accord within their borders, by reducing each of their state’s economy-wide CO2 emissions 26 to 28 percent by 2025 and to meet or exceed the targets of the federal Clean Power Plan. One year ago, the 17 states that then made up the alliance constituted 41 percent of the U.S. population and, through their collective $9 trillion economies, generated 47 percent of America’s 2016 GDP. The entry of Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico and Wisconsin will further bolster the alliance’s impact in reducing national CO2 emissions.

The alliance provides its member states access to its Impact Partnership, “an innovative model to deliver targeted and expert demand-driven analytical, technical and other assistance to accelerate and scale up their most ambitious climate and clean energy priorities to implement climate goals.” To date, the World Resources Institute, the American Farmland Trust, The American Forests, the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land have joined the alliance as Impact Partners.

To most effectively and expeditiously address the multisystem threats of global climate disruption, I urge our governor to make the 23rd state to join the Union the 22nd state to join the U.S. Climate Alliance.

Nicholas H. Bartenhagen

Kennebunk