Dear NRDC Supporter,

As world leaders are gathered in Dubai for global climate talks, the stakes could not be higher. The Earth is on track for catastrophic climate change, unless we urgently shift course.

Around the world, the climate crisis is taking a rising toll on families and communities, damaging the nation’s coastlines, forests, and farms; threatening public health and the economy; setting back equity and environmental justice; and imperiling wildlife, habitat, clean water, and air.

To avoid climate calamity, the U.S. and the world must move much faster to phase out fossil fuels and help developing countries confront the existential challenge of our time.

At the landmark 2015 Paris climate talks, the U.S. and 195 other nations agreed to limit global warming, setting a target of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

That’s the line the world must hold to avert the worst of rising seas, species collapse, blistering heat, and raging wildfires, storms, and floods. The promises made in Paris must be kept.

To achieve that goal, global coal, gas, and oil use must peak by 2025 and decline 43 percent by 2030.

And that’s why NRDC — thanks to your support — is using every tool at our disposal to help the U.S. and the world meet that goal: Putting the vital climate and clean energy investments of the Inflation Reduction Act into action … slashing emissions limits for cars and trucks and expanding electric vehicles … fighting destructive oil drilling off our shores and on public lands … and more.

This past year, we helped pass strong energy efficiency standards that will save Americans over $650 billion in utility costs, got California and seven other states to commit to phasing out the sale of new, gas-powered cars by 2035, and compelled the Biden administration to cancel oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Around the world, we’re seeing unprecedented progress underscoring that the tide is indeed turning: Global clean energy investment will hit a record $1.7 trillion this year. And here in the U.S., clean energy employs some 3.3 million workers, and companies are investing more than $210 billion in factories to build solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and advanced batteries.

Clean energy gains, though, are threatened by a global race to produce even more fossil fuels, just when they must be rapidly phased out.

The United States, Saudi Arabia, and 18 other nations that together account for 82 percent of the world’s fossil fuel supply, plan to extract twice as much coal, oil, and gas by 2030 as the world can tolerate without blowing past 1.5 degrees of warming within the decade.

It’s as if the industry is hellbent to grind down every last penny of profit before the clock runs out on a livable future.

In no world does that make sense.

That’s why when world leaders gather at COP28 — especially the U.S., European Union, China, India, and other major economies — they must commit to much more clean energy, and much less dirty.

That means at least TRIPLING global renewable energy capacity — and at least DOUBLING energy efficiency — by the end of this decade. And it means enabling a rapid and equitable phase out of fossil fuels, led by the world’s wealthiest and most polluting countries first.

On top of that, across the developing world, a staggering 3.6 billion people are living on the jagged frontlines of climate hazard and harm, paying a price they can’t afford for a crisis they didn’t cause.

This is climate injustice on a global scale. Wealthy nations that have contributed the most to this crisis have a responsibility to step up and address it in Dubai.

They must deliver on past promises, increase climate finance for developing nations, and take concrete steps to help vulnerable nations confront the mounting losses and damages resulting from climate change.

Ambition. Accountability. Equity. That's what NRDC is pushing world leaders for in Dubai, and that’s what we’re fighting for here in the U.S.

Thank you for fighting alongside us.

Sincerely,

Manish Bapna
President and CEO, NRDC

This is an excerpt of a recent blog post authored by Manish. You can read the full piece at NRDC.org.