Friends: Happy 2023!

January 2023

Working toward a future where people and planet are valued, and our government represents all of us

Green Party Endorses STOP U.S. Wars: MLK Week of Actions

The Green Party of PA Steering Committee has endorsed STOP U.S. Wars: MLK Week of Actions, which will take place from January 13 through January 22, 2023. This nation-wide MLK Week of Actions was called for by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC). The week will include a variety of actions from demonstrations to teach-ins, banner drops to chalk-ins, street meetings to webinars.

As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so correctly reminded us, the U.S. is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.  Since WWII, the U.S. has initiated more than 60 military interventions in foreign countries. The U.S. is now in direct confrontation in Ukraine with Russia, another nuclear power.  As Dr. King said on April 4, 1967, “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world: my own government. I cannot be silent.” 

In addition, the Green Party is encouraging its county Green Parties in PA to organize and to participate in peace events during the STOP U.S. Wars: MLK Week of Actions. For more information, please contact Chris Robinson, GPPA Communication Team, at [email protected]

PA Green News

By Chris Robinson

Delegates from county Green Parties will elect 2023 leaders for the Green Party of PA at their state meeting on January 8.
Officers to be elected will include Co-chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and three Members at Large. Delegates will also elect their representatives to the Green Party U.S. committees and caucuses. Nominations closed on December 31. This meeting will be open to the public, but only delegates may vote.

National Green News

Greens endorse Railroad Workers United demands for sick days and workers' rights

The Green Party joins the rail workers reform caucus, Railroad Workers United, in calling on Congress to instead use the opportunity to empower workers, including by adopting publicly owned railways, paid family and sick leave for workers, and expanded union rights by passing the PRO Act as well funding the NLRB to ensure union rights are protected. more here

Green Party Pushes For Ballot Access In Eight States - Says Party Suppression Equals Voter Suppression

The Green Party results this November will largely determine how many Green candidates can appear on the ballot in the next election cycle, and may also impact ballot lines for the Green Party 2024 presidential nominee. The Green Party currently has ballot lines for 2024 in 16 states and the District of Columbia – and hopes to gain additional lines this November. Because of restrictive ballot access laws, other 2024 ballot lines can only be gained via petitioning in 2023 and 2024. more here

Combat Corruption and Promote Transparency

"Despite world leaders making it clear as part of the Paris Climate Accords that we need to rapidly transition to a clean energy future, banks have continued to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into the fossil fuel industry." Mark Dunlea - Eco-Action Committee Co-Chair. more here

Greens slam Biden administration for impeding climate action at COP27

The push by India and 80 other countries to phase out fossil fuels was rejected, with instead an agreement that only mentions halting “unabated coal,” a loophole to allow fossil fuels to be continued to be burnt while tens of billions of public funds are wasted on the unproven technology of carbon capture. Democrats in the U.S. have diverted billions of tax dollars to such schemes. more here

Global Green News

Edited by Hal Brown

EU Strikes Deal on World’s First Carbon Border Tariff

European lawmakers reached a political agreement on the introduction of a carbon border tax, one of the key tools in the EU’s fight against global warming. From now on, with this tax, manufacturers who want to bring foreign products to European soil will have to pay for the carbon emitted during their production. This system will come into full effect in 2026 or 2027.

The carbon tax will be officially called the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). It was presented by the European Commission in July 2021 with the aim of taxing CO2 emissions linked to imports of steel, cement, fertilizers, aluminum and electricity. CBAM will put European industries on an equal footing with their foreign competitors... more here

Climate Change has Worsened Floods in West Africa

Climate change has increased the likelihood of intense rains 80 times, causing historic floods in Nigeria, which have killed more than 600 people in recent months and devastated agriculture in Africa’s most populous country . . . . .

More than 1.4 million displaced people and hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops were ravaged by these extraordinary floods, which also affected Niger, Chad, and neighboring countries, amid a food crisis linked to the war in Ukraine.

The exceptional rainfall levels in the region around Lake Chad since the start of the rainy season in June are believed to be the main cause of this tragedy... more here

Landmark Biodiversity Agreement at COP15 in Montreal

The 196 states that are signatories to the Convention on Biological Biodiversity have agreed to halt biodiversity loss by 2030. State environment ministers and their negotiators have pledged to take “urgent action” to protect 30% of the planet, restore 30% of ecosystems and double resources for nature protection within 8 years. “The agreement has been adopted,” Huang Runqiu, Chinese president of COP15, said in Montreal . . . .
COP15 also approved the creation of a new branch of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), dedicated to the application of the Kunming-Montreal Agreement: an alternative to the separate fund that many countries of the South still hope to obtain in the future. more here

Marine Tondelier Becomes New Secretary of Europe Ecologie Les Vert Party

The new national secretary of Europe Ecologie Les Verts [EELV]  . . . Marine Tondelier . . .  will therefore have to tackle a major project: to bring together the different currents of this [French] party in the midst of a crisis. “A new page is opening. We are going to go back on the offensive, with a clear, ambitious and collective political line,” she said . . . . 

In her first speech as chief of ecologists, Marine Tondelier highlighted the need to broaden EELV’s electoral base, first of all by having a good European election in 2024, where the party will have an independent list, then to municipal elections of 2026. For the moment, no one is emerging among ecologists for the next presidential election... more here