December Climate Statement

We Are All In:

U.S. Communities, Businesses, and Institutions are
Ready for a National Mobilization on Climate and Recovery

In 2017, we launched We Are Still In to maintain America’s promise to tackle climate change. In the time since, wildfires and other climate-fueled disasters have impacted the lives and well-being of millions of Americans, threatened our nation’s supply chains, and put countless communities at risk. COVID-19 has concurrently created a national health and economic crisis.

Tackling the climate crisis is essential to help our nation recover from these crises by creating good paying jobs for millions of Americans, fostering U.S. energy innovation, increasing our national security, and protecting the health and well-being of present and future generations. It will also provide us with our best opportunity to address systemic inequalities that have forced vulnerable communities, especially communities of color, to bear the brunt of climate impacts and environmental and economic injustice.

Over the last four years, thousands of government, civic, religious, and business leaders in the U.S. have doubled down on reducing dangerous carbon pollution, and have done so in the face of federal inaction and an increasingly dire scientific outlook. Today, one in three Americans live in a jurisdiction committed to 100% clean electricity. 16 states have passed or committed to pass regulations and legislation that would phase down the use of hydrofluorocarbons, a potent greenhouse gas. And in three years, the U.S. electric vehicle market has doubled. Despite these advances, more action is needed to protect vulnerable populations and rebuild the U.S. economy.

Now we, the undersigned governors, tribal leaders, mayors, state legislators, and local officials, and colleges and universities, businesses, investors, faith groups, cultural institutions, and health care organizations, are joining together once again to reaffirm our commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change and pledge to partner with the Biden-Harris Administration, which has made ambitious commitments to tackle the climate crisis.

We call on the incoming administration and other federal policymakers to join us in a national response to ensure our safety and prosperity by taking immediate action to:

Drive economic growth across every sector of the economy through job-creating sustainable investments: 

• Unleash innovation through extraordinary investments in clean buildings, low-carbon transportation, grid and infrastructure modernization, natural climate solutions, climate smart-agriculture, and community resilience, all of which will create millions of good-paying jobs and support a clean and just future for all Americans;
• Undertake the necessary actions to achieve a 100% clean energy power sector as soon as feasible;

Expand U.S. leadership at home and abroad: 

• Rejoin the Paris Agreement on day one, leverage diplomatic partnerships to finance and encourage ambition, and re-engage with the rest of the world on a global solution to the climate crisis;
• Put forward an ambitious and equitable nationally determined contribution to the Paris Agreement, with a science-based target for 2030 that takes community and institutional efforts and perspectives into consideration;
• Commit the United States to a trajectory of net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner, and implement policies that put us on a path to achieving that goal

Reimagine community partnership to advance just and equitable climate solutions and build resilience to climate change:

• Support states, tribal nations, cities and counties, businesses, universities, health care organizations, cultural institutions, and all other coalition actors in going above and beyond these policies to drive greater national ambition to tackle the climate crisis, while ensuring that the nation is prepared to adapt to the realities of climate change and strengthen its resilience to climate impacts; and
• Consult these leaders and impacted communities, recognizing their unique expertise and potential, and develop unprecedentedly inclusive processes in the formation and implementation of new targets, policies, and programs to tackle the climate crisis

In addressing the climate crisis, and undertaking these efforts, the United States should endeavor to do so in a manner that does not exacerbate local environmental justice conflicts nor ecological loss or damage, and proactively seeks to resolve injustice and restore ecosystems.

We pledge to support these policies at the national and local level, and place climate considerations at the core of our own institutions: how we do business, how we invest, how we govern, how we educate, how we serve. We urge the Biden-Harris Administration and Congress alike to adopt a similar whole-of government approach to tackling this crisis, and look forward to working in close partnership and dialogue - public and private collaboration across all levers of power - to achieve our shared vision.