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At a Glance The New York City Council voted to declare a climate emergency on Wednesday.

The city joins 650 local governments worldwide in declaring an emergency.

The declaration is mostly symbolic and did not require the mayor's signature. New York City is the largest city in the United States to declare a climate emergency.

Nevertheless, the city joins numerous other towns across the country – and countries across the world – to enact legislation that recognizes climate change as an emergency that needs global attention and an urgent response.

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"An immediate emergency mobilization to restore a safe climate" is needed to reverse the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment, said the council.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/GettyImages-1138754010.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273" srcset="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/GettyImages-1138754010.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/GettyImages-1138754010.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w" > New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks about the city's strategy to respond to climate change at Hunters Point South Park, April 22, 2019 in the Queens borough of New York City. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

"Ignoring climate change leaves our children to deal with its catastrophic consequences," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. "As Washington turns a blind eye and rolls back decades of environmental protections, New York turns to a future of net-zero emissions."

The Big Apple joins 650 local governments worldwide in declaring a climate emergency, 17 of which are in the U.S. , according to the Climate Mobilization. Other U.S. cities to declare an emergency include San Francisco, Oakland and Hoboken, New Jersey , the Huffington Post reported.

In April, New York City announced a new requirement that by 2030, all buildings larger than 25,000 square feet must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% .