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Hey there, my name is Mark and I help compile the Frontline Temp Check every month. I want to make this newsletter better, and curious what you think. [Can you take 90 seconds to fill out this survey]([link removed])? Thanks!

Dear John,

It’s been a challenging few weeks for a lot of people.

We have a big fight in front of us to carry out a Just Transition in the face of an overtly antagonistic federal government. And a lot of the work we need to do, needs to happen with our neighbors, our classmates, our coworkers. It happens at the community level. That’s how we’re going to build resilient communities. That’s how we’re going to build alternatives to the current system, things like worker-owned cooperatives, land trusts, community-owned energy projects. Things that will help our friends, neighbors, and yes, all the people who voted for Trump.

Creating projects in our communities that makes everyone’s lives easier, letting them know their basic needs will be met regardless of who’s in power, showing up when the power shuts off. That’s how we’re going to get through these difficult times.

If you want to see more projects that make our communities healthier, safer, and more resilient, can you help us work to secure our $50 million EPA grant?

[Take 30 seconds to email EPA Administrator Regan]([link removed]) and tell him the climate funds must be released now. Remind him that his legacy should be one of standing with environmental justice communities, not one of cowering to right wing pressure.

[Then take another 30 seconds and email Democratic Senate Majority Leader Schumer]([link removed])and ask him to contact Regan to release the funds now.

In the News

[Biden Makes His Own Attack on Nonprofit Over Palestine]([link removed])

[Another Trump presidency is literally toxic — his opponents are gearing up for battle]([link removed])

[The House Just Made It Easier to Target Climate Groups]([link removed])

Announcing CJA’s New Executive Director!

After completing a competitive search over the past two months, we are thrilled to announce that the CJA Board of Directors has chosen KD Chavez as our new Executive Director!

After two rounds of interviews with a strong pool of candidates, we were thoroughly impressed by the range and depth of KD’s leadership, movement-building skills, and vast experience directing work at a trans-local and national scale.

As our Alliance continues to grow our power, lead innovative campaigns, and amplify effective movement strategy towards winning a Just Transition, we believe KD is the perfect match for our ambitious objectives in coming years.

Our deepest gratitude to our dear friends at Koya Partners, who helped shepherd our ED hiring process forward.

Please help us welcome KD into this new role! Here’s a few words from them:

KD Chavez (far left) holding their daughter, walking with friends.

“I am deeply humbled to accept this calling and serve as executive director of CJA. I am ready to honor our people by remaining deeply rooted in our shared values of a Just Transition, working at an organization born from and for the grassroots climate justice movement. I look forward to serving and building with our incredible member alliance of grassroots climate justice leaders and partners. Together, we will work towards our liberation while creating the cultural conditions we need to build the just, equitable, and thriving future we all deserve.” - KD Chavez

Policy Updates

EPRA

If you haven’t already, we are urging [everyone to let their congressmembers]([link removed]) know where you stand on the newest dirty deal legislation called the Energy Permitting Reform Act ([EPRA]([link removed])). It’s expected to come up during this lame duck session, likely attached to must-pass legislation like the National Defense Authorization Act, and if passed it would rip away decades of advances we’ve made when it comes to pollution. If you think communities already don’t have enough say in major infrastructure projects, if this bill passes it’ll strip the meager protections
we currently have, allowing industry – from fossil fuels to renewables – to force energy projects onto communities with no input or recourse.

EPA

Another challenge we’ve been facing is the potential loss of a major grant the EPA selected CJA and partners for last December. In December 2023, CJA and our partners were selected as the National Grantmaker – West for the EPA’s Thriving Communities Grantmaker Program. We were tasked with moving $50 million to environmental justice communities working to address environmental and health impacts of polluting industries.

The problem is that we haven’t received a dollar, despite every other grantmaker already having theirs obligated. Obligation is a fancy term the federal government uses to mean the money is committed to the work, and it becomes much harder for a future administration to take that money back.

If the money for CJA’s grantmaking program isn’t obligated by EPA Administrator Michael Regan by December 6th, it most likely will never make it to the communities who need it most. We’re asking everyone to support by:

[Taking 30 seconds to email EPA Administrator Regan]([link removed]) and tell him the climate funds must be released now. Remind him that his legacy should be one of standing with environmental justice communities, not one of cowering to right wing pressure.

[Then take another 30 seconds and email Democratic Senate Majority Leader Schumer]([link removed])and ask him to contact Regan to release the funds now.

COP29 Disappoints Once Again

This year’s UN Climate Conference (COP29) was a disappointment. We’ve gotten used to that as the COP process further fractures and wealthier nations push the brunt of responsibility for climate solutions onto the nations from which they extracted their wealth. It’s clear that COPs as they currently exist have stopped serving their original purpose: we agree that it’s time to move from negotiation to implementation, and support the demand that [future COPs should only happen in countries that show commitment to climate goals.]([link removed])

The failures of the process are becoming so routine, it’s hard to think of them as failures anymore: from being hosted in a [petrostate with limited freedom of expression]([link removed]), to [fossil fuel reps outnumbering people]([link removed]) from the most climate vulnerable countries, and being chaired by a former oil executive.

There were two big takeaways from this year’s summit. First, countries reached agreement on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which establishes [faulty rules for trading carbon credits]([link removed]) across countries. When it came to climate finance, [historical polluters landed on a paltry $300 billion commitment]([link removed]), falling dramatically short of the minimum $1 trillion climate experts say is needed.

Despite the significant frustrations of the process, we affirm our solidarity with communities fighting for Just Transition globally, and recognize the many steps of progress that our communities have made, external to these unjust state processes.

Representatives from 95 Indigenous Peoples across the globe met in Geneva in October and developed the [Indigenous Peoples’ Principles and Protocols for Just Transition]([link removed]) to provide a principled framework for developing climate solutions that should be adhered to by international governing bodies. And, as mentioned below, our communities had a win regarding geoengineering at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Cali, Colombia that preceded COP29.

We’re looking forward to the convergence of civil society and movement groups at COP 30 in Brazil next year, which promises to be a major turning point in the fight for a livable future.

CJA's CBD delegation

*In-Depth Read* Report back from UN’s Biodiversity Summit

In October, CJA sent a delegation of four members and one staff to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia. The delegation aimed to build relationships with other movements in the region while engaging with the negotiations process and supporting our allies in making interventions against false solutions.

During the trip, our allies at the Indigenous Environmental Network arranged a meeting with a local community rooted in the [Sendero Calima Urban Forest]([link removed]). The project started when the community came together to plant trees in an effort to protect that part of the city from flooding by the nearby river. It has since grown to include gardens, a playground and even a burial ground for beloved pets. People from around Cali go there now to be in community and learn how to reconnect with the Earth.

The site visit was a restorative break from the profit-driven environment at CBD. There were some powerful voices at the CBD – mostly from Indigenous communities, communities of African descent and others from the Global South – who were advocating for real solutions to biodiversity loss. But industry and governments from the Global North were also there hoping to profit from the crisis by privatizing nature and pushing dangerous techno-fixes, like geoengineering and “synthetic biology.”

There were some victories by social movements – after two weeks of struggle, there was an agreement to establish a permanent subsidiary body that will give Indigenous peoples a voice in the implementation of traditional knowledge and practices in protecting biodiversity. Social movement organizations were also able to work with parties to get language into the CBD agreement text that reinforces a de-facto moratorium on geoengineering.

Still, industry made it clear that they will continue to push dangerous distractions that will allow them to profit while maintaining their destruction of biodiversity. One popular false solution being pushed were biodiversity offsets – a way of justifying the destruction of one biodiverse ecosystem by “protecting” another. Often “protection” of an ecosystem means privatizing resources and displacing Indigenous communities. These are comparable to carbon offset projects, which have been shown repeatedly to be harmful, ineffective and fraudulent. And despite the effective [moratorium on geoengineering]([link removed]) established by [parties to the London
Protocol]([link removed]), industry is still intent on dangerous, wide-reaching experiments like [solar radiation management]([link removed]) and [marine geoengineering]([link removed]). The London Protocol sets agreements around the disposal of waste into marine environments.

CJA’s delegation brought critical voices from land-based communities, islands and the Arctic who spoke out against the false solutions in the space, and brainstormed ways to bring lessons about threats they saw at the international level back to their communities. Looking ahead, members are looking to apply the lessons learned from CBD to plan for a robust CJA delegation to the UNFCC COP30 in Belém, Brazil next year.

Social movements are intent on making interventions in COP30, one of the few to be in the Global South. Both the UNFCCC and biodiversity processes have been captured more and more by corporations looking to push false solutions and profit from crises. For 30 years, peoples movements have been pushing for real solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises that would serve and empower communities.

At the start of COP29, climate experts made the bold assertion that the summits no longer serve their purpose and we need to shift from negotiations to implementation. Brazil will be a critical moment to come together as social movements from around the world to demand governments take substantial action on the climate. Stay up to date on CJA’s international organizing on the road to COP30.

[Support CJA]([link removed])

Climate Justice Alliance

1960A University Ave
Berkeley, CA, 94704
United States


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