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We, the over 80 delegates from Kenya, Uganda and Malawi, including educators, school administrators, entrepreneurs, researchers, civil society organisations, development partners, and policy actors, convened in Lilongwe, Malawi, on 22nd January 2026, to deliberate on ‘Agroecology-based School and College Food Procurement Systems in East and Southern Africa’

WE THANK the Government and People of Malawi for the warm welcome and support we have received during this event. We also appreciate the International Development Research centre of the Canadian government and their partners for making this event possible, and urge them to continue supporting the development of agroecology-based school meal programmes in Africa.

We RECOGNIZE that school meal programmes across our three countries play a critical role in advancing nutrition, education, gender equality, social protection and local economic development, particularly for children from marginalized and food-insecure households. We further acknowledge that these programmes operate within complex and evolving contexts, shaped by climate change, rising food prices, environmental degradation, policy gaps, and structural inequalities.

We note that:

1. Malawi is implementing multi stakeholder school meals system, while confronting constraints related to agricultural productivity, procurement systems, and institutional coherence
2. Uganda relies largely on community- and parent-led school feeding arrangements, in the absence of a comprehensive national policy, resulting in uneven access, nutritional disparities, and heavy burdens on households.
3. Kenya has articulated strong policy ambitions through its National School Meals and Nutrition Strategy and emerging agroecology frameworks, yet continues to face challenges related to funding stability, climate shocks, and farmer–school coordination.

Across all three countries, we recognize that women, youth, and other marginalized groups remain central to food production and preparation, yet continue to be underrepresented in decision-making and benefit-sharing within school food systems.

Guided by the principles of agroecology, food sovereignty, participatory action research (PAR), and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), we affirm that school meal programmes are strategic leverage points for transforming local food systems, strengthening resilience, and advancing social justice across Africa.

OUR SHARED REGIONAL VISION

We collectively envision school and college meal systems in Malawi, Uganda and Kenya that are:

1. Agroecology-based, environmentally sustainable, and climate-resilient
2. Home-grown and territorially embedded, prioritizing local producers and local markets
3. Inclusive and gender-transformative, ensuring equitable participation and benefits
4. Educationally integrated, linking food, learning, culture, and livelihoods
5. Institutionally supported, through coherent policies, adequate financing, and accountable governance

COMMITMENT

1. We affirm agroecology as a scientific, practical, cultural, and political approach that supports biodiversity, nutrition, climate adaptation, and community agency. We commit to:

• Advancing agroecological production as a preferred foundation for school and college food supply
• Promoting diversified, indigenous, and culturally appropriate foods across menus
• Integrating school gardens, food forests, and Integrated Land Use Design (ILUD) as learning and food production spaces in all three countries

2. We recognize that sustainable school feeding depends on short, transparent, equitable, sustainable and inclusive supply chains. We therefore commit to:

• Strengthening direct linkages between schools, smallholder farmers, cooperatives, aggregators, and territorial markets in Kenya, Uganda and Malawi
• Supporting procurement mechanisms that are flexible enough to accommodate small-scale, seasonal, and agroecological production
• Reducing over-reliance on imported or conventionally produced foods while safeguarding food quality, safety, and reliability.

3. We acknowledge that unequal power relations continue to shape access, participation, and benefits within school feeding value chains. We commit to:

• Ensuring women’s leadership and decision-making power in procurement committees, producer organisations, and school governance structures
• Creating meaningful opportunities for youth employment, entrepreneurship, and skills development across the value chain
• Applying an intersectional GESI lens that recognizes how gender, age, disability, poverty, and geography interact to shape exclusion

4. We recognize the role of producers, entrepreneurs, processors, traders, caterers, and service providers in making school feeding systems viable. We commit to:

• Supporting agroecology-aligned enterprises
• Promoting appropriate technologies for storage, processing, clean cooking, and post-harvest loss reduction

5. We reaffirm the value of participatory, action-oriented research in generating locally relevant solutions. We commit to:

• Co-producing knowledge with schools, farmers, communities, and policymakers across the three countries
• Using evidence to refine models, inform policy dialogue, and guide scaling strategies
• Ensuring that research outputs are accessible, context-sensitive, and usable by all stakeholders.

6. We recognize that agroecology-based school feeding requires enabling policy and institutional environments. We commit to:

• Advocating for integration of agroecology into school feeding programmes in Malawi, Uganda & Kenya
• Strengthening coordination among the actors involved in school feeding programmes
• Promoting transparent, accountable, and participatory governance of school feeding systems.

CALL TO ACTION

We call upon:

1. Governments of Kenya, Uganda and Malawi to provide sustained political, policy, institutions and financial support for agroecology-based home-grown school feeding
2. Farmers and producer organisations to organize collectively and engage proactively with schools
3. Civil society organisations to facilitate inclusion, capacity building, and policy advocacy
4. Researchers to facilitate the generation of data that support evidence based design of agroecology-based school feeding models
5. Development partners to support long-term, locally grounded, and gender-transformative food system transition.

Done on 22nd January 2026, Lilongwe, Malawi

Clean Air Council and the Naamans, Marcus Hook, Stoney Creek (NMS) Watersheds Alliance are excited to announce the launch of the new NMS Watersheds Storymap! The storymap is an ArcGIS platform that shares the history, geography, and importance of the NMS Watersheds, as well as the story of the creation of the NMS Watersheds Alliance, and the accomplishments and goals of the group.

Take a Sneak Peak!

The Naamans Creek, Marcus Hook Creek, and Stoney Creek Watersheds 

Naamans Creek, Marcus Hook Creek, and Stoney Creek (NMS) are part of the Delaware River Watershed and represent the last unprotected subwatershed area in Delaware County. The NMS watersheds are situated in and around the municipalities of Marcus Hook, Trainer, Upper and Lower Chichester, and Bethel Township. 

Healthy watersheds are an essential foundation for healthy communities and ecosystems. These subwatersheds are a critical and valuable part of our local communities, but are also subject to ongoing pollution and contamination from local industrial sites. Petrochemical processing plants, refineries, tank farms, and other industrial facilities can leave behind legacy contaminants that persist in local ecosystems. Stormwater runoff can carry pollutants such as oil, gasoline, heavy metals, and other toxins that degrade water quality, harm local wildlife, and even impact drinking water. If left unaddressed, these issues can lead to further harm of the watershed, including reduced biodiversity and diminished access to the natural spaces that residents depend on for physical and mental well-being. 

The Creation of the NMS Watersheds Alliance

In 2024, with the support of the Clean Air Council and Marcus Hook Area Neighbors for Public Health, residents came together to develop a local watershed group to protect the NMS subwatershed areas. The NMS Watersheds Alliance is a nonpartisan group of residents committed to the protection, restoration, and conservation of the Naamans, Marcus Hook, and Stoney Creek (NMS) watersheds. The Alliance aims to encourage community stewardship and to promote connection, enjoyment, and respect of the watershed by all who live, work, play, and visit. NMS Watersheds Alliance initiatives address conservation, recreation, and water pollution issues in the watershed through outreach and education, advocacy, and stewardship. 

Learn more about the NMS Watersheds Alliance by checking out our new brochure!

Introducing the NMS Watersheds Storymap

To tell the unique story of the NMS and virtually bring people into the watershed, the NMS Watersheds Alliance launched the Naamans, Marcus Hook and Stoney Creek Watersheds Alliance Storymap in early 2026.  The creation of this storymap provides visualization of the watershed for residents and serves as an important tool for understanding our local water resources. The storymap details the history and geography of the NMS creeks, Delaware River Watershed, and pollution threats the NMS faces. 

Residents can take a virtual tour of the watershed and learn more about the NMS Watersheds Alliance’s initiatives. This includes storm drain marking workshops, tree plantings, creek clean-ups, stream salinity testing, revitalization of local parks, advocating for the mitigation of pollution in our local streams, and more! The NMS Watersheds Alliance will regularly update the storymap with new projects, initiatives, and information about our creeks and watersheds. Check out the storymap to visit the NMS Watersheds virtually and learn more!  

Get Involved with the NMS Watersheds Alliance! Follow us on Facebook to stay up to date, and if you’d like to join the NMS Watersheds Alliance’s monthly meetings, contact Alyssa Felix-Arreola at afa@cleanair.org.

The climate crisis doesn’t always arrive as a sudden headline-grabbing disaster. Sometimes, it creeps up quietly: in shrinking rivers, failing wells, and communities being forced to “use less” of what they barely have. But make no mistake: what looks like scarcity is actually theft. Theft of a stable climate. Theft of reliable rainfall. Theft of the water systems that have sustained life for millennia.

A new report from the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) “Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era”  warns that the world has entered an era of “global water bankruptcy.” It means we are using and damaging freshwater systems faster than nature can replenish them and in many places, the damage is irreversible.

This is what the climate crisis looks like when it hits the systems that sustain life. And it’s being driven by the same forces destroying our climate: fossil fuel extraction, industrial agriculture, and an economic system that treats nature as an infinite resource to exploit for profit.

From “Crisis” to “Bankruptcy”. What’s the difference?

For decades, policymakers and researchers have described global water challenges as a “water crisis” or “water scarcity.” But scholars have long warned that this crisis framing fails to capture the reality of long-term, structural decline. The word “crisis” sounds temporary. Bankruptcy means something more permanent and more concerning. It describes a system that’s been used up so badly that it can no longer simply bounce back.

The UNU report documents a scale of loss that makes this distinction unavoidable:

• Roughly 70% of the world’s major aquifers (underground layers of rock and soil that store water) are in long-term decline. 
• Rivers that once flowed to the sea now run dry for months each year. 
• Over half of the world’s large lakes have lost water since the early 1990s. 
• The world has lost an estimated 410 million hectares of natural wetlands over the past five decades, nearly the size of the entire European Union. These were ecosystems that once stored water, buffered droughts, and regulated local climates.

Perhaps most alarming, the world has lost more than 30% of its glacier mass since 1970. These “frozen water towers” once released meltwater during dry seasons, sustaining billions of people. Their disappearance is the liquidation of nature’s water savings account — with no mechanism for repayment.

Almost all the world’s glaciers are shrinking and fast. Credit: Copyright 2011 Michael C Smith

Bankruptcy essentially means you can’t restore what’s been permanently lost. Compacted (squeezed out) aquifers can never store water again. Extinct species don’t return. Glaciers that took millennia to form won’t regrow in our lifetimes.

Fossil Fuels > The Climate Crisis > Water Collapse

Water bankruptcy is being locked in by climate breakdown, which in turn is driven overwhelmingly by the burning of fossil fuels i.e. coal, oil, and gas. Here’s how climate change is destroying our water systems:

• Rising temperatures intensify the water bankruptcy spiral: Every fraction of a degree of global warming increases evaporation from soils, rivers, and reservoirs. Hotter air sucks moisture from the land, turning what would have been manageable dry spells into devastating droughts. The report documents how drought is increasingly “anthropogenic”, meaning it’s not just about lack of rainfall, but about human-caused warming, land degradation, and over-extraction combining to create permanent water deficits.

An Indian man takes bath under the tap of a water tanker on a hot day in Ahmadabad, India. Heat wave conditions prevailed as temperature rises in many parts of India. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

• Extreme rainfall creates the cruel paradox – floods without recharge: At the same time, climate change is intensifying rainfall. Storms arrive in violent bursts that flood cities and wash water away before it can infiltrate soils. More than half of global agricultural land is now moderately or severely degraded, meaning it cannot absorb and store water. Communities experience the cruel paradox of flooding and water shortage in the same year or sometimes in the same month.

• Melting glaciers: short-term surge, long-term catastrophe: Glacier melt illustrates the danger of mistaking short-term increases for security. As glaciers melt faster, rivers may briefly swell. But once glaciers shrink past critical thresholds, dry-season flows collapse permanently. For the 1.5 to 2 billion people who depend on glacier-fed river systems such as the Indus, Ganges-Brahmaputra, and Andean rivers, this means water supplies that sustained entire civilizations are disappearing.

• Industrial agriculture and extractive industries devour and pollute water: Around 70% of global freshwater withdrawals go to agriculture, much of it for water-intensive monocultures in regions that cannot sustain them. Meanwhile, mining, fossil fuel operations, and industrial pollution render vast volumes of remaining water unusable. Water may still exist on paper, but functionally it is gone, too contaminated for drinking, farming, or healthy ecosystems.

The Human Cost: Who’s Paying?

The scale of water bankruptcy is quite extensive and ever- growing: 

• Nearly 4 billion people experience severe water scarcity at least one month per year
• 2.2 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water
• 3.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation
• Over 1.8 billion people were living under drought conditions in 2022-2023
• Drought-related damages cost over $307 billion per year worldwide — more than the annual GDP of three-quarters of UN member states.

But statistics only tell part of the story. Water bankruptcy shows up in daily realities no one should have to face. Farmers watch wells fail after generations of reliability and go into debt drilling deeper into aquifers that will soon collapse. Girls walk farther for water instead of attending school. Informal settlement residents pay more for less reliable water from tanker trucks while wealthy neighbourhoods maintain green lawns. Entire communities are forced to move as water sources disappear. Rising food prices as irrigation fails and harvests decline, pushing the poorest households into deeper poverty and hunger. 

Young women and girls carry water in Nigeria. Credit: Flickr

And here’s the brutal irony: the communities facing water bankruptcy today are often those who’ve contributed least to the climate crisis but are protecting the water systems everyone depends on like Indigenous water guardians stewarding watersheds, small-scale farmers practicing sustainable agriculture and communities resisting extractive industries and defending rivers from pollution.

Their knowledge and their resistance are being ignored while their water is being stolen by the same systems driving climate chaos.

The Fossil Fuel Era Has to End Now

Every year governments delay ending coal, oil, and gas, ordinary people pay the price, not in abstract climate targets, but in higher food prices, worsening health, lost livelihoods, and growing insecurity. Water bankruptcy is another consequence that makes those costs impossible to ignore.

The solution is not complicated. End fossil fuel expansion. Phase out coal, oil, and gas. Invest in clean energy and resilient, public, community-led water systems. Set binding limits on industrial water extraction. Align climate policy with the reality that there is no livable future without functioning water systems.

What happens next depends on whether leaders continue protecting polluters or finally choose people, justice, and a livable planet.

Sources

• Global Water Bankruptcy Report – UNU-INWEH (2026)
• Fossil Fuels Did This: How the Industry Drives Drought – 350.org
• The Planetary Boundaries Framework – Stockholm Resilience Centre
• Water Conflict Chronology – Pacific Institute
• UN 2023 Water Conference Outcomes

The post Water bankruptcy: how fossil fuels are destroying the world’s water supply appeared first on 350.

In solidarity with social movements in Minneapolis, the family and friends of Keith Porter Jr., and all those murdered and disappeared by ICE and DHS The Strategy Center renews its solidarity and call for open borders and amnesty.

We too, will be on the frontlines with the rest of LA today as we all participate in one of the largest general strikes in the history of the U.S.—a well-deserved vote of no confidence in the federal government as it makes moves to open fascism that has been a bipartisan project of the U.S. for as long as the country itself has existed.

We’re deeply disappointed in the way that the city has mishandled funds, continues to pay half of the city budget to the LAPD, while the LAPD chief announces that, in defiance with an LA county ordinance, he will not enforce any measures that prevent ICE from murdering and disappearing BIPOC community members.

We continue to work with organizations in the Police Free LAUSD coalition to protect programs like BSAP, to fight for a complete defund to the LA School police, to protect LGBTQ students and to fight against ICE activities in and around LAUSD schools and our neighborhoods.

We are from the radical Afrocentric ant-imperialist traditions of caring about all of the oppressed people and the true slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all.

We call on those today whose righteous anger we share, to remember the Black students and adults and Black/African immigrants who are kidnapped every day by the LAPD, County Sheriffs, and ICE, put in holding cells for crimes the system makes up, with no bail, guilty until guilty.

We cry for the houseless of all races. We cry for our Latinx, Somali, and all oppressed sisters, brothers, and siblings. We use those tears as fuel for our rage and our resistance.

This is a long fight against fascism. We will march with everyone, bring our bodies to the larger cause. We offer our Strategy and Soul Movement Center as a safe place for those who want to change the world to gather, eat, talk, get respite, resilience, talk about strategy and tactics and closer alliances, and build the will and encouragement for us to fight on together.

The time for all hands on deck to stop the U.S. imperialist white settler state and its world genocide is not just now but has been now for the past few decades.

Students involved in our Strategy & Soul Social Justice group are fired up, members of the Strategy Centers chapter of South Central Power Up e-bike library are fired up, and friends of the Strategy and Soul Bookstore are ready for the fight.

We’ll see you out there,

In solidarity, the strategy center team.

Channing, Eric, Akunna, Barbara, Pau, Clinton, and many more members of The Strategy Center.

The post Abolish ICE Abolish DHS! From the Clinton Assault to Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden The Strategy Center renews its call for Open borders and Amnesty for all. first appeared on The Labor Community Strategy Center.

Image Description: Black and yellow text reads “ICE OUT” on a pixelated gray and black gradient background.

Organizing around transit justice is about ensuring that all people have the freedom to move—to travel safely and with dignity everywhere we need to go. All communities should have the ability to freely access their places of school and work, grocery stores, healthcare, and places of recreation and play. 

ICE as an institution is structurally in opposition to that freedom of movement. It is a state instrument of violence, of repression and fear, of incarceration and isolation. We have seen the ways that they have systematically targeted our community of transit riders, which are disproportionately people of color, disabled people, low-income people, and immigrants. 

We are humbled by the solidarity, courage and organizing muscle of all those in Minneapolis, and particularly celebrate the leadership of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 in protecting transit riders and workers from state-sactioned violence. We endorse the call for a National Strike on Friday, Jan 30th, and support the organizing at the County, State and Federal levels to defend against, to defund and abolish ICE. 

We also stand in support of the proposed Allegheny County ordinance that would prohibit County employees and resources from assisting ICE, and protecting equal access to County services without regard to immigration status (real or perceived).

We encourage our community to sign onto a petition & pressure Allegheny County Council to support this ordinance. Click the button to tell Allegheny County Council that ICE is not welcome here.

No County Collaboration with ICE

The post ICE Out: Strike Solidarity Statement appeared first on Pittsburghers for Public Transit.

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) invites applications from qualified and experienced facilitators to support the delivery of a Training of Trainers (ToT) on Integrating Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems into African Territorial Markets, scheduled for 18th–20th February 2026 in Entebbe, Uganda.

This Training of Trainers is part of AFSA’s African Agroecological Entrepreneurship (AAE) initiative and aims to strengthen the capacity of national partners and territorial market actors to advance agroecology-driven, inclusive, and resilient territorial market systems across Africa.

AFSA is seeking facilitators with strong experience in agroecology, sustainable food systems, territorial markets, participatory training, and adult learning methodologies. Applicants may apply to facilitate one or more sessions and must clearly indicate the specific session(s) of interest by title, demonstrating relevant prior experience aligned to those sessions.

Application Requirements

Interested applicants should submit:

• A signed cover letter indicating the session(s) of interest;
• A brief technical proposal (maximum 2 pages) outlining relevant experience and proposed facilitation approach;
• A Curriculum Vitae (CV);
• Two samples of relevant facilitation or training work (where applicable);
• A financial proposal indicating facilitation fees (USD), inclusive of all costs.

Submission Details

Applications should be submitted by email to afsa@afsafrica.org  no later than 6th February 2026 (5:00 pm EAT).

Email subject line:
Facilitator Application – Training of Trainers (ToT) on Integrating Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems into African Territorial Markets

For detailed information on the scope of work, session descriptions, and qualifications, applicants are encouraged to consult the full Terms of Reference.

Download Terms of Reference Here 

This is a guest article written by Jean McLean, Director of Engagement at the Green Economy Coalition (GEC), a global movement for green and fair economies.

Results from the Green Economy Coalition’s latest Global Green Attitudes Survey reveal a loud and consistent demand: People around the world, want more radical and transformative government action – not just on the environment, but on the economic systems driving the climate and nature breakdown.

And they don’t just want small “green tweaks” either, they want economies reshaped to serve the people and the planet, not pollution and profit.

Despite today’s shaky politics, the survey, which polled over 10,000 people across 10 countries, is clear: support for climate action is strong across countries and income levels. What’s missing now isn’t public backing, its political courage.

A tougher political context, but public support for climate action hasn’t weakened

Compared to the same survey in 2024, the political and economic context has become even more challenging. Since our first wave of research, the cost-of-living crisis has continued to bite. Trump’s re-election has emboldened right-wing populists and their pro–fossil fuel agenda, while “green hushing” has crept into government, corporate, and even civil society spaces, with sustainability quietly reframed, deprioritised, or hidden.

Yet even in this climate of economic anxiety and political retrenchment, our survey found that the public has not turned away from environmental action. Instead, people increasingly recognise that today’s economic model is failing them as well as the planet — driving inequality, locking in pollution, and leaving households exposed to rising costs and environmental risk.

And crucially, the survey shows just how deep that support runs: 84% of people globally would choose stronger environmental protection even at the cost of slowed economic growth.

People want a real change in the system, not just a tweak 

The polling reveals a powerful and consistent message: people want governments to lead a systemic economic transformation, not rely on voluntary action or individual sacrifice.

• 88% of people globally say governments should be doing more to combat climate change.
• 82% support prioritising public investment in clean energy, even when this requires significant government spending.

These are not abstract environmental preferences. They reflect a growing understanding that public investment, regulation, and economic planning are essential to building resilient, fair economies: ones that deliver decent jobs, affordable energy, and healthy environments.

And yet, only 42% of people believe their government is taking more action now than last year to protect the environment. The result is a widening credibility gap between what people know is needed and what governments are prepared to do.

Reclaiming economies means governments stepping up for the climate

Crucially, the survey shows that people do not see the green transition as something households can, or should, carry alone. The biggest barrier to more sustainable choices is not apathy or unwillingness, but lack of government support, cited by 52% of respondents globally.

This is especially pronounced in lower-income countries, where citizens are often most exposed to environmental harm while having the least influence over global economic rules. In countries such as Nigeria, Turkey, and South Africa, over 60% identify government inaction as the main obstacle.

When asked what would help, people pointed to:

• Better laws and stronger regulation
• Increased funding for environmental programmes
• Support for green jobs and environmentally responsible businesses

In other words, people are asking governments to reclaim their role in shaping the economy, rather than outsourcing responsibility to individuals and markets that reward pollution and short-term profit.

Trust in leaders is collapsing, but people still want ambitious action 

Trust in political leadership remains worryingly low. Just 39% of people globally trust political leaders to make the right decisions for a sustainable future. But this collapse in trust has not dampened ambition.

Instead, people are calling for bold reforms that challenge business-as-usual: stricter regulation of pollution, stronger accountability for corporations, and public investment to steer economies towards long-term wellbeing, even if this means economic trade-offs in the short term.

This reflects a growing public understanding that an economy designed around endless growth, extraction, and inequality is neither sustainable nor desirable. People are ready for a new direction — one that measures success by health, resilience, and shared prosperity, not just GDP.

The public has spoken, now it’s time our governments delivered

Taken together, the findings leave no room for doubt. Governments already have a clear public mandate to act on climate, on nature, and on the economy itself.

Reclaiming our economies means: 

• • putting people and the planet back at the centre of decision-making.
  • using public policy to reward care, restoration, and long-term value  and to hold polluters to account. 
  • moving beyond rhetoric, towards real investment, regulation, and reform.

People are already doing their part. They are ready for change. The question is whether political leaders are willing to listen, and to finally use the tools they have to build economies that work for everyone.

What do we want? Economies that serve people and the planet. When do we want them? Now.

DOWNLOAD THE RESEARCH

 

The post 84% of us want nature protected, even if it slows economic growth appeared first on 350.

The world can feel like it’s moving in two directions at once. One day, leaders talk about climate action and the next, we see fresh drilling pushes and new fossil deals, from the Arctic to Asia and South America. But the bigger truth is this: the ground is shifting beneath the polluter industry, because the world is leaving fossil fuels behind and already rapidly moving onto clean, renewable energy. 

That’s why January 26, the International Day of Clean Energy, is fitting a moment to celebrate progress, and to double down on a just energy transition that works for everyone. Here are eight reasons we should feel hopeful today:

1. Clean energy is winning the investment race

Clean energy isn’t “emerging” anymore, it’s already outcompeting fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency projects around $2.2 trillion in clean energy investment in 2025, compared to roughly $1.1 trillion going into oil, gas, and coal. That’s the transition happening in real time. And it’s not slowing down: clean investment has outpaced fossil investment for years, and the gap keeps widening as technology improves and costs fall.

2. More governments are organizing to phase out fossil fuels

Despite weak consensus outcomes at the annual UN talks, COP30, in Brazil this past November, the diplomatic track is shifting. During the Summit, more than 80 countries from the Global South and Global North jointly called for a roadmap to phase out coal, oil, and gas. That matters because it shows unanimous agreement isn’t a necessary condition for political momentum for climate action. Countries are increasingly treating fossil fuel phaseout as a shared destination, and building the political alignment to get there. For instance, A growing “coalition of the willing” is building real phaseout architecture. Hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands’, the world’s first conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels this year in April aims to design “legal, economic, and social pathways” for a just transition beyond coal, oil, and gas. The goal isn’t a theoretical one-size-fits-all exit, it’s a practical, achievable roadmap tied to jobs, protection, and real opportunity.

3. The clean transition is becoming common-sense economics  

Investor behavior too, is shifting in a clear direction. Not because “green” is fashionable, but because fossil-heavy assets look increasingly risky in a changing world. In a Morgan Stanley survey of 950+ major investors, most said they plan to increase sustainable investing over the next two years. The logic is straightforward: future-ready assets look safer and more profitable over time, while fossil dependence creates volatility, stranded assets, and reputational risk. 

4. The rules are tightening for fossil fuel companies

Big investors are no longer willing to bankroll fossil companies that can’t prove they have a credible plan for the transition. That shift is already visible: in December 2025, Swedish pension fund AP7 cut off investments in companies it judged incompatible with climate goals. This is how the phaseout accelerates in practice, not just through speeches, but through capital discipline. “Business as usual” is becoming a financial liability, not a safe bet.

5. Courts and legal standards are shifting toward climate accountability

The legal “reasonableness standard” is moving upward, closer to what climate science actually requires. On July 23, 2025, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion strengthening what states owe on climate action, including on fossil fuel production and subsidies. It’s not binding, but it’s directional: the legal centre just shifted. That means more pressure, more scrutiny, and more risk for governments and corporations that keep expanding fossil fuels.

6. People are choosing solutions that improve life, not just emissions graphs

Clean energy is not only about cutting carbon. It’s about making daily life safer and more affordable: lower bills, cleaner air, and resilience in the face of energy and price shocks. When communities can generate and control power locally, through distributed solar, storage, and public renewables, they’re less exposed to global fuel price spikes and corporate profiteering. The transition becomes real when people can feel it: stability, dignity, and control over essential services like energy.

7. Even conservative energy authorities have drawn a line on new fossil supply

Campaigners and climate activists aren’t the only ones saying “stop drilling.” Even the International Energy Agency, one of the world’s most mainstream energy institutions, has made the case in its Net Zero pathway: a future where no new oil and gas fields should be approved for development beyond those already committed. That’s not radical politics. It’s basic risk management in a world that can’t afford more fossil lock-in. The safest investment now is building the clean energy system faster.

8. Clean energy could save us trillions, and it’s already getting cheaper

A fast energy transition is now the cheapest option on the table. A University of Oxford study found shifting to renewables by 2050 could save the global economy at least $12 trillion in energy system costs, even before counting avoided climate disasters. That’s because renewables are technologies, not commodities: costs fall as we scale. Over the last decade, solar fell ~90%, wind ~70%, and battery storage ~85% — while the sun and wind stay free. 

As we celebrate real progress toward a 100% renewable future, we can’t forget this: climate disaster is already here, and stopping fossil fuel expansion is the bare minimum for survival.

Clean energy is rising. But so are floods, fires, heatwaves, bill shocks, and fossil disasters. So the path forward has to do two things at once: end the harm, and build the alternative.

1) Stop the harm: no new fossil fuel expansion 

Governments and regulators must stop approving new oil, gas, and coal projects — and end fossil subsidies. When floods, fires, heatwaves, or bill shocks hit, alongside the media, we must connect the dots fast: this damage is driven by political choices that protect polluters. Courts must enforce climate and liability laws, hold governments and companies accountable for harm, and unlock compensation through litigation. Insurers must price climate risk honestly, withdraw cover from new fossil projects, and stop shielding polluters from the real costs of their damage.

2) Make polluters pay

Fossil fuel companies shouldn’t profit while communities pay the price. Governments must enforce real accountability through liability, levies, and an end to fossil impunity — so recovery and resilience are funded by those who caused the damage.

3) Deliver the Right to Energy

Governments, regulators, utilities, and cities must deliver affordable, resilient clean power people can feel. That means investing in distributed renewables, storage, and grids — plus tools like lifeline tariffs and free basic electricity where possible. 

4) Move money to the future

Investors, banks, and insurers must stop financing expansion and shift capital toward clean energy solutions that are credible, community-backed, and built to last.

5) Let’s organize to make the transition unstoppable

We make the shift away from fossil fuels real by organizing locally and forcing decision-makers to act. When a crisis hits, we show up, naming who’s responsible and demanding protection and justice. 

 

This is how we win: make fossil expansion harder, and make real alternatives easier.

DEMAND A FOSSIL FREE FUTURE NOW

 

The post 8 reasons to celebrate on this International Day of Clean Energy appeared first on 350.

image description: illustration of a red bus to the left of the image, small photo of smiling supporters to the right, text reads “Job listing Digital Organizer – Data Lead” with logos for Transit for All PA! and Pittsburghers for Public Transit.

The movement is hiring a new staff position! Check out the description below and apply if you’re a great candidate

January 2026

About Transit for All PA! and Pittsburghers for Public Transit

Transit for All PA! is fighting for more public transit that moves all Pennsylvanians. The campaign is led by Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT), which is a grassroots union of transit riders, workers, and neighbors. Together, PPT and Transit for All PA! organize for public transit that meets all needs, with no communities left behind.

PPT is a member-led grassroots union. Our members vote annually to elect fellow members to our Board of Directors, which manages our staff and finances. Members create and vote to approve our yearly campaign plans, and members work on our three volunteer-led committees to do the research, organizing, and communications projects needed to win our campaigns.

Together, we are creating transit systems that work for everybody, for our communities and our state, by organizing as poor and working-class people in a multi-racial movement for transit justice—and we need you with us in this fight.

Digital Organizer – Data Lead Position Summary

The Digital Organizer – Data Lead will build & manage our digital infrastructure, data strategy, online-to-offline organizing funnel to grow our movement and win our campaigns. The position will work in the organization’s small but mighty Digital Department, with the Digital Organizing Director and the Digital Organizer – Communications Lead. Close collaboration with the rest of the staff and our member leaders will be vital.

This is not an entry-level position; we require applicants to have a command of data management skills (such as managing databases, digital infrastructure and tools, workflows, and data hygiene) and experience with community organizing skills (such as facilitating meetings, trainings, events, and participation). It’s a big, broad job, and we work as a team to support each other and get it done.

 The Digital Organizer – Data Lead will report to the Digital Organizing Director.

Primary Job Responsibilities

1. Digital infrastructure building & management: co-create systems to maximize the efficacy of our data via digital and old-fashioned community organizing.
   • EveryAction! Grow an organizational culture committed to building a powerful EveryAction database and advocacy/communications toolset to win our campaigns. Work with EA to develop systems/segmentation to support our organizing across the state. Train staff on their appropriate roles in the database. Troubleshoot issues when they arise.
   • Manage the organization’s tech stack – Sharpen the use of our tech stack (which currently includes Everyaction, Mobilze, Getthru, Google Workspace, Zoom, Twilio, Asana and some others) and digital/analogue data by fixing bugs, building workflows, and training staff.
   • Build a culture of effective data collection + hygiene– Train staff/members on systems & practices, and lovingly hold our team accountable to our program. Make the benefits of our data practices tangible – graphs, dashboards, effective workflows, clear purpose.
     
2. Membership program growth: Cultivate a PPT Membership program that builds strong, caring, personal relationships that move people to action and sharpen our fundraising with small-dollar donors. That means we will need you to:
   • Grow membership & solidarity – build systems to increase the number of members.  Deepen new & existing members’ understanding of what it means to be part of this grassroots union.
   • Improve & maintain data/digital systems – Iterate on existing systems to track and report on membership program. Streamline program operations – recruitment, renewals, self-service, and more.
   • Increase revenue – Lead 2 large membership drives and 2 small recruitment campaigns throughout the year. Coordinate with the team on a fundraising calendar.
   • Deepen engagement and leadership development – Help members increase their involvement in our organizing & develop leaders who can take charge of making change in their communities. 
     
3. People Organizing – Yes, this position will spend lots of time on a computer, but it will also require strong real-life relational organizing to be successful:
   • Create & lead our Data Volunteer Team (name is a work in progress) – establish a volunteer team  work on data projects. 
   • Large-event planning & logistics – lend a hand with large in-person and virtual events held throughout the year

Qualities We Are Looking For

Versed in Strategic Infrastructure. You have experience building and managing digital infrastructure to strengthen organizations. Systems and tools should be clear, intuitive, and accessible for staff and volunteers to utilize.

Accountability Focused. You are a rigorous systems thinker who can create digital infrastructure to accurately assess our current engagement capacity, identify opportunities for growth, and demonstrate the efficacy of different organizing and communications strategies.

Visionary and Committed. You are an organizer at heart, working towards justice for our communities. You are caring, invested, and accountable to your fellow staff, PPT’s democratically-elected board leadership, and membership.

A Swiss Army Knife. You are resourceful and creative, willing to do what it takes to make a project succeed. You can handle a lot in a fast-paced, multi-faceted work environment.

In(ter)dependent. Can work independently, self-managing your time, while maintaining close communication with remote teams. You are flexible and know that organizing doesn’t always happen between 9 am and 5 pm – and you respect your time and your team’s by taking flex time to keep everyone at a 40hr work week. You believe in people and know everyone can contribute in different ways to win a better world.

Required Qualifications

• Support Transit for All PA! + Pittsburghers for Public Transit’s mission, vision, goals, and theory of change
• Deep personal investment in the intersectional struggle for transit justice, housing justice, disability justice, racial justice and environmental justice
• Experience in multi-racial, multicultural settings
• Spreadsheet prowess and admin-level proficiency in 21st-century office tools: Google Suite, Zoom, Asana etc
• 2-3 years of managing digital systems and infrastructure for an organization like CRMs, websites, and tools for digital activism
• 1+ years experience in creating training materials and training organizational staff. 
• Access to reliable internet, phone, and remote office arrangements. 

Preferred Qualifications

• 2-3 years of community organizing experience (paid or volunteer), preferably with grassroots member-led base-building organizations or unions, moving people to volunteer, donate, attend events, or take action for social change
• 1+ years experience in PPT membership and/or the Transit for All PA! campaign, and familiarity with Pittsburghers for Public Transit’s/Transit for All PA!’s community and organizational culture. 
• Ability to write and speak a second language, preferably Spanish

Location and Travel

Our staff must be willing to work a flexible schedule, including nights and weekends – while also valuing rest, humanity, and taking time for our own needs and the team’s.

The Digital Organizer – Data Lead can live anywhere in Pennsylvania, but will need to be able to travel to Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and other parts of PA 4-5 times a year. If the hire lives in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, some level of in-office time with local staff will be required. The hire will need to have some flexibility and give input on our “workplace norms” as we grow to operate at a statewide level. 

Salary and Benefits

This is a full non-exempt position. Salary is $65,000 a year, and includes high-quality, zero premium and zero deductible family health care, free transit pass, unmatched and matched 401k retirement contributions, and generous paid leave time. PPT is committed to an access-focused culture centered around Disability Justice principles and believes in a workplace culture with a healthy work-life balance.

How To Apply & Hiring Timeline

Please email a resume, cover letter, and writing/work samples to Dan Yablonsky, PPT/T4APA’s Digital Organizing Director, at dan@pittsburghforpublictransit.org. To ensure your email is received, please include “PPT Digital Organizer – Data Lead” as the subject line. References will be asked for candidates who advance in the process.  Candidates will only be contacted if our hiring team chooses to pursue an interview.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, familial status, sexual orientation, national origin, ability, age, or veteran status.

All applications received by February 20th, 2026 are guaranteed to be reviewed, but applications will be accepted until the position is filled. The target start date for this new hire is March 20, 2026.

Download a .pdf of the job description

The post Job Listing: Digital Organizer -Data Lead appeared first on Pittsburghers for Public Transit.

Minneapolis, MN (January 21, 2026) | The Center for Earth, Energy & Democracy (CEED) stands in solidarity with Minnesota’s immigrant communities and those mobilizing to protect them, and supports this Friday’s ICE OUT Minnesota: Day of Truth & Freedom general strike, march and rally. Across Minnesota, we will use our collective action to pause the economy and take action to be heard on January 23.

Our communities in Minnesota are living through an ongoing escalation of violence and fear due to a surge of ICE raids and brutality that have terrorized Black, Brown, Indigenous and immigrant families across the state. 

On January 23, hundreds of local organizations, faith groups, unions and businesses are joining forces to call for ICE and other federal forces to leave Minnesota immediately. Together, we are calling for accountability for ICE’s unlawful attacks on our communities and demanding an end to funding for ICE and its racist agenda of raids and brutality. We are also calling on Minnesotan and national companies to stop doing business with ICE and assert 4th Amendment rights by refusing ICE entry into their businesses. Join us at the march and rally in downtown Minneapolis at 2:00 PM on January 23. 

Why CEED Stands in Solidarity with ICE OUT Minnesota

Environmental justice and immigrant justice are inseparable. The same systems that extract wealth from communities and devastate the land also criminalize migration and exploit immigrant workers. Immigrant communities are on the frontlines of the climate crisis and pollution, while also facing  disproportionate enforcement, surveillance, and displacement. As we organize for community-controlled renewable energy and local economic alternatives, we must oppose all forms of state violence against the communities building these alternatives.

There can be no democracy without justice. CEED’s vision of energy democracy depends on robust democratic institutions, constitutional protections, and the ability of communities to organize without fear. The human rights violations documented by ICE in Minnesota—including illegal detentions, warrantless stops, and the killing of Renee Nicole Good—undermine the very democratic foundations our work depends upon. When federal agents operate outside the law with impunity, it weakens all our rights to organize, speak out, and challenge systems of extraction and oppression.

A just transition requires justice for all. CEED’s work centers the leadership of frontline communities in building a regenerative economy rooted in energy democracy and community control. The ICE surge terrorizing Minnesota communities which cost Renee Nicole Good her life is a direct attack on the communities we work alongside. There can be no just transition when we live under threat of detention, family separation, and state violence.

Despite the attacks on our communities, we are seeing a powerful outpouring of solidarity through mutual aid efforts here in Minnesota. Volunteers are going door to door and distributing groceries to vulnerable neighbors, while mothers are patrolling the streets to document and deter immigration raids. Lawyers are out in the streets defending the right to protest, while neighbors are raising funds to pay for legal fees and bonds.

CEED recognizes that our staff, partners, and communities across Minnesota are directly impacted by ICE activities. We see you, we stand with you, and we commit to using our voice and resources to support this urgent call for justice, accountability, and human rights.

CEED encourages staff and partners in Minnesota to support these efforts and participate in ICE OUT Minnesota: Day of Truth & Freedom on January 23, in ways that feel right, and if they choose to do so. You can learn more and sign the pledge at iceoutnowmn.com

From our home in Minneapolis, the Center for Earth Energy and Democracy (CEED) works toward just transition, energy democracy, and climate justice at state, regional and national levels. We believe that front line communities must lead the transition from an extractive economy to one rooted in regeneration, cooperation, and community control.

The post CEED Stands in Solidarity with ICE OUT Minnesota on Jan. 23 appeared first on CEED.

A new report from Oxfam Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Protecting Freedom from Billionaire Power shows billionaire wealth reached $18.3 trillion in 2025, the highest level in human history. That’s more than the GDP of China, the world’s second largest economy. In fact, since 2020, billionaire wealth has increased by 81%.

All of this happens while one in four people don’t regularly have enough to eat, and nearly half the world lives in poverty. Families face rising costs for basics like food, rent, and electricity. Public services are stretched thin. Climate disasters hit harder and more often.

But what is worrying is that this small group holding extreme wealth, isn’t just buying luxury. They are buying control. Political outcomes. And of course, more fossil fuels. Billionaire power is building a dystopian, unliveable world with many government allies helping lock it in. Here is how: 

Billionaires are buying democracy, and blocking climate action

Oxfam’s report is clear: extreme wealth doesn’t sit quietly in bank accounts. It gets turned into political control. Alongside getting richer, billionaires are tightening their grip on the institutions meant to serve the public.

The research finds that billionaires are now 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people. That imbalance shapes real decisions, deciding what gets funded, what gets blocked, and whose voices are ignored.

And when billionaire political interests dominate, the consequences are brutal and predictable:

• climate action slows, fossil fuel expansion is protected, regulation is weakened, and public money gets funnelled into corporate profit instead of community needs.
• People demanding justice face crackdowns, shrinking civic space, and rising repression.

Oxfam points to the US Trump administration as a warning sign: a pro-billionaire government agenda that slashes taxes for the super-rich, undermines global cooperation to tax corporations, rolls back action on monopoly power, and boosts billionaire portfolios. But this isn’t confined to one country. Oligarchy is going global, and it’s undermining societies everywhere.

And it doesn’t stop at economic policy. Oxfam warns that civil liberties and political rights are being rolled back globally. 2024 marked the nineteenth successive year of decline, with a quarter of countries curtailing freedom of expression. When people protest, governments increasingly respond with violence.

Our bills are going up as their fortunes explode

In 2025, billionaire wealth surged by $2.5 trillion which is what is held by the bottom half of humanity (4.1 billion people). Oxfam estimates this money would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty 26 times over.

At the same time, people are told there’s “no money” for clean energy, resilient infrastructure, or strong public services. Communities are pushed to accept austerity and “tough choices,” while extreme wealth concentrates at record speed.

Oxfam links these choices to real harm: governments slash aid budgets, directly hitting people living in poverty and potentially contributing to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.

The result is a world where life feels more unaffordable and more unstable, and where climate action gets treated like an optional extra, instead of a survival plan.

The climate crisis is a business model for the super rich

Billionaire lifestyles are high-emitting, and that matters. But the deeper problem runs through the economic model itself: billionaire wealth is built on extraction and climate plunder.

Many billionaires profit directly from industries tied to pollution and destruction: fossil fuels, mining, deforestation, and corporate land grabs. Their money shapes the political decisions that keep these industries protected, subsidized, and expanding.

And the fallout hits everyone else: higher bills, weaker public systems, polluted air and water, and escalating climate risks. Communities in the Global South and frontline regions pay first and worst while the people most responsible stay insulated from the damage.

They control what we read (and believe)

Billionaire power doesn’t stop at politics. It reaches into the media and the information systems we rely on every day.

The Oxfam report shows how billionaire power doesn’t stop at politics — it spreads into the media and information systems we rely on every day. Billionaires now own more than half of the world’s largest media companies, and they also control all the main social media platforms, giving a tiny group of ultra-rich people enormous influence over what information gets amplified, what gets buried, and how public debate is shaped.

Oxfam points to examples like:

• Jeff Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post, Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter/X, and Patrick Soon-Shiong’s ownership of the Los Angeles Times.
• In France, the report highlights how far-right billionaire Vincent Bolloré took control of CNews and reshaped it into a French version of Fox News.
• And in the UK, Oxfam notes that three-quarters of newspaper circulation is controlled by just four super-rich families.

This concentration of media power matters because it doesn’t just influence what people read, it shapes what people believe is possible, normal, or worth fighting for. Oxfam warns that when billionaires dominate media and social platforms, minority voices and dissenting perspectives get pushed out, while scapegoating and disinformation spread more easily. The report points to structural exclusion too: only 27% of top editors globally are women, and just 23% belong to racialized groups, reinforcing whose stories get centered, and whose get ignored.

This also fuels polarization, making it harder to build the public pressure needed for real climate action, and easier for fossil fuel interests to keep operating in plain sight. And while we’re distracted, the fossil fuel machine keeps running.

Oxfam also shows how governments enable this captured information ecosystem. Governments allow billionaire control of platforms to deepen, and in some cases even use these platforms to track, punish, and silence critics. Oxfam points to Kenya, where authorities use X to track, punish, and even abduct and torture government critics. And after Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter/X, one study found hate speech increased by around 50%, showing how billionaire control over platforms can rapidly reshape what’s normal, visible, and tolerated online.

When billionaires control the narrative, they don’t just defend their wealth, they protect the system that keeps them on top.

The path forward: tax justice, climate justice, people power

The climate crisis demands more than good targets and speeches. It demands a shift in who holds power. Governments need to stop pandering to the ultra-rich and start delivering for people and the planet. That means:

• taxing extreme wealth to reduce its political dominance
• investing in renewable energy, clean transport, social housing, and strong public services
• protecting civic space and the right to organize and protest
• building real firewalls between wealth and politics

People are already pushing for this shift. Across countries, communities are organizing, demanding accountability, and refusing to accept a world run by billionaires and fossil fuel corporations.

Billionaire power is real. But people power is bigger. And when we move together, the future changes.

The post Billionaire Wealth Just Hit $18.3 Trillion. Why that’s bad news for the rest of us. appeared first on 350.

This is a guest article written by Jean McLean, Director of Engagement at the Green Economy Coalition (GEC), a global movement for green and fair economies.

With the cost of living spiralling out of control, affordability is now the key factor determining whether climate action gains public support or faces opposition.

Zohran Mamdani’s recent successful mayoral campaign in New York was based on concrete affordability pledges to make life more affordable to New Yorkers: rent freezes, fare free buses, city owned grocery stores, raising the minimum wage, baby baskets for newborns and no-cost childcare. The UK and Australian governments have taken note of this success and have prioritised addressing the cost of living and affordability as key to electoral success. Climate leaders need to take note. 

This success can be replicated! We know that the money exists to prioritise affordability for the general public, what we need is political will. Leaders must urgently switch to cleaner energy alternatives as they are proven to be cheaper than fossil fuels, bringing down energy costs for everyone. Taxing big polluters, the ultra-rich and using those funds towards public investment is a popular and necessary action.

For years, climate misinformation has tried to convince people that a green transition is a luxury not an inevitability. Despite the millions spent on disinformation, public opinion tells a very different story. Across countries and political contexts, people increasingly understand that clean energy is not the cause of rising costs — it is one of the most powerful solutions to them.

Our latest Global Green Attitudes polling shows a remarkably strong global public consensus: 

• 82%  per cent of respondents believe investment in clean energy should be a top government priority, even if it requires significant public spending. 
• An even larger share — 88%— agree that stronger laws are needed to support renewable energy like solar and wind.

Notably, this support has held steady despite inflation and increasing economic anxiety.  

As cost-of-living pressures deepen, people are judging energy choices on a simple test — will this lower my bills? As routine household bills become the main source of financial stress, renewable energy offers both an economic solution and a political opportunity for governments prepared to act.

Crucially, public perceptions are already shifting in clean energy’s favour. Many people already see clean energy as cost‑competitive or cheaper than fossil fuels. In the United States, a majority now believe clean energy costs the same or less than oil and gas. Globally, renewable electricity is routinely 30–50 per cent cheaper than new fossil fuel generation. 

In this context, this year’s polling data reveals an interesting dynamic between public support for environmental action and the perception of government performance: 

• People want lower bills and place responsibility for this squarely on governments. 
• The public wants transformative government action, such as public investment, fair rules, and accountability for polluters while also holding low trust in political leaders to deliver this. 
• Many are feeling  deeply frustrated  at political inaction as inflation and economic anxiety increase.

What is missing from climate action is not public backing then, but policy creativity. Clean energy can deliver affordability, good jobs, and energy security — if leaders choose to act. 

From free or discounted solar power programs to large‑scale investment in grids, storage, and clean industries, the solutions exist. Renewables already save countries trillions in avoided fuel imports and shield households from price shocks.

The choice facing leaders is stark. Continue delaying in service of fossil fuels  or unlock a future where clean energy is understood for what it truly is: clean, common‑sense, and cheap. The public is ready. The question is whether governments are willing to listen.

The post Affordability is the defining climate issue of 2026 appeared first on 350.

A climate deadline has arrived absurdly early this year. New research from Oxfam shows that by 10 January 2026, the world’s richest 1% had already used up their entire annual carbon budget. The budget is the amount of pollution they could generate over the whole year so that global heating stays below 1.5°C, the limit to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. 

The richest 0.1% blew past their limit even earlier, on 3 January. Oxfam calls this moment Pollutocrat Day. It puts a timestamp on a reality that’s impossible to ignore: a small, wealthy minority is driving the climate crisis, while everyone else pays the price.

The scale of inequality in emissions

To stay within the 1.5°C. limit, each person’s annual carbon allowance works out to about 2.1 tonnes of CO₂.

For the richest 1%, that fair share is exhausted almost immediately. Oxfam finds they emit 75.1 tonnes per person per year, or 0.206 tonnes per day, meaning it takes just 10.2 days for someone in the richest 1% to burn through an entire year’s carbon budget. In fact, this 75 tonnes of CO₂ per person each year is over 35 times the level compatible with 1.5°C.

The inequality becomes even more glaring at the very top. More data from Oxfam shows that a person in the richest 0.1% produces more carbon pollution in a single day than the poorest 50% emit in an entire year. If everyone polluted at the rate of the richest 0.1%, the global carbon budget would be used up in less than three weeks.

The consequences of this unchecked pollution are deadly. Emissions from this group in a single year are expected to cause 1.3 million heat-related deaths by the end of the century. Over time, this excess pollution is projected to cause $44 trillion in economic damage in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

To stay within 1.5°C, the richest 1% would need to cut their emissions by 97% by 2030. Meanwhile, those who have contributed least to the crisis — including communities in climate-vulnerable countries, Indigenous Peoples, and women and girls — are already facing the harshest impacts, from deadly heat to food insecurity, floods, and displacement.

This is about power and profit

Beyond their own lifestyle emissions from private jets and super-yachts, the super-rich are also bankrolling climate breakdown through their investments. Oxfam finds that the average billionaire’s portfolio is tied to companies producing 1.9 million tonnes of CO₂ every year, locking the world into fossil fuel expansion.

That economic power is reinforced by political influence. The wealthiest individuals and corporations are able to shape rules in their favour, ensuring polluting industries remain protected. At the most recent UN climate talks, COP30, in Brazil, for example, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered every national delegation except the host country, with around 1,600 lobbyists in attendance. This level of access makes it far easier to delay action and weaken climate commitments.

Extreme wealth does not just mean higher emissions, it sustains a system built around fossil fuels and profit. This moment calls for more than outrage. It raises a deeper question: whose interests are governments choosing to protect? 

Governments need to act, now

As the year unfolds and climate impacts like heatwaves and wildfires continue to intensify around the world, governments must be willing to challenge systems that reward pollution and individuals that hoard extreme wealth. 

Instead of doubling down on and expanding fossil fuels, and competing for control over oil, gas, and other critical resources, there is another, clearly better option. Oxfam points the way forward for our governments to:

• Make the richest polluters pay through higher taxes on extreme wealth and income
• Impose excess-profit taxes on fossil fuel corporations
• Ban or heavily tax carbon-intensive luxury items such as private jets and super-yachts
• Shift investment toward renewable energy and people-centred solutions

Pollutocrat Day is a warning. The climate crisis will not be solved by asking everyone to do the same while a small elite continues to pollute without limits. Real action means ending fossil fuel expansion, confronting extreme wealth, and putting people and the planet before profit.

The post Pollutocrat Day appeared first on 350.

WELCOME TO COMMUNITY REPORTS BY CCC’S RESEARCH JUSTICE INSTITUTE! WE’VE LAUNCHED THIS NEW SERIES TO PROVIDE A CLOSER LOOK AT OUR RESEARCH EFFORTS AND HELP DEMYSTIFY THE WORLD OF DATA. in this edition, our summer Intern Meilin Beloney unpacks key terms and topics at the heart of research justice.  Research justice 101: Key terms and readings to know

“Research justice” can sound like a big concept, but at its core it’s about valuing the lived experiences and desires of marginalized community members as essential pieces of evidence and data. Incorporating it into your research practices means ensuring meaningful community participation in every step of the research process. Furthermore, research justice centers the desires of communities as key to understanding their circumstances, rather than relying on narratives that present communities as broken or as problems (i.e., deficit narratives). 

To gain a deeper understanding of what research justice is, the Research Justice Institute looks to the work of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) scholars and researchers. Read on to unpack four key terms, along with some suggested readings, that are integral to understanding research justice.

1.Research oppression

To understand research justice, it is important to start by unpacking what research justice is not. As pointed out by DataCenter in their 2015 report “Introduction to Research Justice,” there is a power imbalance within research practices, wherein dominant institutions control the production of knowledge, resulting in marginalized communities being unable to control or access information produced about them. Research oppression occurs when community members are viewed solely as subjects of research, rather than as active participants in the research process (DataCenter 2015). Social science research has long been used as a tool of oppression. In his book Thicker than Blood: How Racial Statistics Lie, Tufuku Zuberi points to the role that white supremacy plays in our understanding of society. White logic grants objectivity to white scholars while devaluing BIPOC experience and expertise, often framing it as too subjective or anecdotal. Community members’ lived experiences are dismissed as invalid to the research process, leading to dominant institutions controlling the data and the stories that are told about marginalized communities, without the community’s input (Zuberi 2001). When we refuse to use white supremacist logics and tools in our research practices, we envision an alternative to research oppression: research justice. Research justice places community experiences and desires at the forefront of the research process, uplifting community members as integral to every step. Research justice is a process and platform that affirms that marginalized communities are the experts in their own lives.

2.Dominant data vs community data

It is important to understand the distinction between dominant data and community data, and how each may be utilized to advance the aims of research justice. Dominant data is gathered by dominant institutions such as governments and universities, and is often gathered in service of the dominant institution. These data are typically gathered using large population-level surveys like the Census or through the collection of information an individual provides in exchange for a service (i.e., administrative data). Dominant data, which are often quantitative, can highlight trends within populations, but often perpetuates deficit narratives. Numbers and statistics do not always capture the social, political, economic, and historical contexts of the data, often leading to conclusions that lack nuance and place the blame on marginalized communities for their own marginalizations. For example, without the context of institutional racism, a statistic proving the high amount of police violence in Black neighborhoods might imply that Black neighborhoods are inherently dangerous, or that Black people themselves are violent, rather than acknowledging the many social and political factors that lead to over-policing of Black communities (Lanius 2015). 

On the other hand, a key aspect of community data is that it is contextual. At CCC, we define community data as evidence generated by communities about their everyday lives, realities, and desires. Examples of evidence can include numbers, words, art, music, maps, and stories. Community data is collected, interpreted, and used on the terms of the community. By working with communities to understand their everyday experiences, we can gain a true sense of community needs and desires.

3.Community-led research

Community control is a key tenet of research justice. Research justice uplifts and values  marginalized communities as experts of their own lived experiences and, therefore, as leading experts in how to improve their everyday realities and overall well-being. When conducting research with marginalized communities, it is important to not only include community members, but to treat them as authorities in the research process. Trust and collaboration between researchers and community members are paramount, as demonstrated through the work of anthropologist Mariana Mora. Mora worked with a Zapatista community in Chiapas, Mexico to shape her research on Zapatista politics, autonomy, and self-determination. In her article “The Production of Knowledge on the Terrain of Autonomy: Research as a Topic of Political Debate”, Mora takes readers through her research process, describing the ways in which community members helped to shape and evaluate her research at every step, from research design to reviewing drafts of her 2017 book, Kuxlejal Politics: Indigenous Autonomy, Race, and Decolonizing Research in Zapatista Communities. Mora’s experience highlights the importance of community-led research, and provides a key example of how research can be designed and conducted in collaboration with community members.

4.Damage- vs desire-centered research

In an open letter to communities, researchers, and educators, Eve Tuck, Unangax̂ scholar, calls for a moratorium on damage-centered research – research that documents pain and oppression in an attempt to leverage change for marginalized communities. Tuck argues that damage-centered research frames marginalized communities as depleted and broken, perpetuating deficit narratives and defining communities solely by their marginalization. Tuck instead proposes a desire-based framework for research, in which lived realities are acknowledged alongside hopes and visions for the future (Tuck 2009). Research justice should employ a desire-based framework in order to avoid framing marginalized communities solely by what they lack, and to acknowledge the full spectrum of inequality, oppression, wisdom, hope, and the potential for change that exists within all communities.

Check out RJI’s reading library to dig deeper into these concepts and more:

These concepts and readings provide an overview of the key components of research justice, and it is only the tip of the iceberg. To continue exploring these ideas and access a wider range of resources, we encourage you to visit our growing RJI Zotero library. 

A powerful night of community, strength & supporting racial justice

State Sen. Khanh Pham sharing meaningful remarks as our featured speaker. Watch the full speech on our YouTube!

“Building community is what gets us through these times,” shared State Senator Khanh Pham to a packed room at this year’s Summer Soirée on June 13.

“It’s being in relationship with people who share our vision and our values – that is what helps us move out of fear and into collective action.”

At the Coalition of Communities of Color, this belief is at the heart of our mission. Our theme Rooted in Resilience was an important reminder that our strength is most powerful when shared, and grows when we’re together – even in the hard times, like the one we’re facing now.

We are so grateful to everyone who joined and supported our 2025 fundraising gala. We filled the night with a festive and meaningful atmosphere, with tunes by DJ Just Jeff, and folks enjoyed bites from our diverse selection of vendors that were both culturally rich and delicious.

A special thank you to our featured speaker, State Senator Khanh Pham, and our guest speakers, Mayor of Portland Keith Wilson and Oregon Community Foundation’s (OCF) Michael McIntosh, for their powerful and inspiring remarks.

Watch State Sen. Pham’s full speech at CCC’s Summer Soirée here!

View Full Album A Successful Summer SoirÉe

We extend a heartfelt thank you to OCF for being our presenting sponsor and for their support in helping make this night a success.

Together, with the power of community, we raised over $270,000 to sustain our work of transforming systems so that every Oregonian – across race, gender, or zip code – can thrive. At a time when our values are being attacked, your support means more than ever. Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who joined our CCC team at the Summer Soirée!

Because of these generous donations, we will be able to continue our efforts to provide research grounded in lived experience, solutions shaped by community voices, and policies that build a more just and resilient environment for those facing the first and worst of the climate crisis. See our work in action: watch our MADE for Health Justice video.

Didn’t have a chance to donate but want to support? Click here to make a donation today. Every donation makes a difference.

We hope you will join us next year as we celebrate our 25th anniversary! Details will be shared as they become available. Subscribe to our email list to stay in the loop.

Take a look at our event details:

Our special night took place at the OHSU Robertson Life Sciences Building. We are so grateful to OHSU for being our venue sponsor and for generously supporting our event.

A special shoutout to our host and vendors:

• Poison Waters as our Emcee and Auctioneer

• Devil’s Food Catering

• Plant Based Papi

• Annam VL

• DJ Just Jeff

And a special thank you to those who donated items for our raffle prizes and auction packages!

Thank you to our Summer Soirée sponsors!




Support CCC

**This opening is now closed. We are not accepting any further applications at this time. Thank you.

Applications due by August 27. Click here to view a full description of the job post.

JOIN OUR TEAM: The Coalition of Communities of Color (CCC) is excited to announce a new role within our Research Justice Institute! We’re looking to hire a dedicated and experienced Data Systems Administrator to lead the development and management of a robust, community-led, environmental justice data system. This role requires someone with technical expertise in developing data systems with a strong focus on equity.

Position Overview

As the Data Systems Administrator, you will lead the development, management, security, and accessibility of our community-led environmental justice data system. This is a first-of-its-kind opportunity to ensure that qualitative and quantitative data collected by community-based organizations is stored and made available in a way that supports equitable policy decision-making while respecting community ownership.  

We are seeking a data platform engineer and community-minded leader that understands both data systems and the ethical considerations of handling dominant institution quantitative and community-generated qualitative data, and shares our values and commitments to research and data justice. 

The Data Systems Administrator will play an integral role in advancing CCC’s Modernizing Anti-Racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) local level data ecosystem that will advance regional responses and approaches to extreme weather and climate justice needs. They will lead the development, implementation, and management of CCC’s environmental justice data systems, including selection and oversight of technical vendor(s) and building the back end of our data platform. They will also play a key support role in the Research Justice Institute’s quantitative research and data projects and reports.  

For complete details about responsibilities, qualifications and compensation, view the full job posting here.

About the Coalition of Communities of Color

Formed in 2001, the Coalition of Communities of Color is an alliance of culturally specific, community-based organizations engaged in collective action for racial justice. We work to improve outcomes for communities of color through advocacy, environmental justice, and research. Learn more about the Coalition of Communities of Color, its member organizations, and our Research Justice Institute.

TO APPLY

Please send a cover letter (max one page) and resume (max two pages) in one PDF file to HR@coalitioncommunitiescolor.org, with the subject line and file name “[Your name] — Data Systems Administrator.” 

Applications are due Wednesday, August 27.

View Full Job Post

In 2025 the Coalition of Communities of Color worked tirelessly to champion equity and opportunity for all communities of color, immigrants and low income people. From the Oregon State legislature to local government budget processes, we've faced considerable hurdles but also achieved important victories.

State Legislative Session: Facing Fiscal Headwinds

The 2025 Oregon Legislative Session was characterized by fiscal uncertainty, stemming from a state budget shortfall and concerns over potential federal cuts. This challenging environment led to substantial budget reductions, with communities of color and low-income individuals disproportionately affected. Key state agencies, including the Oregon Department of Education, Department of Early Learning and Care, and Oregon Housing and Community Services, experienced significant cuts to vital programs such as student success initiatives, childcare, and emergency rent assistance.

Despite these statewide challenges, we celebrate the passage and funding of critical initiatives like the Immigrant Justice Package, which includes Universal Representation and Farmworker Disaster Relief, and the Fair Housing for All initiative. These successes underscore the power of focused advocacy even in difficult times.

Learning Opportunity: Water Justice Legislative Recap and Celebration

How did this year’s Legislative Session impact water justice? Join Oregon Water Futures July 29th 12:00-1:00PM in a conversation with environmental justice advocates to celebrate water policy wins, get real about challenges and opportunities, and hear personal experiences about policy and advocacy work. This panel is for anyone interested in Oregon’s water justice future, frontline advocates, and community members. Our sessions are accessible to those new to policy and is a great time to connect with others!

When: Tuesday, July 29 at 12 pm

Reigster here: Bit.ly/456SdXY

Panel Includes: Verde, Crag Law Center, Oregon Just Transition Alliance, and the Joint Water Caucus.

City of Portland: Defending Essential Programs for Communities of Color

During the City of Portland budget process, CCC and its members' advocacy was crucial in defending the Civic Life Diversity and Civic Leadership program, which initially faced severe cuts exceeding $600,000. Through dedicated advocacy, CCC and culturally specific organizations successfully restored $179,000 in funds for the program. Additionally, our collective voice played a vital role in advocating for the protection of Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) and Parks funding, underscoring our unwavering commitment to equitable and well-resourced community programs

Multnomah County: Securing Vital Investments

The Coalition of Communities of Color and our dedicated members achieved significant wins during the recent Multnomah County budget process! Through strategic advocacy and successful amendments, we were able to defend crucial programs and secure vital funding for initiatives such as Voter Outreach and Education, School Based Mental Health, Homeless Employment Programs, Housing Immigration Legal Services, and Culturally-Specific Community Food Systems. We remain optimistic about continuing to engage with the county to ensure equitable investments that truly serve all communities.

Looking Ahead: Protecting Our Progress

CCC staff joined our member Unite Oregon on their 2025 Day of Action in.Salem.

Our community's commitment to equity, inclusion, and opportunity is currently at risk due to attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and potential federal funding cuts that could impact vital services provided by the City of Portland and Washington County like transportation and housing. We've seen this manifest in Washington County's struggle to uphold an Equity Resolution and sanctuary laws in conflict with federal executive orders, and there's an ongoing need to protect programs like Multnomah County Preschool for All that increase access for communities of color and low income people.

This situation demands action: we must fiercely defend DEI initiatives, advocate for the codification of sanctuary protections in local governments, and actively work to strengthen the Preschool for All program by ensuring continued funding and community involvement in its advisory processes.

Your continued participation is crucial to safeguard our progress and build a future where equity, opportunity, and safety are guaranteed for everyone. We urge you to attend public meetings, contact elected officials, share information, and engage with community organizations. Together, we can continue to make a difference. If you have any questions or would like to get in touch, reach out to our Advocacy Manager Alex Riedlinger at Alex@coalitioncommunitiescolor.org.

Welcome to Community Reports by CCC’s Research Justice Institute! We’ve launched this new series to provide a closer look at our research efforts and help demystify the world of data. Click here to learn more about our team, and be sure to revisit our blog for upcoming posts. recognizing PRIDE month & Centering Community-Driven Stories and Data Ecosystems

Research Justice Institute: A BIPOC and Queer-Led Team

The Research Justice Institute (RJI) at the Coalition of Communities of Color is a BIPOC team who all identify as queer. As researchers, we hold firsthand experiences of how our bodies, knowledges, and languages are dismissed and denied existence. Communities of color and their diverse lived experiences continuously experience these forms of harm and erasure. In our research and data practices, we rectify aspects of this harm by creating the conditions for meaningful community participation throughout the research process. We value and rely on the power of lived experience evidence as essential data for decision-making. We craft desire as central to our communities' futures so that they are seen and heard as a whole. 

From these perspectives, RJI works for a future where BIPOC advocacy embraces and integrates queer community members in the pursuit of data justice. 

Sharing Data Through Storytelling for Queer and Trans Futures

A recent project with South Coast Health Equity Coalition, a BIPOC and queer-led team, revealed powerful stories of how community care networks are critical for finding gender affirming care—from being accompanied by trusted peers and family members to learning about providers through word-of-mouth. These narratives remind us that data is more than numbers. It is about people, their stories, and highlighting practices of community care. Pride Month amplifies the presence of our intersecting identities and we celebrate by posing narrative shifts for BIPOC, queer and trans futures in Oregon. Sharing these narratives provides stories and possibilities for future generations. 

Updates from our Modernized Anti-Racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice Convening

Our work continues to extend beyond the state and we are thrilled to share updates from our second annual MADE for Health Justice Spring Convening in San Diego, where we connected with partners nationwide to advance MADE for Health Justice. Unlike traditional data systems, the Portland MADE Data Ecosystem is by and for the community, prioritizing qualitative data that captures lived experiences. It aims to advance health equity and environmental justice in the region by building a community-led data system to ensure that the experiences of those most impacted by climate-related threats, BIPOC and other frontline communities, are central to decision-making. This summer we are finalizing privacy policies and more to bring this vision to life. 

Welcome, Meilin! Meet CCC’s Research Intern

We are thrilled to welcome Meilin Beloney who will be interning with us this summer. Meilin joins us as we ramp up various projects. They will be working closely with our team members and participating in trainings and discussions to deepen their understanding of research justice frameworks. Their internship with us will help amplify both our work and their growth as a researcher. 

Coming Soon: BIPOC Researcher Network

This August, we are launching our BIPOC Researcher Network—a space for researchers of color to collaborate, share resources, and redefine equitable data practices. Want to help shape it? A short survey will be coming soon to gather input on priorities and challenges. Stay tuned to our Research updates featuring network details and ways to get involved. 

Together, we’re transforming data justice by centering BIPOC Oregonians, including identities that intersect with queer communities into all of our work, during Pride month and every month. 

“Earth Day to May Day” Marcha Campesina, Skagit County, WA.  Photo credit: David Bacon

Happy Earth Day!

Started in 1970, the original Earth Day is often credited to Wisconsin Governor/Senator Gaylord Nelson, but there is actually a lot more grassroots action behind this story.  Spurred by the warnings of Silent Spring and 1969 catastrophes such as the Santa Barbara offshore oil spill and the Cuyahoga River catching fire, the young environmental movement organized a national day of campus teach-ins, mass demonstrations, and public school activities such as tree planting and beach cleanup.  An estimated 20 million people participated.  Given the tenor of the counterculture and anti-war movement at that time, a protest that focused on affirmative, solution-oriented actions was widely embraced by all – a little known fact is that the United Auto Workers (UAW) were the single largest financial supporter of the first Earth Day.

Earth Day actions led to the creation of the EPA, Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.  Over 50 years the idea has spread to nearly every country in the world.  But now, it has mostly lost the fierce and urgent edge that it once had.  If you attended Earth Day events over the weekend, you likely saw a pavilion with Exxon plastered on it or a stage sponsored by Chevron.  Every channel shows ads implying that “BP” stands for “Beyond Petroleum” (to that we say: “BS”).  Corporate co-optation and disinformation have neutered and ruined Earth Day, to the point where many in the environmental justice movement ignore it.

But EJ needs to reclaim Earth Day, to make it once again a day of protest, to exceed its inoffensive image by engaging in direct action and demanding the necessary policy changes and redistribution of resources to the grassroots communities and local economies that are fighting to protect their lived environments while also building real solutions from the bottom up.

Next week we will celebrate another holiday that is very important to our movements.  May Day has a much longer history, and over the centuries it has become complex and multi-faceted.  Originally a fertility ritual rooted in pre-Christian European cultures, May Day was a signal of the beginning of the planting season, and therefore it is inherently “green.”  In the 1880’s it gained its “red” aspect after May 1st was declared an international day of demonstration for all workers to demand respect and dignity, and it became firmly entrenched in the early labor movement as a commemoration of the Haymarket martyrs.  Ironically, International Workers’ Day has been pretty effectively suppressed in the United States where it originated, but it is a cherished reprieve from work and a vibrant day of action in many other countries.  Beginning in 2006, May Day became also “brown” after immigrant workers, mostly Latino and many undocumented, organized marches all over the US declaring that they were unafraid and demanding the human rights they deserved. To this day, our comrades at Familias Unidas por la Justicia organize an annual Marcha Campesina to call attention to farmworkers’ rights.

This “green/red/brown” vision of May Day is so important to us at the Just Transition Alliance.  It vibes perfectly with our history and our perspective.  We seek to bring together Labor and EJ movements, to center the voices of those on the frontlines and fencelines of production, and to build grassroots power as we restore health to the workers and families who keep our economies running, repair relationships with our neighbors and comrades in struggle, and regenerate thriving ecosystems in the places we call home.

Let’s make “Earth Day to May Day” a continuous ten-day festival.  A festival of action and organizing to make a better world possible.  A festival of resistance where we raise our voices, not allowing anyone to go on complacently accepting business as usual, where we demonstrate our visions by celebrating our grassroots solutions, and where we recognize our strength by joining together from many perspectives to become unified in our shared need to transcend beyond colonization, extractivism, and oppression.

Content Earth Day to May Day 2024 appears first in Just Transition Alliance.

JTA’s José Bravo with trainers Edgar Franks of Familias Unidas por la Justicia and Elizabeth Martinez of Comunidades Aliadas Tomando Acción.  Photo credit: José Bravo

We are so pleased to celebrate our first two trainings of 2024, using our newly updated and expanded program Tools for Systemic Change Toward a People’s Economy.  Our talented new cadre of popular education trainers are working together fabulously and raising the bar for engaging participant-driven education.

In February, Familias Unidas por la Justicia hosted a training in Mt. Vernon, WA.  And just last week Inland Communities for Immigrant Justice held one in San Bernadino, CA.  We have lots more trainings planned throughout the year, so stay tuned for updates!

Scenes from the training with Familias Unidas por la Justicia.  Photo credits: José Bravo

Scenes from the training with Inland Communities for Immigrant Justice.  Photo credits: José Bravo and Elizabeth Martinez

Content Successful Trainings with JTA Partners appears first in Just Transition Alliance.