In our second episode with California Air Resources Board’s Executive Officer, Dr. Steve Cliff, hear how Dr. Cliff is thinking about the challenges of building electrification and the role government can play in ensuring a just transition to energy efficient buildings.
Tag: environmental justice
In the fourth episode of our series highlighting the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) and its global partners’ leadership in transportation decarbonization, Climate Break spoke with CARB’s Executive Officer Dr. Steve Cliff about the importance of reducing emissions from trucks and heavy duty vehicles — and how Advanced Clean Trucks can help phase in a zero-emission trucking future.
Native communities have disproportionately low access to and pay higher rates for utilities, particularly electricity, which has a significant impact on access and opportunities for remote work, education, and other activities. The Indigenized Energy Initiative works to increase indigenous energy ownership and access in order to address the social, economic, and environmental injustices that native communities face. This week, Chéri Smith, founder and CEO of IEI, discusses their strategy for assisting indigenous communities and eliminating energy poverty.
Comments closed
Russia is a major oil producer, responsible for 11 percent of the world’s total oil supply in 2020. Its invasion of Ukraine has roiled the markets and geopolitics of energy, driving oil and gas prices to their highest levels in nearly a decade and forcing many countries to reconsider their energy supplies. This week, listen to Steve Cohen, professor of international affairs and sustainability management at Columbia University, talking about the impact Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is having on energy policy.
Comments closed
The environmental justice movement began in the 1980s which address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms associated with resource extraction, hazardous waste, and other land uses. It’s often closely tied with environmental racism. Dr. Robert Bullard first defined environmental racism in his 1990 book Dumping in Dixie, and is now serving on the White House Environmental Justice Council to develop a screening tool to determine which communities get priority for new climate investments.
Comments closed
Environmental Voter Project identified over 11 million potential environmentalists in Fall of 2020 who were “unlikely to vote in the presidential election.” Increasing environmental voter turnout could make a significant impact on climate policy through legislative action and budget provisions. This week, listen to what Dr. Martin Rees said in a California China Climate Institute discussion.
Comments closed
The 26th UN Climate Change Conference was taken place in November 2021 in Glasgow. After 13 days of intense negotiations, 200 countries reached an agreement on the Glasgow Climate Pact, which will accelerate climate action this decade and completed the Paris Rulebook. This week, listen to Ethan Elkind and Ken Alex, the Executive Producers of Climate Break, about the major outcomes of the conference.
Comments closed
Public policy is an essential element of climate change response. However, to date, big tech has only devoted about 4% of their federal lobbying activity in the US to climate-related policies. Bill Weihl, Executive Director of ClimateVoice, is calling on the big US tech companies to make climate one of their top advocacy priorities and devote one in five of their lobbying dollars to policies that will keep warming below 1.5 degrees.
Comments closed
Coral reefs have 25% of Marine biodiversity. And about a billion people around the world, depending on coral reefs every day, either directly or indirectly. Dr. Deborah Brosnan, marine biologist and founder of Deborah Brosnan and Associates, is working on Ocean Shot, a project that integrates nature-based solutions to help restore coral reefs.
Comments closed
Environmental racism typically isn’t taught in high school science classes, and often the socio-political aspects of the climate crisis are left out of environmental science education altogether. One effort to fill this gap is Youth on Root, which supplements existing STEM education with a curriculum kit on environmental justice, a youth-directed conference program that brings California kids together, and an animated explanatory video series.
Comments closed