“The front lines are already way ahead of the politicians. We are leading with solutions—from community-owned solar energy systems that create safe, good-paying jobs to just recovery efforts that ensure those communities most impacted by the crisis are built back in sustainable and safe ways based on community needs,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UPROSE and co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance Board of Directors. “To truly address the climate crisis, we need policymakers to enact bold and transformative policies like the THRIVE Act, which [was] crafted in deep consultation and partnership with Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islander, poor, and marginalized communities.”
115+ groups unveil transformational actions for next President to kick off climate justice agenda from day one
The promise of climate policy for frontline communities lies in targeted policy design that prioritizes protections, direct emissions reductions, job creation and other economic benefits, and resiliency gains for the most impacted communities, including greater control of decision-making—all of which animates the executive action platform that follows. It also lies in addressing deeply interconnected crises of housing affordability, gentrifying economic development, and financial extraction of labor, community, and natural resources. Those challenges cannot be solved by the executive branch on its own and will require extensive state and local action, major federal legislation in some cases, and massive public investment through appropriations, bonding, and other means.
Nearly 100 other groups also endorsed the proposal, including multiple local 350 chapters, Center for International Environmental Law, Climate Hawks Vote, CodePink, Data for Progress, Earth Day Initiative, Friends of the Earth US, Rainforest Action Network, SustainUS, the Climate Mobilization, the Solutions Project, and UPROSE.
Black Lives Matter: Eco-advocacy groups step forward with vows to fight for environmental AND racial justice
Elizabeth Yeampierre, the executive director of UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization and co-chair of the national Climate Justice Alliance, told ICN’s reporters that she considers showing up to fight police brutality and racial violence an essential element of her climate crisis activism. Since “big green” eco-organizations have used the climate justice narrative without necessarily making it a priority of their agendas, Yeampierre says they should take direction from Black Lives Matter organizers in this matter.