Gender: Female
Status: Swinger
Age: 101
Sign: Aquarius
City: Bemidji/Bismark/Alaska/Flagstaff/Ottawa
State: Minnesota
Country: US
Signup Date: 11/26/2006
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Sunday, June 15, 2008
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The Environmental Justice Forum on Climate Change, June 2, 2008
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS CAMPAIGN ON CLIMATE POLICY
Statement from the Environmental Justice Forum on Climate Change
As the U.S. Senate prepares to have a floor debate on climate change and we await the fall elections and a new administration, the Environmental Justice Forum on Climate Change declares our lack of faith that trading mechanisms can address the present and impending climate change crisis. Furthermore, because this is the most critical issue of our time we call for a democratic, dialogue on climate change inclusive of all communities and sectors of our economy, and we stand ready to work with all for real, effective and just climate action policies.
The Environmental Justice Forum on Climate Change is a coalition of Environmental Justice grassroots groups and activists. It is a coalition of those who will, and have already been, first impacted as well as worst impacted by climate change and environmental decision- making. Our coalition works with and within communities-of-color, Indigenous Peoples, and low-income -- organizng residents living in urban and rural communities across the country. These communities have perspectives that have been absent from the urgent, essential debate on climate change.
The EJ Forum on Climate Change will educate and mobilize members, residents and policymakers to affect just policies and legislation that:
** Achieve significant, identified reductions in carbon emissions
** Protect the most burdened and vulnerable communities
** Reduce co-pollutants (i.e. airborne particulate matter, sulfur dioxide nitrogen oxides and mercury) that negatively impact public health
** Promote the reduction of hotspot pollution in overburdened communities
** Offset higher energy costs to low-income consumers
** Transitions us from a fossil fuel economy ensuring just transition for workers
We have come together over the past year as a coalition of environmental justice and grassroots organizations and activists to (1) participate in determining the future of our economy and our environment; (2) to challenge the cap and trade mechanism as an effective one for achieving our goals; and (3) to acknowledge and communicate the impacts that already New Orleans, the Gulf Coast and Alaska communities and Indigenous Peoples are experiencing.
There have been many winners and losers as our environment has been preserved, deteriorated and enhanced. As a nation, we cannot embark on climate action legislation and policies anchored by the notion that there will always be winners and losers as we have heard some say apologetically. We have the vision, commitment and opportunity to lift all boats.
From the communities of Oakland to New York, from the farms and bayous of the Deep South to indigenous communities in the Southwest and Alaska, we have spent years winning victories, reforming policy as we work to protect the health and environment of our communities. Some of us have worked over decades and have developed climate justice principles as members of the Environmental Justice Climate Change Initiative and others are new committed social justice activists, all working to transform the environmental decision making and policy paradigm that results in communities of color and low-income that are disproportionately burdened by pollution and resulting health disparities.
Action is needed now to create a just climate action policy that protects communities, workers and the environment. It will take all of our efforts to positively transform the political will of the grassroots and grasstops. The Forum will offer, over the next few months, a series of policy papers and convenings to communicate and share our vision and our specific concerns. We are mobilizing the communities we work with to support, develop and implement effective climate and energy policies and to promote the opportunities for a more sustainable and healthy social and economic environment.
Together we can meet the challenge of developing a just climate action policy. We the undersigned urge all who read this statement to work with us to insure that our voices are part of creating a solution to the current climate crisis that protects all who live and work in this great country.
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For Further Information:
WE ACT Communications Coordinator, Larry Parker, 212-961-1000 x 314
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The Climate Justice Forum's
Principles on Carbon Reduction Policy Mechanisms
1. Whereas, the Earth's planetary climate system is rapidly and potentially irreversibly changing due to human impacts, one of which is the emissions of pollutants through the burning and fossil fuels; and
2. Whereas, scientists and policymakers concur that current and future climate changes will result in far-ranging effects on human health, sociopolitical stability and the environment; and
3. Whereas, across the world, the brunt of the impacts resulting from climate change will fall upon communities of color and low-income communities who are least able to adapt and who already suffer from poor environmental quality; and
4. Whereas, there is a need to enact a system that creates real, dramatic and swift cuts in emissions of pollutants to avoid subjecting the world to the full, largely unknown extent of impacts that will result from climate change; and
5. Whereas, the United States needs to implement policies that will wean the national economy off of its reliance on fossil fuels and other polluting energy sources (including a phase-out of coal), while also promoting energy efficiency, creating a just transition to a green economy, and shifting our economy to being based on clean renewable energy; and
6. Whereas, an identified revenue stream to ensure that the federal government devotes meaningful resources to the promotion of clean renewable energy technologies needs to be created; and
7. Whereas, the reductions in air pollution emissions necessary to avert the environmental, political, public safety and public health catastrophe that climate change threatens to bring will not be achieved in the United States without strong regulation and oversight of polluters; and
8. Whereas, a cap and trade carbon reduction system is fraught with uncertainties, lacks transparency and creates large opportunities for emitting facilities to engage in fraud through under-reporting and inflating historic emissions levels; and
9. Whereas, accurate reporting is difficult to impossible in many of the sectors that would be covered by a cap and trade system; and
10. Whereas, the initial total cap is likely to be inflated because facilities have a strong financial incentive to inflate historic emissions levels; and
11. Whereas, a cap and trade system is expensive and resource- intensive from start-to-finish, including the creation of a new regulatory structure, determining and setting a cap, monitoring emissions and offsets, and enforcement mechanisms and actions; and
12. Whereas, a cap and trade system creates a volatile market that does not create business incentives to invest in new technologies because prices of emissions credits could be less than the price of new technologies; and
13. Whereas, a cap and trade system makes economic planning difficult because the market price, lacking regulation, is not consistent and is difficult for businesses to predict; and
14. Whereas, a cap and trade system places the financial burden on consumers through higher energy costs and has historically resulted in large windfall profits for industry emitters; and
15. Whereas, a cap and trade system excludes public and affected communities from the decision-making process surrounding polluting facilities and their emissions of carbon and other pollutants; and
16. Whereas, the creation, implementation and likely failure of a cap and trade system to produce measurable reductions in emissions will significantly delay national and global reductions in emissions; and
17. Whereas, a carbon tax carbon reduction system has been found by scientists, economists, policymakers and regulatory analysts to be the most efficient means to reduce carbon emissions; and
18. Whereas, a carbon tax can insure predictability and create immediate incentives for emitters to invest in new cleaning technology for polluting facilities; and
19. Whereas, a carbon tax would provide a revenue stream to support research and development of necessary technologies and could provide financial assistance to mitigate economic burdens on impacted workers and communities; and
20. Whereas, a carbon tax is relatively simpler and easier to implement than a carbon trading system, as a system structure for taxation already exists and could be phased in gradually over a period of five (5) years; and
21. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that implementing a international, federal, regional or local cap and trade carbon reduction system is a waste of precious time and resources; and
22. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that an environmentally sustainable and environmentally just carbon reduction system would regulate carbon emissions and tax every emission emitted by polluting facilities, regardless of historic emissions levels; and
23. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that an equitable carbon tax must be set high enough to encourage emissions sources to make financial investment in technological controls and energy efficiency, and to begin researching and developing clean, renewable energy options; and
24. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that a carbon tax cannot remain static and should not merely track inflation but should rise over time so that resource conservation and development of clean renewable energy can continue to be an attractive alternative to fossil fuel use; and
25. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that a carbon tax system should not provide for offsets unless they occur within the same facility or same geographic community as the emitting source and also serve to address co-pollutants from that emitting source; and
26. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that a carbon tax system cannot permit international, interstate or interjurisdictional offsets because reductions from these types of offsets are notoriously difficult to verify; and
27. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that a carbon reduction system must include regulation of co-pollutants in addition to a carbon tax; and
28. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that program revenue from a carbon tax should be used to fund programs designed to wean the economy off fossil fuel; should provide assistance for vulnerable workers and communities working to transition to the new economy; should include subsidies for energy efficiency that prioritize low- income communities and communities of color, particularly those living in vulnerable areas (coastal zones, floodplains, artics, urban areas); and
29. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that program revenue from a carbon tax should include devices designed to provide assistance to low-income energy rate payers and these devices should provide secondary prioritization and protection for middle-income families and communities in danger of slipping into the low-income gap as a result of the increased financial burdens of energy costs; and
30. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that program revenue from a carbon tax should go toward retraining of affected workers; should provide for retooling of affected industries in the energy sector or in energy-intensive businesses; should go toward promoting research and development of clean renewable energy and biofuels; should provide funding for educational programs that would train the next generation of technical experts on clean renewable energy; should be used to provide incentives to entrepreneurial efforts to make clean renewable energy technologies economically viable and marketable for widespread use; and should be used to implement adaptation measures to protect vulnerable coastal communities and strengthen health care and the public health system's ability to deal with climate change-related illnesses and public health problems
31. The Climate Justice Leadership Forum DECLARES that all programs depending on revenue from a carbon tax should be funded through a subsidy structure that phases out funding for research and development of fossil fuel technologies and phases in funding for renewable clean energy technologies
32. BE IT THEREFORE, RESOLVED that the Climate Justice Leadership Forum joins with communities, organizations and leaders throughout the world in strong and complete opposition to carbon trading and offset systems as a means to reduce carbon emissions; and
33. BE IT THEREFORE, RESOLVED that the Climate Justice Leadership Forum supports regulation of pollution emissions as an equitable and immediate means to effect extensive reductions in emissions that contribute to and cause climate change; and
34. BE IT THEREFORE, RESOLVED that the Climate Justice Leadership Forum proposes the implementation of a carbon taxing system to bridge the national economy's reliance on fossil fuels and to provide time and incentive for new technologies to mature so that they can being yielding market viable energy sources.
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Signatories (as of June 1, 2008)
Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Anchorage AK
Arbor Hill Environmental Justice Corporation, Albany, NY
Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Oakland, CA
California Environmental Rights Alliance, Los Angeles, CA
Clark Atlanta University Environmental Justice Resource Center, Atlanta, GA
Communities for a Better Environment, Los Angeles, CA
Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, Seattle, WA
Community In-power and Development Association, Port Arthur, TX
Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice, Hartford, CT
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University, New Orleans, LA
Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, Detroit, MI
Environmental Justice Action Group, Buffalo, NY
Environmental Justice Climate Change Initiative, Oakland, CA
Environmental Research Foundation, New Brunswick, NJ
For a Better Bronx, Bronx, NY
Harambee House Inc., Savannah, GA
Indigenous Environmental Network, Bemidji, MN
Jesus Peoples Against Pollution, Jackson, MS
Just Transition Alliance, San Diego, CA
Land Loss Prevention Project, Durham, NC
National Black Environmental Justice Network, Washington, D.C.
National Community Revitalization Alliance, Washington, D.C.
New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, Trenton, NJ
New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, New York, NY
People Organizing to Demand Economic & Environmental Rights (PODER), San Francisco, CA
Southwest Network for Economic and Environmental Justice, Albuquerque, NM
United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park (UPROSE), Brooklyn, NY
WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Harlem, NY
1:15 PM
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