Category Archives: Climate

Chester County Climate Action Plan

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Happy Climate Week in Pennsylvania (Sept. 18-25)!

We are fortunate to live and carry out our activities in a county whose Commissioners adopted a Climate Action Plan in October 2021.

“The plan was prepared by the Chester County Planning Commission in partnership with the County’s Environmental and Energy Advisory Board. The Climate Action Plan provides a blueprint for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy efficiency at County government facilities and community-wide.”

See full details on the County’s Climate Action page.

Chester County heating up

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Shall we be optimistic or pessimistic? It depends on what we and concerned people throughout the world do to put a lid on climate change. Heat over 90° is pretty dangerous, especially to those who must work outside; but just think, in the worst scenario below by the end of the century, of over 160 days a year of temperatures over 90°… up to and including over 105°!

Chart from Chester County Climate Action Plan draft – 2021, page 69:

Some good climate news, from CCL

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“Three of CCL’s lobbying asks pass Congress, will become law” by Flannery Winchester at Citizens’ Climate Lobby national site, gives, even in the awful year of 2020, some opening to optimism.

The big spending bill just passed by the U.S. House and Senate and now to be signed into law includes 3 measures that CCEA member CCL has been promoting, as described in that post, with its links:

BEST Act

CCL began lobbying on the Better Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Act in June of 2019. The bill, which authorizes $300 million over five years to reduce the cost of grid-scale energy storage systems, gained 24 cosponsors following CCL’s June lobbying this year. That support was a factor in the BEST Act being included in the Clean Economy Jobs and Innovation Act, which the House passed in September. 

USE IT Act

Politico calls this the USE IT Act “a top priority of outgoing Environment and Public Works Chair John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) that would boost carbon capture and direct air capture technologies.” CCL volunteers have lobbied on this legislation since June of 2019, too, and it gained cosponsors after our lobbying pushes. 

Climate-Ready Fisheries Act

CCL volunteers also advocated for the Climate-Ready Fisheries Act in June of this year—the bill gained 10 cosponsors after our lobby days. This provision will require a report to be prepared about efforts to adapt our nation’s fisheries to the impacts of climate change. 

The measures had bipartisan support. Let’s hope that’s the way of the future—and rapidly— for climate legislation!

Auditor General DePasquale: State’s Unfocused Efforts on Climate Change Crisis Risk Lives, Drive Costs to Taxpayers, Economy

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News release from the Office of the PA Auditor General

Proactively addressing infrastructure needs would create new jobs

HARRISBURG (Nov. 13, 2019) – Auditor General Eugene DePasquale today said Pennsylvania must proactively plan for the changing climate, a problem that already threatens public safety and drives significant new costs for taxpayers.

“The longer we fail to act, the greater the risks to our environment, our economy and our future,” DePasquale said. “Climate change is a challenge that also presents an opportunity: by acting and investing now, we can not only save lives but also protect our economy and create jobs along the way.”

According to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, made up of 13 federal agencies, Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization. A major report issued by the program late last year details threats to public health and safety from extreme heat and flooding; concerns about severe weather impacts on aging power, water, sewer and transportation systems; and the impact of altered ecosystems on rural communities, farming, forestry and tourism.

DePasquale released a special report, “Climate Crisis: The Rising Cost of Inaction,” which noted that severe weather is already costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year and that state government needs to do more to mitigate future impacts.

“My team and I documented at least $261 million in climate-related costs to Pennsylvania in 2018 alone in this report,” DePasquale said. “Half of that amount, $125.7 million, was in infrastructure damage statewide caused by record-breaking floods and landslides.”…

Read more and download the special report at the Office of the PA Auditor General.

CCL’s Danny Richter talks about H.R. 763 on NPR’s 1A

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email from Citizens’ Climate Lobby, 10/9/19

The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act got some major media exposure recently when it was the topic of conversation on the NPR show 1A. CCL VP for Government Affairs Danny Richter was among a panel of guests talking about carbon pricing. He said the thing that sets H.R. 763 apart is the steep rate of increase for the carbon fee and the fact that revenue is returned to households.

Why has this bill gained traction? Danny said CCL worked outside the Beltway, “educating people in [nearly all] districts and teaching them about this policy… then they’ve been going back to the Beltway and building support there. So the key for us has been to go outside of the Beltway.”

Listen to Danny’s interview on 1A and share the program on social media.

The 17 Sustainable Development goals

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Photo by Richard Whiteford at the Climate Action Summit at the UN, taken 9/23/19

See more on the 17 goals here.

“The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. The Goals interconnect and in order to leave no one behind, it ís important that we achieve each Goal and target by 2030….” And also:

How does climate change relate to sustainable development?

Climate change is already impacting public health, food and water security, migration, peace and security. Climate change, left unchecked, will roll back the development gains we have made over the last decades and will make further gains impossible.

Investments in sustainable development will help address climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building climate resilience.

Conversely, action on climate change will drive sustainable development.

Tackling climate change and fostering sustainable development are two mutually reinforcing sides of the same coin; sustainable development cannot be achieved without climate action. Conversely, many of the SDGs are addressing the core drivers of climate change.

Here are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals:
Goal 1 End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Goal 2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Goal 3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Goal 4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Goal 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Goal 6 Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Goal 7 Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Goal 8 Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Goal 9 Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Goal 10 Reduce inequality within and among countries
Goal 11 Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Goal 12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Goal 13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*
Goal 14 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
Goal 15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Goal 16 Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Goal 17 Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

There’s no time left for business-as-usual; the climate crisis is here

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from DC Climate Strike, 9/20/19

On September 20th, hundreds of thousands of young people across the globe are taking to the streets to take a stand, many of whom were inspired by the actions and words of Swedish student Greta Thunberg. They include and will join Indigenous peoples, as well as Black and Brown communities on the frontlines, who have been leading the climate movement and building a regenerative future in the midst of the climate emergency. We are inspired by First Nations, who are waging some of the most powerful fights of our time against fossil fuel infrastructure.

People around the world are experiencing superstorms, floods, droughts, and wildfires at unprecedented rates, with low-income communities and communities of color hit first and worst. Cruelly, communities and regions being devastated already by the effects of climate change tend to be the least responsible for its onset. It is not a coincidence that climate impacts strike along the lines of race and class so starkly; climate change is a product of the same processes which cement racism and wealth inequality in our country and our world.

The transition off of fossil fuels is inevitable; justice is not. To achieve Climate Justice, we must not only decarbonize the atmosphere, but also decolonize and democratize our economies and our communities. Shutting down the nation’s capital could be our best shot at starting this justice-based transition; we need a broad-based coalition that emphasizes the overlap of our struggles. We look to the recent passage of the Climate & Communities Protection Act by New York Renews, a coalition led by Black, Brown, and labor organizations, for inspiration.

To achieve something as monumental as shutting down DC, we are going to need everyone to step up. We need everyone’s creativity, everyone’s energy, everyone’s insights, and everyone’s ideas. Every single person has skills and experience to contribute to the strike.

We do not take this action lightly. We know that this shutdown will cause massive disruption to people who bear little responsibility for the climate catastrophe we are facing. But we will also cause massive disruption for politicians, huge corporations and the lobbyists who control our government. We need to fundamentally change the power structure of the United States if we want to stop the climate crisis, and shutting down DC is a big step in the right direction.

This is the mass uprising that everyone with climate anxiety has been waiting for. This is an uprising for life itself, fighting back against the forces of destruction. This is your chance to take action to save the people, plants, and animals you love. Let’s rise up and shut down DC!

Dr. Jonathan Haidt on how moral psychology can inform climate advocacy

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By Sara Wanous, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, 9/18/19 [Bad news from Dr. Haidt: data and reasoning don’t convince people! Briefly: we react by intuition before understanding; if a position doesn’t fit our own preconceived morality, it’s hard to convince us; our views hang together with those of the group we identify with. But isn’t our society’s underlying social ethos broadly shared? Not even close: “progressives give very high ratings to care and fairness as equality. Social conservatives rank care lower, view fairness as proportionality, and rank loyalty, authority, and sanctity higher.” Merits a detailed read.]

Each month, Citizens’ Climate Lobby hosts an online meeting featuring a guest speaker to educate listeners on topics related to climate change, carbon fee and dividend, and the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. Check out recaps of past speakers here.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is dedicated to bringing people across the political spectrum together on climate solutions. Our work on bipartisanship and relationship building is informed by experts committed to engaging more effectively with those who think differently than us, like Dr. Jonathan Haidt.

Dr. Jonathan Haidt is a professor of Ethical Leadership at the NYU Stern School of Business and the author of several books on the intersection of psychology and politics, including “The Coddling of the American Mind,” “The Righteous Mind,” and “The Happiness Hypothesis.” Most recently, Dr. Haidt has adapted one of his classes into an online learning platform called Open Mind to help people achieve just that. Dr. Haidt joined Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s September monthly call to share his expertise in moral psychology and how these lessons can help bring people together on climate solutions. …

read more and view video at Citizens’ Climate Lobby