VIDEO: Head Of DNC Council On The Environment And Climate Crisis Testifies Before The Democratic Platform Committee And Calls For Bold And Ambitious Solutions To The Climate Crisis
Council’s Policy Recommendations Are Endorsed By More Than 70 Groups Including Sunrise Movement, 350, Greenpeace and others
Tonight, the chair of the DNC Council on the Environment & Climate Crisis will testify in front of the Democratic Platform Committee and call for Democrats to back a bold and ambitious plan to fight climate change in the Democratic Platform.
The Council, launched in February to push the Democratic Party to take stronger action to address the climate crisis and other environmental issues, released its own platform recommendations last month. Those recommendations call for tackling the climate crisis, building a green economy, supporting and empowering workers, addressing environmental injustice, and supporting the health of people, communities and the planet.
You can view the Council’s full platform, which has been endorsed by more than 70 organizations including the Sunrise Movement, 350, Greenpeace and others, here: https://www.dncclimate.org/the-platform
In her testimony, the chair of the Council, Michelle Deatrick will say:
I’m Michelle Deatrick, DNC member and Chair of the DNC Environment and Climate Crisis Council.
Let’s be clear, the climate crisis is here. It is not years down the road. And we must act. The current administration’s policies are disastrous. As Democrats, we have the responsibility to lead on this issue.
That’s why our DNC Council was established. That’s why we launched a national listening tour, talking with a diverse set of people across the U.S. to understand how climate and environmental harms are impacting people and communities. That’s why we are proposing a bold, science-based, and comprehensive set of climate and environmental policies for the Democratic Party’s 2020 Platform--a set of policy recommendations supported by a broad coalition of more than 70 organizations representing millions of people including Sunrise, 350 Action, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, and many, many organizations and Democratic and Young Democratic caucuses.
Our nation and world face integrally related crises: the climate emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic, an epic economic downturn with tens of millions unemployed. All this compounds and exposes decades of increasing, devastating levels of racial injustice and systemic inequality, the deterioration of our social safety net, and environmental and infrastructure degradation.
We are going to need to rebuild our economy. We can either invest in propping up the old economy that is devastating our planet and our future--or we can choose to do so sustainably, creating millions of high-quality union jobs and centering justice while transitioning away from a fossil fuel economy to a regenerative economy powered by clean renewable energy.
Our comprehensive policy recommendations include a full suite of actions to protect our environment, fight the climate crisis and rebuild our economy in a sustainable way. Including:
Declare a climate emergency, develop a national climate action plan--and launch it.
Engage in a managed transition to 100% clean, renewable energy with zero emissions, and end the fossil fuel era, beginning with zero-carbon new building infrastructure by 2025, 100% clean renewable energy by 2030 for power generation, and near-zero emissions by 2040. This is all eminently doable and necessary. The most recent data and science indicate the climate crisis is getting worse much faster than the UN report of just two years ago indicated. It is gravely concerning that many current plans and proposals are based on that outdated science.
Invest massively in wind, solar, geothermal, and green infrastructure with income, pension and a just transition for workers who are displaced and also those impacted by the climate crisis--and for their communities.
Guarantee the right to clean air, water, and drinking water as fundamental human rights, ban water shut offs, and protect 30% of our land by 2030.
Systemic racism and inequality mean that predominantly Black, Brown, Indigenous and less resourced communities bear vastly disproportionate harm from polluting industries. We must direct at least 40% of climate and environmental investments to frontline and vulnerable communities.
We urge you to embrace these policies, which would be the most comprehensive and bold climate solutions ever adopted by the Democratic Party. The moment demands it. We can afford nothing less.