Climate Equity Alliance

FOR MORE INFORMATION:   

Janet Hodur, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
202-408-1080, [email protected]

John Neurohr, Center for American Progress
202-481-8182, [email protected]

Aimee Allison, Green For All
510-343-4019, [email protected]

WASHINGTON – More than two dozen organizations – from the research, advocacy, faith-based, labor, and civil rights communities – have formed the Climate Equity Alliance to help ensure that the strong policies needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions also protect low- and moderate-income households and expand economic opportunity.

The Alliance will promote direct consumer rebates for low- and moderate-income families and individuals to offset higher energy-related prices that result from climate legislation. In addition, as part of the nation's transition to a low-carbon economy, the Alliance will promote policies both to help create quality "green jobs" and to train low- and moderate-income workers to fill them.

“As an organization working toward the creation of an inclusive green economy that's strong enough to lift people out of poverty, Green For All believes that, if done right, climate policy can fight pollution and alleviate poverty at the same time,” said Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All, a CEA member organization. “Green For All is active in the Climate Equity Alliance because we want to ensure that climate policies provide equal protection and equal opportunity for all communities.”

“Climate change legislation that limits greenhouse gas emissions need not squeeze the budgets of low- and middle-income families,” said Robert Greenstein, Executive Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, also a CEA member organization. “Proceeds from auctioning emissions allowances can be used, in part, for well-designed consumer relief that restores to these families the purchasing power they otherwise would lose as a result of higher prices for energy-related products.”

The United States should also approach climate policy as economic policy that advances the principles of fairness and opportunity, according to the Alliance.

“The Center for American Progress recognizes that solving global warming is as much an enormous economic opportunity as it is landmark environmental legislation,” commented Bracken Hendricks, Senior Fellow with CEA member organization, the Center for American Progress. “We can design a climate policy that protects families, communities, and industries, while simultaneously laying the foundation for a vibrant,

sustainable, clean energy economy that invests in low-carbon infrastructure, creates good jobs, fosters innovation, and makes America a leader in developing clean technology for the 21st century.”

As Congress moves to enact federal climate legislation and as the United States enters global climate negotiations with other nations, Climate Equity Alliance member organizations will educate policymakers and others on the need for bold action that averts the worst environmental and economic consequences of global warming while protecting and providing pathways to prosperity for the most vulnerable Americans.

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The Climate Equity Alliance is a broad convening of organizations working to ensure that climate policy effectively addresses the needs of low- and moderate-income families, workers, and communities. Member groups work on issues ranging from poverty to hunger to civil rights to economic justice and include:

Green For All                   

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Center for American Progress       

Service Employees International Union

NAACP                    

National Hispanic Environmental Council

Oxfam America               

Democracia Ahora

Wider Opportunities for Women       

First Focus                       

Economic Policy Institute            

Redefining Progress                

US Action                  

Coalition on Human Needs           

The Workforce Alliance         

Union for Reform Judaism   

Center for Law and Social Policy      

National Low Income Housing Coalition   

ACORN                   

Policy Link                                            

Citizens for Tax Justice           

Enterprise Community Partners

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

The Washington Office of Public Policy, Women's Division, United Methodist Church