This year you will find our staff at the Center building deeper connections with our national and international networks of climate justice advocates. We are determined to advance the promises of a Green New Deal (GND), and to help demystify and advance the one-in-a-generation U.S. federal government funding opportunities for the movement being created by Justice40, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. We will create educational and strategy-making workshops for climate justice and GND activists, and highlight the many ways in which all various struggles are interconnected through our intersectional reports and webinars. We hope you’ll join us in these endeavors!
Connecting & Resourcing Green New Dealers
Since Launching our GND Resource Hub in mid-2021, we have met with over 35 GND cities and coalitions, from Birmingham to Boston and Australia to South Korea! There are many more to come. We are starting 2023 with a GND Survey of Needs to help our team identify the most pressing needs for GND advocates here in the U.S. and internationally. This survey, along with our one-on-one conversations, will inform a series of “Learning Labs'' that bring together GND advocates, activists, planners, officials, and policymakers in a collaborative "how-to" space. Here we can share insights and learn from each other on specific topics related to GND organizing, policy, funding, and strategic planning. We will be co-hosting many of these Learning Lab spaces with movement partners, so if you have ideas, feedback, or are interested in co-hosting a space, I encourage you to fill out our survey and be in touch!
Funding the Transition with Federal Dollars
For GND efforts in the U.S., the Inflation Reduction Act, Justice40 and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law could not have come at a better time. These federal funding initiatives and programs have the potential to transform many GND agendas into reality. Our team is creating a policy primer that summarizes the most important information coming from the federal government, including what these programs are, how to access federal funds, what funds are applicable to both cities and nonprofits, and how they could accelerate Green New Deal implementation. In addition, we’re starting up our GND Newsbeat again and will be sharing exciting model policies, grassroots campaign strategies, and other insights for achieving climate justice through policy.
Energy Transition … or Energy Transformation?
This year will mark the launch of our newest report, Power for the People: An Emancipatory Energy Justice Agenda. In response to growing dangers posed to both people and the planet by corporate profit-seeking by fossil energy giants, democratic approaches to energy generation have taken root around the world. They are making the links between the exploitive corporate power structures, the colonization of the state by the polluter-industrial complex (PIC), racial and economic injustice, and climate change. In short, working hand-in-hand with energy justice advocates, the movement is adopting strategies to revolutionize both our energy and political systems. These activists see democratically run renewable energy systems as the key to achieving economic and social justice, community empowerment, and a healthy planet. In this respect, revolutionizing systems of political-economic power to become more democratic is key to revolutionizing systems of energy power to become clean and renewable. Stay tuned for the release of this report and others later this year!
Highlighting Exciting, Intersectional Movement Victories
If you know something about human nature, it’s that we all need inspiration sometimes. We cannot just shout at each other about accelerating climate feedback loops and watch the psychological trauma that is the news these days and feel ok, let alone empowered. It is embedded in our mission as a Center to push back against the “bad news overwhelm” by highlighting the ongoing, powerful work that is already taking place. In so doing, we aim to create a political vision of a more beautiful and just future for us all. While it is fundamental that we understand how abuses of power have landed us in these interlinked social and ecological crises, it is also our right, and our responsibility, to envision, instigate and inspire this movement with what is going right. In that vein, we will be sharing exciting spotlights of the incredible work of our Fellows and allies around the world. We will keep you informed and inspired by the seeds of change, of larger social transformation - from which we can all learn and gain inspiration.
Our door is always open if you want to connect, conspire, collaborate, and create. There are no strangers here, only distant relatives we haven’t yet met.
In Solidarity,
Nina
