It’s a Good Time to Be a Climate Justice Advocate

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It’s a good time to be a climate justice advocate. No, really. Never has our work been more clear and our voice been more effective. 

Hear me out: When the WV v. EPA decision came down from the Supreme Court this summer, advocates rallied. When it looked like the climate provisions in the reconciliation bill were in jeopardy, we called our elected officials and flooded social media with pleas for climate action. 

The non-stop pushback made a difference. Negotiations continued and in late July we were surprised with the news that Senator Schumer and Senator Manchin had come to an agreement with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. And now we have the most consequential climate legislation of our lifetimes signed into law. 

All of this while the US has become the country with the highest weather-related losses, like deadly flooding in Kentucky, drought in the Colorado River, wildfires in Montana and Idaho, and excessive heat in Seattle, WA and Portland, OR. 

Recent Supreme Court rulings have made it clear that the power of the federal government is shifting in favor of greater state level power. That means that our voices have never been more important in our cities, counties, and states. And it’s time for us to use them. 

States like Massachusetts, Washington, North Carolina, and Colorado have passed important climate legislation in the past year. We will need to replicate their model for success in many other states to make a dent in climate change.

My own state of Illinois passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) in 2021. CEJA is nation-leading climate legislation rooted in equity and justice for communities typically left behind in the green transition. This bill was written with community input from the hundreds of listening sessions held around the state and passed because of the strong environmental coalition we built over 5 years called the IL Clean Jobs Coalition.

When it looked like some of the equity provisions in the bill would be weakened, the faith voice spoke up and those provisions were protected. United Methodists from around the state showed up at virtual lobby days, wrote LTEs, signed petitions, and attended town halls. Our rallying cry was, “no climate, no equity, no deal.” And it worked: CEJA decarbonizes our energy sector by 2045 and paves the way for 100% renewable energy by 2050, provides job training to low income and environmental justice communities, and takes one million gas-powered cars off the road.  And our coalition is looking at using the same community input model to pass important EV infrastructure legislation in the spring legislative session. 

As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of passing CEJA in Illinois, we now have strong federal climate work to match it. That means Illinois will be able to benefit from the new funding in agriculture, energy, and environmental justice quickly and get Illinoisans trained up to work in these new industries. 

While the Inflation Reduction Act may be our nation’s largest investment in addressing the climate crisis, it cannot be the last. We must continue building momentum at the state level for better and bolder climate policies, and we must ensure that this current law is implemented such that vulnerable communities are not harmed by more oil and gas extraction and infrastructure. 

As Mary Annaise Heglar recently said, “If you’re worried that it’s too late to do anything about climate change and we should all just give up, I have great news for you: that day is not coming in your lifetime. As long as you have breath in your body, you will have work to do.” 

Keep using that breath to talk to your legislators. It’s working.

Christina Krost is a United Methodist creation justice advocate in Illinois. This post is republished with permission from the UM Creation Justice Movement website. To reproduce this content elsewhere, please contact the organization via its website.