Paris Climate Summit: Cities Lead Fight Against Climate Change

PARIS -- Cities are doing it for themselves.

While representatives of more than 190 national governments have assembled here in Paris this month to try and hammer out a comprehensive climate-change treaty, a global group of mayors has also convened in the French capital. Gathering under the auspices of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, mayors from every inhabited continent were on hand to celebrate innovation when it comes to fighting climate change and to share ideas.

The Huffington Post asked mayors of several U.S. cities in attendance at multiple events here in Paris -- including the C40 Cities Awards, co-emceed by Rio de Janeiro Mayor and C40 Chair Eduardo Paes and former New York Mayor and current C40 Board President Michael Bloomberg -- to each share one initiative they were leading in their city to combat climate change.

Some of those ideas include using district-energy zones in Pittsburgh, installing LED lighting in West Palm Beach, committing to buildings with net-zero carbon emissions in Salt Lake City, extending street-car lines in New Orleans and re-purposing vacant and abandoned buildings in Dubuque.

Watch the videos here to learn more about how American cities are innovating on climate.

This piece is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post on the U.N.’s 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris (Nov. 30-Dec. 11), aka the climate-change conference. The series is putting a spotlight on the mayors of C40 cities, a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change, and is part of HuffPost's What's Working editorial initiative. To view the entire series, visit here.