With support for a Green New Deal growing rapidly at the grassroots, in Congress, and among potential 2020 presidential candidates, over 300 local elected officials from 40 states threw their support behind the bold proposal in an open letter released on Friday, declaring that it is "time to end the era of fossil fuel production and build our clean energy future together."

"The most important job of local leaders is to keep their communities safe," declared Meghan Sahli-Wells, the vice Mayor of Culver City, California and one of the officials who signed the letter. "The only way we can ensure the health and safety of our constituents is to end fossil fuel production in our communities, and transition to a just, clean, sustainable future."

By moving boldly and quickly to roll back fossil fuel production as part of a "comprehensive national plan such as a Green New Deal," the open letter states, "we will create millions of jobs and a cleaner, healthier, more prosperous future for all Americans now and in the future."

Read the full letter and list of signatories here.

The decision by dozens of mayors, state legislators, and city council members to back a Green New Deal comes as people in the United States and around the world are pressuring their leaders to abandon incremental approaches to the climate crisis and adopt ambitious policies that are in line with the latest science.

Citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) October report—which said humanity must cut carbon emissions in half by 2040 to avert planetary catastrophe—the local officials' open letter urges political leaders to recognize that "we are in a climate emergency."

To begin confronting this emergency without leaving anyone behind, the officials argued that lawmakers throughout the U.S. must commit to:

Producing 100 percent clean, renewable energy, starting with significant investments in disadvantaged communities and places most affected by pollution and currently dependent on fossil fuel jobs.

End permitting of new oil, gas, and coal projects and infrastructure, and begin a swift, managed decline of fossil fuel production, starting with phasing out production within a 2,500-foot public health buffer zone of occupied buildings and vulnerable areas, where the greatest harms occur.

End public subsidization of fossil fuels, divest from fossil fuel companies, and shift public investments to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy and help pay for the harm fossil fuels cause our states and municipalities; for example, a modest fee on fossil fuel production would generate billions of dollars to support workers and communities in the transition to 100% clean energy, creating good, family-sustaining jobs and stimulating our economies.

"We must protect our planet through actions big and small to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. There is no greater imperative," Catherine Blakespear, Mayor of Encinitas, California, said in a statement. "We have the technology to thrive and prosper without oil and gas drilling but we need the will to make it happen."

Read the local officials' full open letter: