Author: climatecrisispolicy

Join us for a high-level symposium to discuss federal legislative plans for 2021!

Register for the symposium

Dec. 9 & 10, 2020. Six Sessions & Climate Cabaret!

Congress is gearing up to take real action on Climate in 2021. And it is strategically vital that civil society be prepared to work together to secure meaningful legislative victories. There are thousands of climate groups and millions of activists waiting for coordinated leadership and direction. This symposium will delve into the 2021 Action Plans from leading coalitions and organizations to guide the way. Let’s unite the vast climate movement for real political power!

Event Schedule

Wed. Dec. 9

1. Noon – 2pm EST: Congress
2. 3 – 5pm EST: Major Environmental Organizations
3. 6 – 8pm EST: National Climate Coalitions

Thu. Dec. 10

1. Noon – 2pm EST: Policy Sector Coalitions
2. 3 – 5pm EST: Faith. Legal. Scientists. Health. Environmental Justice.
3. 6 – 8pm EST: Direct Action. Mass Mobilization. Youth. Grassroots.
4. CLOSING: Climate Cabaret, featuring NYC Artists, 8 – 9pm EST

Keynote Speakers

• Senator Jeff Merkley (OR)
• Congressman Andy Levin (MI)
• Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI)

Session Panelists

Wed. Dec. 9

Noon – 2pm EST: Session 1: Open Plenary: Legislation & Congress

• Todd Fernandez, Executive & Legislative Director, Climate Crisis Policy
• Clyde Hall, Director, Naraya Cultural Preservation Council
• Adam Zipkin, Senior Advisor, Office of Senator Cory Booker
• Michelle Deatrick, Chair, DNC Council on the Environment & Climate Crisis
• Rania Batrice, Executive Director, March for Science
• Susan Hendershot, President, Interfaith Power & Light
• Demond Drummer, Co-founder and Executive Director, New Consensus

3 – 5pm EST: Session 2: Major Environmental Organizations

• Sascha von Bismarck, Executive Director, Environmental Investigation Agency
• Chad Frishmann, Vice-President & Director of Research, Project Drawdown
• Kieran Suckling, Executive Director, Center for Biological Diversity
• Emily Southard, US Campaign Manager, 350.org
• John Fernandez, Director, Environmental Solutions Initiative, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Ramon Cruz, President, Sierra Club
• Janet Redman, Climate Campaign Director, Greenpeace
• Felice Stadler, Vice President, Environmental Defense Fund

6 – 8pm EST: Session 3: Nationwide Coalitions

• Navina Khanna, Director, HEAL Food Alliance
• Niaz Dorry, Executive Director, National Family Farm Coalition
• Jacqui Patterson, Sr. Director, Environmental and Climate Justice Program, NAACP
• Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers
• Bob Perkowitz, Founder & President, EcoAmerica
• Jim Walsh, Senior Energy Policy Analyst, Food & Water Action
• Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder & Executive Director, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) & Executive Committee, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature

Thu. Dec. 10

Noon – 2pm EST: Session 4: Policy Sector Coalitions

• Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Director, Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary, & Co-Chair, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
• Mark Reynolds, Executive Director, Citizens Climate Lobby
• Ken Berlin, President and CEO, Climate Reality Project
• Cornelius Blanding, Executive Director, Federation of Southern Coops
• Peggy M. Shepard, Executive Director, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
• Lise Van Sustren, Steering Committee, Climate Psychiatry Alliance
• Jake Davis, Senior Policy Advisor, Family Farm Action Alliance

3 – 5pm EST: Session 5: Faith & Indigenous

• Nigel S. Savage, President & CEO, Hazon
• Rev. Michael Malcom, Founder and Executive Director, The People’s Justice Council
• The Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director, GreenFaith
• Shantha Ready Alonso, Executive Director, Creation Justice Ministries
• Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action
• Roberto Mukaro Borrero, President, United Confederation of Taíno People (UCTP)
• Jose Aguto, Associate Director, Catholic Climate Covenant

6 – 8pm EST: Session 6: Direct Action & Grassroots

• Jonathan Walker, Rise & Resist
• Laurie Cotter, Rise & Resist
• Christina See, Extinction Rebellion
• Tia Nelson, Managing Director, Climate, Outrider
• Leslie Cagan, Coordinator, Peoples Climate Movement NYC
• Roger Hallam, Co-Founder, Extinction Rebellion UK

8 – 9pm EST: Closing: Climate Cabaret

• Barbara Brussell (Co-Host)
• Matt Berman (Co-Host)
• Mark Arthur Miller
• Marissa Mulder
• Karen Oberlin
• Christine Pedi
• Meg MacKay
• Billy Philadelphia
• Donna Elane Miller
• Jon-Mark Hurley
• Jon Weber

Co-Hosts

• Climate Crisis Policy
• Climate Reality NYC
• Drawdown NYC
• Organic Consumers Association
• Family Farm Action
• 350 Kishwaukee
• Hazon
• Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light
• Mighty Earth
• Climate Nashville
• Climate Chattanooga
• Climate Reality Project Peconic Region
• Climate Reality Project Suffolk County
• Students for Climate Action
• Climate Reality Project Capital Region
• Climate Reality Project Westchester
• Climate Reality Project Rockland
• Climate Reality Project Finger Lakes
• Climate Reality Project Chautauqua County
• Climate Reality Project Hudson Valley & Cattskills
• Protect All Children’s Environment
• Center for Biological Diversity
• Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy
• 350 Central Massachusetts
• Pesticide Action Network
• 350 Chicago
• Earth Day Initiative
• Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community
• Hugelrado Farms
• Climate Action Iowa
• Climate Reality Project: Greater NJ Gateway Chapter
• United Confederation of Taíno People
• The Sustainable Living Coalition
• Santa Cruz Climate Action Network
• Rise & Resist
• Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice
• Community for Earth Committee, First Unitarian Church of Portland, OR
• Metro NY Catholic Climate Movement
• Climate Reality Project Southwestern Oregon
• Global Catholic Climate Movement
• The Sustainable Living Coalition

All welcome! Email ClimateCrisisPolicy@gmail.com
Register now & let’s unite for victory!

We had an incredible turnout of over 600 registered environmental organizations and citizen activists for our July 1st webinar. If you weren’t able to attend, please check out the video above to hear from our great guest speakers and listen in on our open discussions.

By J. Todd Fernandez, Esquire

What is the demand of Congress to save the planet?  The plan to eliminate pollution?  It’s time to figure this out.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform.   The DREAM Act.  Medicare for All Act.  The Equality Act.  These are the demands of the LGBTQ, immigration and health care movements.
 
The Civil Rights Act.  The Equal Rights Amendment.  These are the branded solutions around which movements are built.

What is the name of the bill to solve the climate crisis?   

The Green New Deal comes to mind – thankfully.  But not so fast, because it’s not a bill with policy fixes.  It is a wonderful rallying cry to an ideal – that Congress must pass omnibus legislation to stop this crisis in time.  But what legislation?  Whose legislation?

The good news is that in 2021 we’ll likely have an opportunity to pass planet-saving legislation.  But we must figure out what that entails now in 2020, and get broad buy-in so that we are ready for the ultimate showdown in 2021.

Many segmented climate-related bills have been filed recently.  There are bills on topics like fracking, plastics, agriculture, and carbon fees.
But the scientists say there are 100 top greenhouse gas sources and solution areas.  We need the bills to match.  The demands.

Democrats in Congress are also drafting legislation.  The U.S. House Climate Crisis Select Committee will issue a report soon outlining a cross-committee approach.  And the House Energy & Commerce Climate Sub-Committee has a draft bill, as does the Senate, covering various pieces but not comprehensive.

Civil society experts and issue advocates also have strong opinions and many reports, now collected on one website with over 130 documents digested into 700+ policy ideas.  This shows the overlap of opinion on big solutions, and a litany of details honed from deep experience.  These are the elements of legislation to be drafted.

Fortunately, as mentioned, the scientists have clearly laid out the top 100 greenhouse gas sources and solutions.  This list of topics requiring new policy is the scope for our demands.

Also working on this front, a team of lawyers led by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University is collecting and drafting policy language to match the various solutions.   This is the draft bill language that can be a starting point for bill drafting.

Now we need to put the pieces together – the scientists, civil society and legal – and draft and file legislation tackling all 100 solutions: A Climate Bill Package.

That’s the hard part.  But it is absolutely core to having a demand.

The demand in a movement is the foundation.  All action stems from the demand, the goal.  The petitions, phone banking, voting, coalitions and direct action all start with a demand.

What is our demand of Congress to save our planet?  What do we want to collectively manifest?

We have 6 months to figure this out.  And it’s time to get specific because time has run out.  After bills are passed, we still have to build out the solutions, and this will take years we can’t afford.  Entering the climate policy debate in 2021 without clear previous agreement on what is needed to really solve the problems could mean a nightmare of infighting and lost opportunity.

On July 1, 2020, representatives from academia and science, lawyers and organizers are starting this conversation and all are welcome.

The intention is to make this effort transparent so that more of society can be involved in the writing, filing and pushing for a package of climate bills that would truly reverse the horrifying trajectory.

Our strategy – as a people – to stop ecological disaster needs to be transparent.  The people deserve to be involved.  The problem is not being solved.  And the cause needs much broader engagement to have more power in Congress.  

We also can not entrust this process to any political party.  Civil society should lead, not follow, the legislative process.

The quest to save Earth as we know it can not be an insider secret.  We must have a public-facing campaign and inclusive process to generate the missing political will.

The current alignment and capacity of climate-active organizations is not powerful enough to defeat the opposition.  Once we file bills with teeth and real solutions, the resistance will be even stronger.  No insider strategy will overcome this global power without a convergence of massive outside pressure.

We need all the universities, the legal associations, the scientists and organizers making the same demands.  We need them involved in drafting the bills and filing the bills.  And we need the institutes themselves leading the charge. The Earth needs all nonprofits to maximize their allowable lobbying activities and join the fight to pass legislation to prevent the unthinkable.

There are a million points of light in the climate cause seeking direction.  United in shared demands, we can be a laser that rewrites the future.

Join the conversation July 1, 2020 at Noon for URGENT: Federal Climate Bills & Strategy.  Register today.