As the slow-moving conference on climate change gets underway in Cancún, the 193 nations present at the talks don’t seem to agree on much of anything. There is little hope that China and the United States will get past their differences on transparency reporting and other key sticking points, which made the Copenhagen agreements difficult to sustain.

An altogether different scenario is getting underway on the local level.  Mayors and local government representatives who are on the front line of the planet’s fight against a changing climate don’t have the luxury of time; they are moving forward with concrete climate actions with the understanding that there is simply no time to waste.

In light of the expected outcomes from COP16, a group