San Francisco, California - Hours after convening the world’s climate leaders in San Francisco this week, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. Saturday joined Baden-Württemberg Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann to sign an agreement establishing a sister state relationship between California and Baden-Württemberg, Germany, pledging to further strengthen climate, energy and economic ties and collaborate on areas including urban infrastructure, technology and scientific research.

“The German connection is alive and well in California,” said Governor Brown. “The fact that this little Under2 Coalition has grown shows you that from small beginnings we get very large outcomes, as long as we keep persevering.”

Governor Brown and Minister-President Kretschmann sign sister state agreement.

The agreement builds upon more than three years of significant collaboration between California and Baden-Württemberg. In 2015, California and Baden-Württemberg partnered to launch the Under2 Coalition, a historic international climate partnership of states, provinces and countries committed to limiting the increase in global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius. With new members added at the Summit, this coalition includes 222 jurisdictions on 6 continents, representing more than 1.3 billion people and $34 trillion in GDP – equivalent to 17 percent of the global population and 43 percent of the global economy.