Boston to Host Third Climate Leaders Summit in 2017

Boston will be the site of the third U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit, set to take place in 2017.

United States Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh made the announcement in Beijing earlier this month at the second-ever summit, which brought together American and Chinese leaders to discuss how the two world powers can combat climate change. The announcement follows an international climate change agreement signed in Paris last year, as well as the first U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit, which took place in Los Angeles last September.

“We know we must be making investments now to create a more sustainable future for the world we share. I look forward to continuing these substantive, challenging conversations in Boston,” Walsh said during the announcement.

In Beijing, Kerry, a former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, referred to Boston as a “leader on climate action” and noted the urgency of addressing climate change for coastal cities like Boston.

Last December, Boston released a “climate change vulnerability assessment,” which warned that by 2030, Cambridge may experience triple the number of days with temperatures above 90 degrees each year compared to 2015, and also identified several areas within Cambridge’s key infrastructure that were vulnerable to the increasing heat.

In 2014, Walsh also released a climate action plan that reiterated previous calls to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020.

—Staff writer Brian P. Yu can be reached at brian.yu@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @brianyu28.