PITTSBURGH, PA (April 23, 2020) Mayor William Peduto today represented the United States in an international discussion on transitioning to a climate-friendly economy.
“Pittsburgh is a leading example of how turning to a knowledge-based economy can not only help our planet and our businesses, but provide new economic opportunities for the workers who built our region and others like it around the world. Doing this planning now will only make us stronger once our fractured economies reset for the post COVID-19 world,” Mayor Peduto said.
Today’s discussion was organized by the Institute for Public Policy Research, the United Kingdom’s leading progressive think tank, and was chaired by British MP Ed Miliband. Besides Mayor Peduto speakers included officials from Sweden’s second-biggest city, Gothenburg, home to the Gothenburg Shipyard in Älvstranden, an industrial site shuttered in the 1970s that transitioned into a technology park offering training to unemployed shipbuilders.
Mayor Peduto shared with policymakers his proposals for an “American Marshall Plan,” which includes a call for major investments by the federal government in climate-friendly, non fossil fuel powered industries and jobs.
“Workers across Western Pennsylvania and the rest of the Rust Belt built this country, and they are poised to rebuild it once more for the 21st Century — we just have to give them the support to do so. This pandemic is hitting the reset button on the entire global economy, and the United States needs to be a leader in smart economic innovation that will lead to industries that are both more sustainable and profitable, and to a rebirth of the American middle class,” Mayor Peduto said.
