Welcome to the third edition of our monthly newsletter from 350US, bringing you news of hope in our climate movement’s ability to make progress in challenging times.
This was a heavy month. It marked five years since George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, reigniting a mass movement that called to reckon with who is and is not safe and free in the U.S.. Five years later, we are watching the unraveling of many of the meager protections that were put in place for BIPOC communities after the Uprising and the 60’s civil rights movement. And we know that the administration’s fossil fuel expansion and cuts to climate adaptation also impact BIPOC communities the hardest.
It is hard to feel hopeful right now—but we are heartened by the resistance happening at the city, state, and global levels. This month also marked 136 years since the first International Workers’ Day, known as May Day. In 1889, workers united to vastly improve working conditions in the U.S. despite formidable odds. We draw on that same spirit and countless moments in our own movement. Read on for some of the seeds being sown that give us hope for climate justice.
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CITIES AND STATES TAKING THE LEAD
SPOTLIGHT: Hawaii. 350 Hawaii and their allies helped get FOUR new budget items and bills passed for their state.
Hawaii’s new climate legislation includes:
- Energy efficiency standards to achieve electricity use reductions statewide
- Funding for DLNR’s Green Jobs Youth Corps Program
- Funding for the Farm to Families Program, investing in locally grown food sources
- Establishment of the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority Program Fund, which will be used to help underserved ratepayers switch to cheaper and cleaner sources of electricity.
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- Why this matters for us and should give us hope: These climate bills and budget items provide a wide array of crucial climate protections that encapsulate what climate justice is all about: a truly livable future for all, especially those most impacted. That includes efficiency standards and reducing emissions, but it also means jobs and financial security, food security, and reliable energy to power people’s homes and lives amidst worsening climate impacts.
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RESISTANCE ACROSS MOVEMENTS
SPOTLIGHT: May Day Strong. The labor movement and its allies came out in force on International Workers’ Day to send a powerful message: “Working people built this nation and we know how to take care of each other.” Some of the rallies and signs shined a spotlight on the huge hypocrisy in the U.S. of depending on migrant labor while also vilifying and scapegoating migrants.
At more than 1,000 events from Alaska to Florida, from Philly to LA, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the country to demand a country that works for our families, not billionaires’ fortunes. — May Day Strong
Pictured: May Day Strong in NYC
- What does this have to do with climate change? Both the labor and climate movements seek to dismantle the systems that exploit people and the planet, and to build a more livable world rooted in care, justice, and democracy.
- Read more about how labor and climate intersect globally
STANDING UP TO THE WEALTHY ELITE
Spotlight: Climate activists have campaigned successfully to get Chubb, a global insurance company, to drop major fossil fuel projects across continents. Last month, our friends and allies in the StopEACOP coalition announced that Chubb had officially refused to insure the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). And just weeks ago, public records revealed that Chubb was no longer providing property insurance for the Calcasieu Pass project, a contested LNG export terminal in southwest Louisiana.
“We have been pressuring Chubb for several years now to not insure these dangerous, polluting projects, because insuring those projects is ensuring environmental racism in communities that are overburdened by pollution.”
— Roishetta Ozane, Founder of the Vessel Project of Louisiana, in Inside Climate News
- What target insurance? Building pipelines is risky work, and fossil fuel companies can’t do it without insurance. When insurers refuse to underwrite a project, it presents a powerful obstacle to getting it off the ground. Targeting insurers, like targeting banks, also helps illustrate how the Global North ends up financing massive fossil fuel projects in the Global South—and the role they can play in using their power to slow or stop these hazardous pipelines. Chubb was one of the few major insurance firms that hadn’t yet refused to insure EACOP, and thanks to public pressure, it is now the 30th major insurer to reject the pipeline.
- Read about 350 Africa’s campaign to replace projects like EACOP with community-owned renewable energy
One Thing You Can Do RIGHT NOW
The people clearly value their right to protest… so much so that 350US Campaign Manager Candice Fortin’s “Protest” episode is now the highest listened to and rated episode in the history of People Over Plastic’s podcast! And now, it’s been shortlisted for the “Changing the World One Moment At a Time” category in next month’s International Women’s Podcast Awards.
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