Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (Photo Creative Commons)

The pact comes a week before international leaders are to meet in Cancun, Mexico for the 16th annual United Nations conference on climate change.  Following the widely panned inability of member states to agree to a binding emissions reduction plan in 2009's Copenhagen accord, many already have modest expectations for the two-week climate summit.

U.S. President Obama is coming to the Cancun summit with less ambitious plans than originally planned due to the Republican gains in the midterm elections.

Obama will be seeking new regulations that cut emissions on power plants and factories, instead of his original ambitions to install cap-and-trade through a climate change bill in Congress.

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