Solar supplies nearly 10 percent of California’s power in 2015, GM rolls out mass-market electric car with 200-mile range, NASA tests more efficient aircraft propulsion, and more news of the week in clean energy solutions.

Though we may come by our climate cynicism honestly post-Paris, it doesn't do the climate (or our future) a lick of good. The world only wins climate solutions if our country, the United States, shows all the way up. And no matter how hard it may be to hold our own country so accountable, that remains our indispensable role.

To “be” climate is the hardest thing of all, yet there’s nothing else to be. Climate denial persists because we don’t want to go here. Contradicting science is the least of it; we compartmentalize; we detach; we disown consequences. We watch our leaders work their hearts out for a strong climate agreement, while toying with a deal to lift a ban on oil exports.

Is the US Senate really preparing to eliminate the ban on crude oil export – threatening our communities and setting back our fight against climate change? And are they really doing so on the same week as the Paris climate conference?

The Urban Clean Energy Revolution report details the state of play of low-carbon cities and describes a rich array of best practices and examples of urban clean energy innovation and carbon reduction.

The international climate talks are a moment in time for forward-looking urban leaders to demonstrate the collective political will they have amassed for bold climate action, and to show how far they have already come in reducing carbon emissions.

Urban leaders are increasingly aligning their carbon reduction and clean energy agendas with other important community priorities—such as air quality, transportation, social equity, economic development, and climate change resilience. In doing so, they forge stronger and more diverse coalitions for climate action.