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For Immediate Release Jan. 20, 2021
CONTACT: TEL- 301-613-4767
[email protected]
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THE FRONTLINES SHOWED UP FOR BIDEN, NOW HE MUST SHOW UP FOR US
Climate Justice Communities Demand Bold Action in First 100 Days
While this last week was dominated by coverage of white supremacist plans
for insurrection, along with the myriad ways in which Trump and Republicans
should be held to account, Black, Brown and Indigenous communities
understand the true culprit is the very system which enabled white
supremacy to grow in the first place: our racist, settler-colonial state.
From inception, this inhumane model has extracted labor from our bodies and
stolen from our lands. Ameliorating the existing racist social, cultural
and institutional practices that have enabled this moment will require much
more than a change in political party. To even begin the process will
require bold and transformative policies crafted in deep consultation and
partnership with Black, Brown, Indigenous Peoples and other working class
communities.
Those living on the frontlines of our interconnected economic, social,
democratic, and climate crises brought about the electoral victory
celebrated today. For this reason, we hold President Biden accountable for
delivering on his promises, starting today. Incremental policies that
maintain or increase the existing sacrifice zones and further harm our
communities are unacceptable.
In order to genuinely address the four overlapping crises: the COVID-19
pandemic, the economic crisis, climate change, and racial equity, which the
incoming administration has committed to making its most pressing
priorities, during the first 100 days of the Biden/Harris Administration,
WE CALL ON THE PRESIDENT TO IMMEDIATELY TAKE THESE 25 KEY EXECUTIVE ACTIONS
[3] to build back fossil free by:
* Protecting and investing in the Black, Indigenous, Brown, and
working-class communities that have borne the brunt of fossil fuel
pollution, extraction and climate disasters;
* Rejecting new fossil fuel projects, eliminating giveaways to oil, gas,
and coal corporations, and ending the era of fossil fuel production in a
way that fosters a just and equitable transition for workers and
communities;
* Launching a national climate mobilization to Build Back Fossil Free,
deliver jobs, justice, create real solutions to reducing emissions, and
opportunity for all;
Additionally, WE CALL ON THE BIDEN/HARRIS ADMINISTRATION TO:
* _End evictions and stop utility shut offs._ Direct the CDC in
coordination with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) to immediately extend, strengthen, and enforce
national moratoria on all evictions and utility shut offs for the duration
of the pandemic.
* _Cancel rent, mortgages, and debt. _Work with Congress and State and
Local governments to suspend rent and mortgage obligations and all rent,
utility, and mortgage debt as result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as laid out
by Right to the City Alliance and Human Impact Partners [4].
While we applaud reversing many of Trump’s policies, including rejoining
the international community in the Paris Agreement, this is the bare
minimum. Techno-fixes, market schemes, and false solutions to the climate
crisis through neo-liberal paradigms like this are neither progressive nor
beneficial to our communities. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which
includes carbon offsets and other false mechanisms, should be eliminated
from the agreement because it does not align with the values and tenets of
climate justice or Indigenous and Tribal sovereignty. Maintaining or
increasing sacrifice zones in our communities that are the direct
consequence of neo-liberal market based approaches, such as the above and
others like carbon market mechanisms [5] and risky geoengineering projects
[6], are not solutions. They are subsidies to Big Business that serve to
continue the historical harm the newly-elected President Biden has
committed himself to stopping. We need aspirational leadership, not more of
the same. We have provided answers and solutions through various avenues,
including but not limited to the THRIVE Agenda [7], Build Back Fossil Free
[3], National Justice Housing Platform [8] and A People’s Orientation to
a Regenerative Economy [9], and we will hold you accountable to making them
happen.
We look forward to cultivating true partnerships with the Biden/Harris
Administration that are based on the Jemez Principles [10] and the wisdom
of the frontlines, with effective solutions that are generated by the
communities most impacted.
###
QUOTES FROM CLIMATE JUSTICE ALLIANCE STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
DWAIGN TYNDAL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ALTERNATIVES FOR COMMUNITY &
ENVIRONMENT: “Our communities are among the most polluted, most policed,
and poorest in the country. We call on the Biden administration to reject
austerity-based thinking and invest in solutions that center the people
most harmed by extractive industry and environmental racism.”
ELIZABETH YEAMPIERRE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UPROSE: “Covid19 and climate
change are everyday reminders that conventional solutions can no longer be
applied to unconventional challenges. The Biden Administration has an
unprecedented opportunity to birth a new governance that centers equity,
justice and frontline solutions. Whether the new administration decides to
listen to communities and put the US on a course that is a departure from
fossil fuel extraction and grass-tops solutions will become evident in the
next 100 days.”
JARON BROWNE, ORGANIZING DIRECTOR GRASSROOTS GLOBAL JUSTICE ALLIANCE:
“Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman said at today’s inauguration,
‘Being American is the past we step into and how we repair it.’ The
mandate that the Biden Harris Administration steps into is this powerful
call for bold action that begins to repair the profound legacy of
colonialism, structural racism, extractivism, and social inequity. The
BREATHE Act, the Green New Deal, the THRIVE Agenda and bold housing and
fossil free executive action are the first steps toward repair, healing,
and transformation as we usher in this new day.”
TOM BK GOLDTOOTH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK:
“We acknowledge Biden bringing the US back into the Paris Agreement.
Under the global climate agreement there remains much to do to strengthen
its implementation. Financial support for the fossil fuel industry has
increased every year since the agreement was adopted to the tune of 2.7
trillion dollars, with fossil fuel financing dominated by big US banks.
Given this dismal history of domestic and international cooperation and the
inability to reduce emissions under the carbon market-focused Kyoto
Protocol, we will continue to organize against the US relying on the false
solutions of carbon pricing mechanisms that do not cut emissions at source.
We push this administration to take real action towards keeping fossil
fuels in the ground, as well as to provide support for equitable emissions
reductions worldwide and just ways of building a global emergency effort to
stabilize the climate at 1.5C.”
_THE CLIMATE JUSTICE ALLIANCE IS A GROWING MEMBER ALLIANCE OF 75 URBAN AND
RURAL FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES, ORGANIZATIONS AND SUPPORTING NETWORKS IN THE
CLIMATE JUSTICE MOVEMENT. CJA IS DEDICATED TO BUILDING JUST TRANSITION AWAY
FROM EXTRACTIVE SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION AND POLITICAL
OPPRESSION, AND TOWARDS RESILIENT, REGENERATIVE AND EQUITABLE ECONOMIES._
Climate Justice Alliance
Checks payable to Movement Strategy Center (CJA in memo)
PO BOX 10202
Berkeley, CA 94709
United States
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