Declaring a Climate Emergency to Clear the Way for the Green New Deal
Following the hottest decade and the hottest year on record, the summer of 2024 is expected to be another record-breaking summer of extreme heat, smoke filled air, and violent hurricanes. For the first time, average global temperatures have surpassed the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius and the United Nations’ climate chief has issued a stark warning -— we have only 2 years to save the planet from the devastating impacts of climate change.
UN climate chief presses for faster action, says humans have 2 years left ‘to save the world’
Humanity has only two years left “to save the world” by making dramatic changes in the way it spews heat-trapping emissions and it has even less time to act to get the finances behind such a massive shift, the head of the United Nations climate agency said.
2023 was the warmest year in the modern temperature record
It’s official: 2023 was the world’s warmest year on record; 47 years since Earth’s had a colder-than-average year.
The Facts
The United States leads the world in oil and gas production, exports and expansion. Fossil fuel production and combustion are the core drivers of the global climate emergency – responsible for nearly 90% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions and more than 75% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
The Solution
Instead of wasting the dollars of taxpayers and utility ratepayers on outdated and costly fossil fuels, we must invest trillions of dollars in renewable energy and transportation, green union jobs and climate justice. The renewable energy transition must be grounded in justice including the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples to redress the climate, racial, socioeconomic, and ecological injustices of the fossil fuel era. The future we want and deserve requires that President Biden:
- Declare climate change a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act (NEA) and advance the end of the fossil fuel era.
- Declare climate change a national emergency under the Stafford Act and re-imagine FEMA to be an engine of the just and equitable energy transition.
- Redirect all agency funds towards renewable energy and away from fossil fuels to build back fossil-free in impacted communities.
- Establish high labor standards to protect workers against extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and other climate emergencies through strong Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations
In Earth month this year, tens of thousands of young people along with the Sunrise Movement, Fridays for Future U.S., Campus Climate Network, and Reclaim Earth Day flooded streets and campuses in 200 protests across the country to call on President Biden to stop approving new fossil fuel projects and declare a climate emergency.
Students: Earth Day was born on college campuses. Now our universities must divest from fossil fuels.
On April 22, 1970, college students across the nation gathered on campus quads and on administrative steps. In an explosion of teach-ins, they called attention to the injustices threatening our clean air and water and demanded immediate change. Fervent and radical — and overwhelmingly white — Earth Day was born on college campuses.
How divestment became a ‘clarion call’ in anti-fossil fuel and pro-ceasefire protests
The divestment movement has a long history among US student activists, including in the overlapping movements of today.
The Climate Youth Movement’s Earth Day Message to Biden
We call on the president to stop approving new fossil fuel projects and declare a climate emergency that takes meaningful action to end the era of fossil fuels and invest in environmental justice.
May 2024: 400+ Groups Send Climate Emergency Demands to White House
In May, over 400 organizations signed a letter escalating the demand for executive action that protects workers and our communities from the climate crisis and invests tax dollars in policies that build modern, clean energy infrastructure, employ workers in facilitating the transition to a sustainable society, and clean toxic air and water in frontline communities.
Join the GND Movement to Demand a Climate Emergency
During this pivotal year, President Biden must prove that he is willing to use the power and authority granted to him by the Constitution and Congress to declare a climate emergency.
Add your name to demand the President do what’s right for our communities and declare a climate emergency now.
Why a climate emergency?
A declaration of a climate emergency by President Biden would unlock crucial executive powers to combat the crisis effectively. These powers include:
- Ending the era of fossil fuels: Phase out all existing fossil fuel and prevent new fossil fuel projects by halting crude oil exports, oil and gas drilling, and government subsidies for dirty energy.
- Building renewables at scale: Enact the President’s executive authority through the Defense Production Act (DPA) to expedite a just transition to clean energy that reduces utility costs, creates new union jobs, and builds a resilient and reliable energy system.
- Protecting people and planet: Prioritize the climate crisis as the emergency it is to protect frontline communities and the environment from the corporate influences that keep us reliant on dirty, costly energy generated from fossil fuels.
Ex-Maui lawmaker to Biden: Declare climate emergency
As President Joe Biden heads to Maui to survey the damage of the most deadly wildfire in a century, Hawaiian resident and activist Kaniela Ing is among those urging the president to declare an official “climate emergency,” unlocking additional tools for the executive branch to tackle climate change and curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Maui-Bound Biden Urged to Back Hawaiian Cases Against Big Oil, Declare Climate Emergency
As President Joe Biden prepares to visit Maui next week amid Hawaiian wildfires that have prompted a federal disaster declaration, he faces fresh calls to declare a national climate emergency and support a pair of local lawsuits against the planet-wrecking fossil fuel industry.