Declaring a Climate Emergency to Clear the Way for the Green New Deal
Following the hottest decade on record and unprecedented global temperature increases, climate advocates in 2024 argued that the scale and pace of climate impacts warranted emergency-level federal action. At the time, record-breaking heat, smoke-filled air, and increasingly severe hurricanes underscored warnings from climate scientists and international bodies that average global temperatures had surpassed the 1.5°C threshold, intensifying risks to ecosystems, public health, and economic stability.
During this period, leaders, including the United Nations’ climate chief, emphasized that narrowing timelines for action required dramatic changes in how governments approached climate policy, financing, and fossil fuel dependence. Calls to declare a climate emergency were framed as a mechanism to unlock executive authorities and accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels while scaling investments in climate resilience and clean energy.
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 emerged during this period as the world’s leading producer of oil and gas, including in production, exports, and infrastructure expansion. Fossil fuel production and combustion were widely identified as the core drivers of the global climate crisis, accounting for the vast majority of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions and more than three-quarters of total greenhouse gas emissions.
The Solution
During this period, climate advocates argued that redirecting public resources away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy, transportation, and climate justice was essential to addressing the scale of the crisis. They emphasized that a just energy transition should be grounded in equity, including the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples, and should seek to repair the climate, racial, socioeconomic, and ecological harms of the fossil fuel era. Advocates outlined a set of policy pathways they believed were necessary to accelerate this transition, including:
- Declaring climate change a national emergency under existing federal authorities, including the National Emergencies Act, to accelerate the wind-down of the fossil fuel era.
- Using emergency authorities under the Stafford Act to reimagine the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of a more just and equitable energy transition.
- Redirecting federal agency funds toward renewable energy and away from fossil fuels, particularly in communities most impacted by pollution and climate harm.
- Establishing strong labor standards to protect workers from extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and other climate-related hazards through robust Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations.
During Earth Month that year, tens of thousands of young people, alongside organizations including Sunrise Movement, Fridays for Future U.S., Campus Climate Network, and Reclaim Earth Day, organized protests and actions across the country. These mobilizations took place in hundreds of locations and reflected widespread public pressure on federal leaders to halt new fossil fuel projects and to treat the climate crisis as an emergency requiring immediate and systemic action.
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.
Why a climate emergency?
During this period, climate advocates argued that a declaration of a climate emergency by President Biden could unlock a range of executive authorities intended to accelerate federal action in response to the climate crisis. Supporters of this approach pointed to several categories of powers they believed could be used to address the scale and urgency of climate impacts. These arguments commonly included:
- Ending the era of fossil fuels: Advocates proposed phasing out existing fossil fuel production and preventing new fossil fuel projects by limiting crude oil exports, oil and gas drilling, and government subsidies for fossil fuel development.
- Building renewables at scale: Proponents highlighted the use of presidential authorities, including through the Defense Production Act (DPA), to accelerate a just transition to clean energy, reduce utility costs, create new jobs, and build more resilient and reliable energy systems.
- Protecting people and planet: Supporters emphasized treating the climate crisis as an emergency in order to prioritize frontline communities and reduce reliance on energy systems shaped by corporate influence and fossil fuel dependence.
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.