A coalition of states, cities and businesses is committing to meet the US Paris climate pledge following president Trump’s decision to pull the country out of the agreement, report Inside Climate news and others. The “We Are Still In” group has more than 1,000 signatories. Former New York City major Michael Bloomberg delivered a statement to the UN yesterday, on behalf of the group, promising to submit a quantified, combined “America’s Pledge” on climate, reports Reuters. The EU is looking for allies in saving the Paris Agreement among US cities and states, says another Reuters story. Washington DC is among the 175 cities joining the pledge, says Think Progress, while Google and Facebook are among the business signatories, says Bloomberg. The Hill, Financial Times, Climate Central and Independent all cover the sub-national US climate pledge. The Washington Post notes that a separate pledge by Michael Bloomberg to support the UN climate secretariat with $15m will not compensate for the loss of billions in US climate finance. Meanwhile Reuters reports on a new China-California cooperation agreement on clean technology and emissions trading.

Most Americans oppose president Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Some 59% oppose the move, the Washington Post says, versus 28% in favour. Reporting on the same poll, CNN says: “Republicans support Trump’s Paris climate move. Almost no one else does,” noting that two-thirds of Republicans support the move whereas 82% of Democrats are against. The Hill also covers the poll. Separately, the New York Times reports back after a visit to a high school in a former coal hub, where students were split between climate scepticism and climate activism.

Global airlines have pledged to stick to their climate change agreements at the general meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Mexico, reports Reuters. The association’s director general Alexandre de Juniac told the meeting: “The very disappointing decision of the U.S. to withdraw from Paris is not a setback for CORSIA [the carbon trading scheme for aviation agreed last year; see this Carbon Brief explainer for more]. We remain united behind CORSIA and our climate change goals.”

India’s Adani Group has decided to construct a multibillion dollar coal mine in Australia, the Financial Times reports, which will be one of the largest new coal developments in recent years. The decision follows a protracted legal battle amid protests, the paper adds, including over public subsidies being offered to the Carmichael coal, rail and port project. Bloomberg also covers the Adani decision. Carbon Brief looked at the scale and impact of the Carmichael mine last year.

A senior US diplomat at the US embassy in Beijing has resigned over the Trump administration’s decision to quit the Paris climate accord, reports Reuters, citing “a senior US official”. A US State Department spokesperson confirmed he had resigned but not the reason for his decision, Reuters adds.

In a 20 minute segment on his show Last Week Tonight, presenter John Oliver mocks president Donald Trump for his decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, writes Jake Nevins at the Guardian. The show, which featured Carbon Brief analysis of the remaining carbon budget to stay below 2C of warming (check out this video for a clip), concludes with optimism about the fight against climate change, says Nevins, by suggesting Trump’s decision provides a potent and personal symbol to motivate action: Trump himself. In a blog at Business Green, James Murray makes a similar argument, asking if Trump has “just fast tracked the start of the next era of climate action”?

“Republicans have been resisting action on climate change for just about as long as scientists have been asking the world to do something about it,” writes Naomi Oreskes in the Guardian, recounting the history of US politicking over climate action. “One might suppose that this Republican intransigence reflected the views of Republican voters, but polls show this is not the case,” she writes, concluding: “We must accept the reality that American climate change denial is not bipartisan. It is Republican. And the only way to fix it is to change the Republican party, or to vote Republicans out of office.” In a piece for the New York Times, David Leonhardt addresses a similar point, writing: “The big question is why the Republican Party has adopted a position at odds with science and with every other major country (including those run by conservatives). The basic answer is that the party has become radicalized over the last generation.”

There’s little indication that president Trump accepts the main tenets of climate change science, and that probably mattered when he decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, writes Chris Mooney in the Washington Post. Meanwhile US energy secretary Rick Perry says those seeking Trump’s views on climate science are “chasing a rabbit down a hole”, reports Bloomberg.

In walking away from the Paris Agreement on climate change, US president Donald Trump “passed on the greatest deal he could have ever sealed”, says Virgin chief executive Josh Bayliss in the Telegraph. He says: “I increasingly feel that he never quite grasped that Paris is a deal, not a threat. That’s a remarkable lapse for a self-styled dealmaker. The result is tragic. It is self-evident that the impacts of global warming transcend borders and national sovereignty, imperilling the future of all.”

Significant ice sheet melt from Greenland could have knock-on impacts for farming in the Sahel region of Africa, a new study suggests. The researchers modelled an extreme scenario of 0.5-3m of sea level rise from Greenland melt, finding that it the influx of freshwater into the oceans resulted in a “drastic” decrease in rainfall brought by the West African monsoon. Therefore, if such a rapid destabilisation of the ice sheet occurred, and without any adaptation measures, “tens to hundreds million people could be forced to leave the Sahel by the end of this century.”