A2. Green Unionism

UNISON shows the way!

Image by John Blower on flickr.com/photos/10332960@N03/

At UNISON conference in June, Motion 83, 2026 Year of Green Activity (YoGA) – Turning Activity into Activism, the UNISON NEC puts a number of key points on the way forward for climate activism through and by trade unions.

Unlike most unions, UNISON motions are unshackled by word limits, which allows breadth and depth – veritable manifestos – to supplement the shorter, sharper motions that come from elsewhere and go to the TUC.

The core insights in this one are to recognise:

• the scale of concern among members; 93% worried, 50% very worried and 20% detailing impacts already being felt, and 67% wanting more not less action
• that immediate climate impacts in workplaces on the health of members and the ability to deliver services and the pitfalls involved in ad hoc and improvised responses and that many UNISON members’ jobs are bound up with current policies to respond to the increasing pressure of climate breakdown, with limited resources
• that the slower the response the greater the cost
• that the transition is a whole society issue, not one confined to workers in the energy sector and that UNISON’s embeddedness in communities gives it a crucial role in mobilsing for it
• that adaptation to the damage already being done has to run alongside building resilience to climate breakdown, and this requires more coordination across government departments and, in that planning, workers, and communities, must be central to the decision-making process.

This tees up the core demands to campaign for.

1. A UK wide Just Transition Commission with full union representation
2. Adaptation measures to be on a footing with mitigation
3. A National Climate Service to coordinate government departments
4. A full review of all necessary climate jobs and skills, not just in the energy sector

As well as mandatory extreme weather planning across public services and local communities; statutory facility time for Green Reps; maximum workplace temperatures; greater investment in public transport; the urgent introduction of the Business, Human Rights and Environment Act to tackle global supply chain abuses; increased financial support and environmental regulations for people to make the necessary changes recommended by the climate change committee and a full environmental impact assessment on the introduction of new AI data centres across the UK.

And to facilitate this through union structures by

• supporting the new Branch Environment Officer role as a growth area of union activism;
• actively promote the work of the Green UNISON campaign, the new branch Environment Officer position, regional networks and national newsletter.
• Work with other unions, TUC, ITUC on joint work in workplaces, national and international campaigning.

If this sort of framework were to be adopted across the movement, every year would be a year of union climate action; which is what the crisis demands as it deepens.

Paul Atkin Ed

 

Read on for the full motion

UNISON is proudly at the forefront of UK worker-led climate activism.

We were one of the first trade unions to recognise climate change as an important issue that affects every member, their families, and the communities they live in.

We recognise that Climate change impacts many core trade union, and UNISON specific, issues like: public finances and resources; job security; workplace safety and all the services our members deliver.

And we know that it is an increasingly important issue for our members. Our recent survey showed that 93 percent of our members were concerned about climate change with 50 percent saying they were very concerned and one in five reported ways in which their job was already being negatively impacted by climate change.

Even while Reform UK gains new ground by peddling serious disinformation on everything including climate change, 67 percent of their own members want more, not less, action on climate change.

Rising workplace temperatures and extreme weather are not distant threats. They are happening now. From schools and hospitals to offices and outdoor work, many working environments are becoming less safe and more uncomfortable.

Our members are reporting personal health impacts and disruption from extreme weather events and real impacts on their ability to deliver a service safely for themselves and others.

And the adaptations aimed to support a green transition to a more sustainable work environment often come with unforeseen consequences. Members are adapting to new ways of running buildings, delivering services, and using energy, frequently without adequate training or preparation.

Many of our members are in roles that are all about dealing with the climate crisis in their day-to-day job, drawing up the necessary transformation plans, cleaning up our waterways and coastlines, responding to floods, heatwaves, wildfires and other emergencies, often with limited resources in the face of increasing demand.

UNISON is uniquely positioned to campaign for a just transition across all our services and for all our communities. We must demand climate resilient infrastructure and ensure our members are not left behind in the shift to a greener economy.

The costs of doing nothing, both in human and financial terms, vastly outweigh the costs of acting now. We cannot delay action until a more convenient time. Failing to act only intensifies those costs and physical pressures on essential services and place greater demand on already stretched resources. Some of the necessary changes, if adopted in good time, will save money that is vital for investing in the other changes necessary.

It is our members in public services that are picking up the pieces and who are relied on to manage the consequences of climate change, playing a vital role in protecting communities and maintaining public wellbeing.

However, while the government is finally starting to tackle the important issue of just transition in energy production there is so much more to be done across every other aspect of industry and in the communities we live in. New, good, energy jobs are not the only good jobs we will need to face this emergency.

Adaptation and resilience is essential to combat current and increasing impacts of climate change. Yet it is not being discussed or invested in to the same degree as decarbonisation. Both are equally important and both will require increased training and jobs to meet new demands.

We need to build climate resilience into everything we do:

1) Health and Safety: Protecting vulnerable populations from extreme heat (like the 2022 heatwave) and ensuring essential services (like prisons) function;

2) Economic Stability: Reducing damages from extreme weather and ensuring food/water security, which also creates opportunities for new finance and green growth;

3) Environmental Resilience: Protecting ecosystems and biodiversity while creating nature-based solutions (e.g., wetlands) for cooling and flood control;

4) Infrastructure Protection: Building stronger infrastructure (flood barriers, cooling systems) to withstand future climate impacts, as highlighted by reports from the Climate Change Committee (CCC);

5) Buildings & Homes: Retrofitting homes and ensuring new designs can handle heat and flooding, especially for low income households;

6) Water & Food Systems: Managing drought risks and ensuring resilient food supplies;

7) Urban Planning: Creating more green spaces for cooling and flood management.

The UK’s current adaptation planning is considered insufficient by independent bodies like the Climate Change Committee (CCC).

There is a need for better government integration, funding, and policy to support widespread, effective action across all sectors and regions.

Government departments need to talk to each other about the impact of their plans on climate change. We cannot resolve climate change by only looking at energy use and production. Every area of government has a huge role to play in fighting, and preparing to mitigate and adapt to, the climate emergency. Public transport, health resources, environmental regulations, food production, skills and education, security and whichever department deals with new technology regulations (particularly AI use and impact) all need to work together.

Public services, our members, need to be recognised and invested in, as the vital social infrastructure preventing, preparing for and protecting against the impacts of climate change all of which will be an expanding area of demand even if we manage to reach the 2050 net zero carbon emissions.

Change is necessary and workers, and communities, must be central to the decision-making process.

Conference therefore calls on the National Executive Council to:

1. a) Lobby governments across the UK and in campaign in workplaces where appropriate for:
2. i) A Just Transition, overseen by a UK wide just transition commission (with devolved powers and commissions essential) ensuring our members and communities are represented throughout;
3. ii) Urgent focus and investment on adaptation measures on an equal footing to decarbonisation measures;

iii) A national Climate Service (or equivalent) responsible for ensuring all departments co-ordinate their contributions to the necessary climate emergency mitigation and adaptations;

1. iv) An urgent discussion on the new and increased skills and jobs required to meet the impacts of the climate emergency beyond the (vital) energy sector;
2. v) Mandatory extreme weather planning across public services and local communities;
3. vi) Statutory facility time in line with Union Learning Reps, Health & Safety Reps and Equalities Reps (coming in 2026);

vii) Maximum workplace temperatures;

viii) Greater investment in public transport;

1. ix) The urgent introduction of the Business, Human Rights and Environment Act to tackle global supply chain abuses;
2. x) Increased financial support and environmental regulations for people to make the necessary changes recommended by the climate change committee;
3. xi) A full environmental impact assessment on the introduction of new AI data centres across the UK;
4. b) Progress previous national delegate conference motions on supporting the new Branch Environment Officer role and this expanding area of organising and bargaining, recognising this as a growth area of union activism;
5. c) Continue to actively promote the work of the Green UNISON campaign, the new branch Environment Officer position, the regional networks and national newsletter widely throughout the union to current and prospective members;
6. d) Work with the TUC, STUC, TUC Cymru and ICTU and sister unions on joint work in workplaces, national campaigning and also internationally.

Join Us

Get in the loop! Sign up to receive future GJA Newsletters and Blogs here.

SIGN UP Join the debate

Send us your contribution to the debate. We will contact you about using it here on our News & Debate page.

Name

Email

Contribution

Submit

The post UNISON shows the way! first appeared on Greener Jobs Alliance.

Mental Health Awareness Month frequently focuses on therapy and diagnosis, but in the Rio Grande Valley, mental health is inseparable from environmental realities. In Hidalgo, Starr, Willacy, and Cameron counties, conditions like extreme heat, air pollution, flooding risk, food insecurity, and limited behavioral health access converge to shape mental health.

These are not abstract public health concerns; they are daily realities that shape anxiety, depression, and recovery across communities. When families worry about whether their homes are safe, their air is clean, and their next meal is secure, mental health cannot be separated from environmental and social conditions.

Mental Health Awareness Month should expand our knowledge of mental health. It is not simply an individual concern; it is essentially shaped by local environmental and organizational factors that produce sustained psychological strain in the Rio Grande Valley.

Across the region, environmental insecurity goes beyond hurricanes, flooding, and extreme heat. Environmental insecurity goes beyond hurricanes, flooding, and extreme heat. It includes poor air quality, unstable housing, food insecurity, and limited behavioral health services. In South Texas, these stressors combine. They lead to chronic stress, fatigue, and psychological distress, often neglected by traditional mental health frameworks. State of the Air report identified the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville area as one of the most polluted regions in the United States for year-round particle pollution, ranking 16th nationally (American Lung Association, 2025). These patterns reflect sustained exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) across parts of the Rio Grande Valley, including surrounding border communities.

PM2.5 exposure is especially concerning because these microscopic particles can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Long-term exposure is linked to heart and lung disease and systemic inflammation. This increases the risk of anxiety and depression.

For communities facing economic and social stress, pollution adds a further layer to the mental health burden. Households are forced to make tradeoffs between nutrition, housing, utilities, and healthcare; the resulting stress contributes to anxiety, depression, and a persistent sense of instability. For children and families, food insecurity is not only a physical health issue, but also a chronic psychological stressor that affects development, emotional management, and long-term psychological well-being.

For residents in Starr and Willacy counties, where poverty rates remain among the highest in Texas, think Starr and Willacy counties, poverty rates are among the highest in Texas. These problems worsen with limited healthcare and behavioral health services. Ecoanxiety here are real. It reflects distress and uncertainty caused by extreme heat, flooding, and poor air quality. Physiological burden of chronic stress. Elevated allostatic load has been strongly associated with anxiety, depression, and other stress-related conditions (McEwen & Akil, 2020). For many individuals in the Rio Grande Valley, stress is not episodic, it is continuous, formed by environmental and structural conditions that are difficult to avoid.

As we observe Mental Health Awareness Month, it is critical to broaden the conversation. To properly address mental health in the Rio Grande Valley, we must acknowledge the environmental systems that shape it and promote policies that support air quality, climate resilience, food security, and environmental justice as vital factors of mental health. Dealing with these environmental and community factors is essential to reducing the mental health burden in South Texas.

About the Author:

Dr. Aaron Salinas is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, Texas. With over a decade of experience in academia, he is dedicated to advancing nursing education and promoting student success. In addition to his academic role, Dr. Salinas is a dual board-certified Nurse Practitioner, credentialed as both a Family Nurse Practitioner and a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. He provides patient care as part of the UT Health Rio Grande Valley team at the University Health Center and collaborates with a local psychiatrist and pediatrician through consultation services.

References:

American Lung Association. (2025). State of the air 2025. https://www.lung.org/research/sota

McEwen, B. S., & Akil, H. (2020). Revisiting the stress concept: Implications for affective disorders. Journal of Neuroscience, 40(1), 12–21.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2024). Health and environmental effects of particulate matter (PM2.5). https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution

 

The post When Environment Shapes Mental Health: A Rio Grande Valley Perspective appeared first on ANHE.

Liberating work

A one-year accelerator programme to support the creation of jobs in new worker-controlled green projects has been launched by workers.coop, the UK federation of worker and social cooperatives. Called Own the Future, the programme is part of a wider effort to build an ecological and abundant economy through worker-community controlled enterprise. It is the first such initiative from the organisation, which was founded in 2023 to unite worker cooperatives and build dialogue with other worker-led initiatives including unions, social and climate justice organisations. The first Own the Future cohort includes Canopy Coop, an ecological tree surgery and forestry group in Sheffield; Valley Roots, a food distribution hub in West Yorkshire; Nanny Solidarity Network, a childcare co-op in London; Feral Express, a queer bike courier in Sheffield; and Zero Emissions Delivery Waltham Forest, an established courier firm in London looking to transition to worker ownership.

Shifting power and wealth to workers

GJA’s Steering Group recently hosted a presentation by Siôn Whellens from workers.coop, where he outlined the political history and current status of the UK’s worker cooperatives, the composition of the new federation and its ambition to connect with other worker-led bodies.

workers.coop currently has around 100 businesses in membership, and a wider base of around 2,000 individual supporters. Enterprise members range from large organisations working in adult social care and wholesaling to medium sized engineering firms and smaller collectives of workers in ‘tech for good’, research, retailing, community-led agriculture and communications.

The federation’s members are distinct from businesses owned in trust for ‘employee benefit’. Most of them are rooted in the ecological and social movements, and practice radical worker democracy. workers.coop itself describes its mission as

“To enable workers to unite and collectively advance their economic, social and cultural interests. We value collaboration, solidarity and care for each other, our communities and our planet”.

Pride in Work?

While noting that up until now worker cooperatives have mainly been at the edge of Steering Group members’ awareness, they were particularly interested in the potential for worker-owned co-ops in industries such as solar installation and domestic retrofit. It was agreed to maintain links and dialogue between the two networks, with a view to identifying and capitalising on new opportunities.

workers.coop has free resources for unions and worker groups that might be researching democratic and ecological startups and business conversions, as well as access to a nationwide and international network of organisers and advisers. The federation and the Centre for Democratic Business recently issued a call for the government to close the circle of its £5bn ‘Price in Place’ investment in run-down high streets, by funding a sister programme provisionally called ‘Pride in Work’.This would be aimed at enabling workers and local communities to secure ownership and control of key local workplaces, with a focus on local renewable energy projects, the care sector, logistics and green retailing.

GJA supporters interested in developing links with worker-led cooperatives are invited to check out forum.workers.coop, or to receive occasional emails, including Own the Future updates. Anyone looking for specific advice or information can email solidarity@workers.coop

Join Us

Get in the loop! Sign up to receive future GJA Newsletters and Blogs here.

SIGN UP Join the debate

Send us your contribution to the debate. We will contact you about using it here on our News & Debate page.

Name

Email

Contribution

Submit

The post Liberating work first appeared on Greener Jobs Alliance.

Farmworkers and allies march through Palm Beach in 2023, celebrating the Fair Food Program and calling attention to extreme human rights abuse that continues to occur outside the FFP, including modern-day slavery and sexual violence. The center-piece of the march was a papier-mâché globe depicting the world of protections inside the FFP, and the dark and opaque world of violence and abuse beyond the reach of the FFP. Lawsuit alleges extreme abuse, yet again, on fields beyond the Fair Food Program’s Presidential Medal-winning protections;  How much longer will Fair Food Program holdouts Kroger and Publix continue to turn a blind eye, refuse to join only social responsibility program proven to end abuse?

For over a decade, Kroger and Publix, two of the largest grocery chains in the United States, have refused to join the Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program, insisting — year after year, trafficking case after trafficking case — that their current vendor codes of conduct and occasional audits are sufficient to prevent the risk of extreme human rights abuses in their respective supply chains. 

Meanwhile, just weeks ago, farmworkers in North Carolina filed a class action lawsuit against their employer, alleging a series of extraordinary human rights violations, including wage theft, threats, confiscation of passports, predatory recruitment fees, and the failure to provide bathrooms, drinking water, or care when workers suffered debilitating heat stress. The lawsuit was filed under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1581 et seq. (TVPRA), and the North Carolina Human Trafficking Law, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-43.18 et seq.

Following the publication of the lawsuit, and using publicly available information, the CIW has found that Kroger and Publix buy produce from the company where the plaintiffs in the lawsuit say that they worked, Jackson Farming Company.

We will share those details below. First, however, we wanted to provide some context to understand just how unconscionable the grocery giants’ ongoing refusal is — especially given the leadership of companies like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Giant, Stop & Shop, and Fresh Market, all Fair Food Program Participating grocers that have put the power of their purchasing orders behind the protection of workers in their supply chains for years.

A brief history of two Fair Food Program holdouts

This case marks the fourth time in five years that Kroger has been linked to allegations of labor trafficking and extreme abuse in the fields. In 2021, an investigation from the LA Times revealed Kroger to be buying tomatoes from a Mexican farm subject to a Withhold Release Order (WRO) from the U.S. Government due to indications of forced labor, and in early 2023, the Department of Labor publicly outed Kroger as a buyer of watermelons harvested by modern-day slaves. Shortly thereafter, Kroger was linked to Maria Patricio, one of the lead defendants convicted in the “Blooming Onion” human trafficking ring. The CIW uncovered the ring, the largest modern-day slavery operation in US history, and the connection to Kroger was laid out in an investigative report in the journal The Lever.

As the London-based Business and Human Rights Resource Centre put it after the Blooming Onion case was connected to Kroger in 2024:

… The question before Kroger — its executive leadership, its board of directors, and its shareholders — is simple: Is having a case of modern-day slavery almost annually over the last 4 years an acceptable level of risk for Kroger, as long as the produce continues to arrive on shelves at the right time, in the right quality, and at the right price?  

If the answer to that question is yes, then Kroger needs to break its silence and own the outrageous failure of its social responsibility approach so consumers can know the company’s true thinking when it comes to the human rights of the men and women who pick its produce.

But if not, then Kroger needs to join the Fair Food Program — the universally-recognized gold standard for preventing forced labor and protecting fundamental human rights in corporate supply chains today — without further delay…

As for Publix, its refusal to join the FFP in the face of nearly annual modern-day slavery prosecutions in Florida’s fields goes even further back. In December of 2010 — shortly after the Fair Food Program was launched at an historic press conference announcing the new partnership between the CIW and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange — Publix spokesperson Dwaine Stevens told The Bulletin, an Alabama newspaper, when asked if Publix had any intention of joining the promising new initiative:

“We don’t have any plans to sit down with the CIW,” Publix’s Media and Community Relations Manager Dwaine Stevens said, also citing that the company sells around 36,000 products in the stores and it cannot get involved with each product’s labor issues. “If there are some atrocities going on, it’s not our business. Maybe it’s something the government should get involved with.”

That statement — “If there are some atrocities going on, it’s not our business” — didn’t sit well with the growing consumer movement supporting the CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food at the time. Rabbi Bruce Diamond penned a powerful call to action for people of all faiths in the Fort Myers News Press in light of Publix’s cruel indifference, accompanied by a guest editorial cartoon drawn by Casey N. Kindle, a Southwest Florida Fair Food activist:

Publix’s stone wall starting to crumble

Jon Esformes, operating partner of the family-owned Pacific Tomato Growers — one of the largest growers in the nation — quoted Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s famous dictum, “In a free society, few are guilty, but all are responsible,” when he announced an agreement with the 4,000-member Coalition of Immokalee Workers to implement a penny-a-pound raise for the workers and to improve their working conditions. (“Tomato grower, harvesters strike historic accord,” Oct. 14)…

… [Stevens’ statement is] a far cry from the idea that “in a free society, few are guilty, but all are responsible,” and the principle of fairness to working people that is shared by all the world’s great religions…

For sure, a coalition of subsistence workers taking on America’s largest privately owned supermarket chain seems a daunting if not impossible battle.

But men and women of faith know that when are you on the side of the angels, nothing is impossible!

Today, 15 years later, the Fair Food Program has built an unrivaled track record — not only remedying abuses from sexual harassment to forced labor, but preventing them altogether. In light of that success, the continued refusal of retail giants like Kroger and Publix to use their purchasing power to protect farmworkers in their own supply chains is simply unacceptable.

Details of the class action lawsuit Screenshot from the initial complaint, with highlights

The working conditions at the Jackson Farming Company farm as described in the court documents are both deeply troubling and all too common outside the protections of the Fair Food Program. Below is an excerpt from the class action lawsuit, which was filed on April 17:

“Plaintiff and his co-workers worked at Jackson’s Farming Company of Autryville pursuant to temporary foreign worker visas, called H-2A visas. First-time employees were charged an illegal recruitment fee to be put on the list to work for Defendants Alvino Avilez and Avilez & Sons Harvesting, LLC (“Avilez Defendants”), and all employees were charged fees throughout their travel to the U.S. Once the employees arrived in North Carolina, the Avilez Defendants confiscated their passports and Social Security cards with the explicit goal of keeping them from leaving their employment. Rodriguez Luna and his co-workers also experienced a number of wage violations while working in North Carolina. 

Rodríguez Luna and his co-workers were not timely reimbursed for the costs of their visas, travel to and from North Carolina, or associated costs, as required by the H-2A visa program. Defendants did not pay workers at the promised H-2A wage rate, and they created false payroll records purporting to show that the workers were properly paid. The Avilez Defendants also deducted money from the workers’ pay for their Social Security cards. When Plaintiff Rodríguez Luna suffered a work-related injury, Defendants sent him back to Mexico and did not give him his final paycheck.”

Farmworkers with the class action lawsuit further allege that the farm labor contractor being sued also threatened workers if they tried to leave before their contract ended.

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of all farmworkers who were brought to the U.S. by one or more of the Avilez Defendants to perform agricultural work at Jackson Farming Company under H-2A contracts, who performed work during the ten-year period immediately preceding the date on which this action was filed. This could mean well over 100 farmworkers were subjected to comparable conditions to those alleged in the initial complaint, since the Avilez defendants have handled the H-2A petitions for Rodney Jackson, President of Jackson Farming Company, since 2019, with each petition requesting dozens of seasonal workers to harvest a variety of crops.

The farm itself is no stranger to allegations of abuse. Its founding President, Brent Jackson, weathered multiple lawsuits from farmworkers, including one from 2003 where a farmworker suffered a heat stroke so severe that it left him in a permanent “vegetative state.” In the present day, 22 years later, conditions do not appear to have significantly improved on the farm. According to the newest complaint, one farmworker “fell ill while working due to the heat. Because of this he was sent back to Mexico. Other workers who were impacted by the heat were sent to rest in a bus in the field that lacked air conditioning. Those workers were not paid for the rest of the day.” 

Kroger and Publix linked to Jackson Farming Company 

Kroger, through its regional subsidiary Harris Teeter, has itself stated that customers looking to buy produce from Jackson Farming Company can find it on their shelves today. Harris Teeter’s own website indicates they source sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, strawberries, broccoli, and melon for Jackson Farming Company. Meanwhile, the plaintiff in the civil suit alleges he was made to harvest melons, sweet potatoes, and broccoli on both his 2024 and 2025 H-2A contracts. 

Further, a North Carolina Department of Agriculture post from 2020 profiles Jackson Farming Company and states that consumers can find their crops in Harris Teeter and Publix. Because the civil suit’s time span includes those farmworkers with Jackson Farming Company during the 2020 harvest season up until 2025, there is a risk that crops harvested under conditions of extreme abuse have, for at least half a decade, been bought by both Kroger and Publix, and sold to unsuspecting customers.

At the same time, Brent Jackson — founding president of the company and a North Carolina state senator — sponsored legislation that would have weakened workers’ ability to sue for retaliation.

By contrast, farms participating in the Fair Food Program operate under what The New York Times has described as the country’s “best workplace-monitoring program,” where strong anti-retaliation protections are rigorously enforced and workers themselves serve as frontline monitors of their own rights.

Additionally, on the website for Publix, customers can currently buy George Foods-branded petite microwavable sweet potatoes. George Foods is one of the brands of sweet potatoes marketed by Jackson Farming Company. 

There is only one human rights enforcement program in agriculture that is proven to end forced labor, coercion, and retaliation, and that mandates rigorous heat stress protections: the Fair Food Program. 

In light of these apparent connections to the class action lawsuit out of North Carolina’s fields, the question before Kroger and Publix is simple: How many more farmworkers in their supply chains must be subject to outrageous farm labor abuse before they join the Fair Food Program, the only human rights program proven to prevent it? 

The post Nurses Continue to Urge Congress to Pass a Fair Farm Bill appeared first on ANHE.

The post Protect Health: Oppose Rollbacks to Zero-Emission Vehicles appeared first on ANHE.

Towards a transformative response to the fossil fuel energy crisis

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:War_is_a_racket_u_know_-_it%27s_time_for_peace!.jpg

The US/Israeli war on Iran looks like it will be lengthy. Trump’s announcement of an indefinite ceasefire while maintaining an equally indefinite blockade indicates that

1. the US/Israel are not able to impose their terms because a ground invasion aimed at regime change would not be viable. The apocalyptic threat of bombing Iran back into the Stone Age would call forth counterstrokes from Iran and a political fallout too devastating to risk.
2. Nevertheless, the consequences of backing off now, even while declaring victory, would be a visible defeat that would be too damaging to their capacity to project power elsewhere.
3. Therefore there is likely to be a prolonged stalemate based on overlapping blockades of the Gulf. This will cause enormous environmental and economic damage globally, on top of what is already done; and it will manifest more strongly in the coming months, growing stronger the longer it goes on.

The only question is how severe this will be. This poses a series of overlapping crises and challenges that the climate, peace and labour movements have to face up to, have answers for and mobilise together to achieve.

Fossil Fuel supply/price crisis–

1. Increased prices for fossil fuels and their derivative products which will lead to increased prices across the board
2. Increased profits for fossil fuel companies
3. Increased short term viability for investment in fossil fuel extraction
4. Increased costs for everyone else for everything else that has to be transported
5. Shortages of some energy products (jet fuel, CO2) and food supply
6. Increased imperative to transition away from fossil fuel dependence to reduce costs and political leverage
7. Increased attractiveness of EVs and domestic solar panels for those that can afford them.

Responses

The response from the Right has been fast and hard and dressed grifting for fossil fuel companies and US global energy dominance up in the language of the common good.

1. Reduce taxes on fossil fuels (which in past experience benefits retailers not people having to fill up with them)
2. Reduce windfall taxes on FF companies, even as they are making gigantic windfall profits
3. Invest in new North Sea oil and gas, even though they know this will make no difference to costs, a tiny difference to supply, and will not halt the decline in jobs as the basin dries up; and/or put fracking back on the energy agenda, even though they know that the UK is geologically unsuitable for doing this viably
4. Relax mandates on car companies to transition to EVs and developers to build homes that aren’t expensive to heat or don’t use gas to do it
5. Push hard for more investment in nuclear power, which is the least flexible “back up” available, produces electricity at a cost greater than that of fossil fuels and renewables; and would take too long to build to have any impact at all.

This is all nonsense, but it is loudly and perpetually repeated by the Right and their associated media outlets in an attempt to drown out reality and paint anyone who recognises the reality of climate change and/or wants to put forward solutions that

1. Accelerate the transition and
2. Do it in a way that creates millions of jobs, is socially equitable – and therefore transformative

as “swivel eyed eco fanatics” from an “elite” determined to impose “eye watering costs” on ordinary people to deliver their “net zero obsession” (which, if you do the maths, would be £80 billion cheaper than the new investment in FFs that they have in mind). 

To combat this tsunami of misinformation and misdirection, the climate, social justice and labour movements need the most honest, clear and coordinated set of responses that we can put together, and all be proclaiming it with relentless positivity.

From the Greener Jobs Alliance, we’d like to propose four basic principles that we can all sign up to, within which we can collectively develop appropriate specific demands.

1. To stop the crisis we need to stop the war – so the government should give no support for it in any form and press for peace instead on the same lines as the Spanish government.
2. War profiteering is unacceptable and all windfall profits should be taxed at 100% to fund short term targeted measures like energy price caps to support people through the immediate crisis, and accelerate investment in the transition. Similarly, faced with a crisis on this scale, putting any additional investment into war preparation is, as well as wrong in its own right, a luxury we can’t afford. Freezing military expenditure at its current level and using the funds earmarked for increases to accelerate the energy transition, including restoring climate funding in overseas development, will be better for national security in all respects too.
3. The transition is the solution All possible measures should be taken to get off fossil fuel dependence and this can only effectively be done through collective measures, e.g. an accelerated effective insulation campaign requires properly funded local authority direct labour organisations with workers properly educated on the climate crisis as well as technical skills, targeting areas in fuel poverty as a social measure and not cutting corners as private sector micro companies all too often do. Similarly, even if the ban on new investment in North Sea FFs is lifted, it will have a marginal effect and won’t stop the erosion of jobs; so the solution has to be a planned retraining and redeployment alongside increased investment in accelerated deployment of renewable energy. This could most effectively be done through public ownership.
4. Crisis measures must be social justice measures. Rationing by price is inherently inequitable. ATM people who drive are managing by putting less fuel in their tanks when they “fill up”. This can only go so far. So, for example reduce FF demand (and therefore prices) by banning private jets, slashing public transport fares (even the Lib Dems have proposed a 10% cut and states from Tasmania to the Punjab have made it free) to encourage a shift. Pre-emptive limits on purchases of key food items in limited supply, to ensure equitable distribution of what there is.

This is not set in stone. It’s a catalyst to get a debate going that starts us all moving in the right direction and comes up with things that none of us have thought of yet.

So, in the next two weeks we’d like feedback on these principles and suggestions for specific proposals so we can pull them together into a public statement that could provide the basis for a campaign that can build up through the deepening of the crisis.

Online Thursday April 23 – 5.50 – 7.00 We’ll see you there! Join Us

Get in the loop! Sign up to receive future GJA Newsletters and Blogs here.

SIGN UP Join the debate

Send us your contribution to the debate. We will contact you about using it here on our News & Debate page.

Name

Email

Contribution

Submit

The post Towards a transformative response to the fossil fuel energy crisis first appeared on Greener Jobs Alliance.

By Jeremy Brecher,
Senior Strategic Advisor, LNS Co-Founder

Listen to the audio version >>

Radical, unanticipated developments in electrification, storage, distribution, and other technologies are transforming not only the way energy is produced but also the way it is used. Like the transformation in energy production, these advances in energy consumption are transforming economies and creating new opportunities to protect the climate and improve our lives.

Nissan LEAF charging at the Freedom Station in Houston, TX. This is an eVgo Network station with both Level 2 and DC fast chargers. Photo credit: evgonetwork (eVgo Network). Original image was trimmed and retouched (lighting and color tones) by User:Mariordo, Wikemedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

In the previous commentary we examined the impact of the Greentech revolution on the production of energy. But energy production is only one side of the Greentech revolution. The other is providing that energy where it is needed when it is needed, shifting energy consumption from fossil fuels to electricity, and using that energy more efficiently so less of it is required. As the FT wrote in “The Reshaping of Energy Consumption,” “Just as important as the development of new wind and solar farms to generate electricity without carbon dioxide emissions” is “the overhauling of vehicles, heating systems, and factories.”

Energy Storage

After energy has been produced it often must be stored until it is needed. Enter the Greentech revolution in energy storage. Over the past 15 years the cost of energy storage has dropped 95%. In 2025, Chinese batteries appeared headed for a further 30% decline. In 2025, the world was expected to add eighty gigawatts of grid-scale storage, eight times as much as in 2021.

More change is at hand. For example, sodium-ion batteries are safer than lithium batteries and do not require destructive extraction of materials like lithium, cobalt, phosphorus, and copper. Materials for sodium batteries are far cheaper those for lithium batteries. BYD opened a sodium-ion battery factory in 2024, and is producing a large sodium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) called MC Cube-T. Sodium-ion storage is likely to make it possible to replace fossil fuels with electricity in such until-now intractable areas as heavy trucks and long-distance shipping.

This is only one of several impending battery breakthroughs. For example, long duration energy storage is increasing today’s typical storage time of about 4 hours to many times as long. Google recently announced investment in long duration energy storage (LDES). “Through a new long-term partnership with Energy Dome, we plan to support multiple commercial projects globally to deploy their LDES technology.” Toyota has developed an all-solid-state battery that provides EVs with smaller, more durable batteries that charge in minutes and deliver longer ranges between charges.

Energy Distribution

Construction workers build the frame for a one-megawatt solar microgrid project at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., Dec. 22, 2011. Photo credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District Licensing, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

After energy has been produced it needs to get to where it is needed. Led by China, there is a revolution in long-distance power transmission. One ultrahigh-voltage Chinese power line stretches more than 2,000 miles from the sparsely populated far northwest to the populous, industrialized southeast — the equivalent of sending electricity from Idaho to New York City. This is one of 42 long-distance power lines, each able to carry more electricity than any utility transmission line in the United States. China’s transmission technology is far more efficient than others. And China plans systematically; it is now building the world’s first nationwide grid of ultrahigh-voltage power transmission lines. By 2050, China plans to have three times more ultrahigh-voltage routes in operation.

At the opposite end of the scale, microgrids are providing new ways of distributing energy locally. According to the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a microgrid is a group of “interconnected loads and distributed energy resources that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid.” It can connect and disconnect from the grid to operate in grid-connected or island mode. It can therefore keep a local grid running even when the wider grid fails. Microgrids allow coordination and synergism among small-scale, local energy infrastructure like generators, renewables, and batteries. That allows them to save costs, reduce the need for energy, and make money by selling excess electricity.

Microgrids are now being used in hospitals, universities, neighborhoods, and many other venues. In Petaluma, CA for example, the newly constructed 131-unit Meridian at Petaluma North Station affordable apartment complex includes a solar and energy storage microgrid. The net-zero project will generate and manage all its energy onsite. Its microgrid includes a 1-MW solar array consisting of rooftop-mounted panels and solar canopies in the parking lot. A 4.3 MWh battery is designed to support the complex for three to four days during a power outage. Parking spaces with bidirectional EV chargers directly wired into the microgrid will allow EVs to charge from the solar array — and provide electricity back to the building when needed.

Transportation

The largest shift so far from fossil fuel burning to electricity is the replacement of gas guzzlers with electric vehicles (EVs). Not only do EVs use electrons rather than gasoline; they use 2-4 times less energy than their fossil fuel counterparts. Sales of EVs have been rapidly growing globally, increasing by over 33 times, from 0.5 million (1% of all car sales) in 2015 to over 17 million (more than 20% of all car sales) in 2024. EVs now account for almost half of all car sales in China, 20% in Europe, and more than 10% in the USA. EV sales in Asia and Latin America increased by over 60% in 2024 to almost 600,000. Electric vehicles made up 80% of Norway’s new car sales last year. Electric car sales in 2025 were expected to exceed 20 million worldwide, more than a quarter of all cars sold.

EVs are only part of the Greentech transformation of transportation. Electrification and system reorganization have the potential to transform rail transportation: In the English town of Aldershot, solar collectors are directly delivering electricity to drive trains; the developer says, “If you are a railway, this is the cheapest electricity you can buy.” In China, 30,000 miles of high-speed rail lines run on electricity. Buses, subways, light rail, and other public transit can now be provided at far less than the cost of auto transportation due to electrification and technological improvements. Due to emerging battery technologies, ships and planes may be electrified at competitive cost. At the other end of the scale, electric bikes providing “micromobility” are already a rapidly expanding transportation niche. One recent example is a four-wheeled bike for individual and commercial cargo haulers.

Agriculture

Solar is growing in Alaska, ACEP is helping the industry and communities. Video credit: Alaska Center for Energy and Power | UAF

Agricultural techniques are turning farms from producers to reducers of greenhouse gases. For example, regenerative agriculture provides farming and grazing practices that withdraw carbon from the atmosphere by restoring degraded soil biodiversity. New technologies are allowing farmers to grow crops underneath solar panels. The New York Times recently featured an “agrivoltaics” installation in Houston, Alaska, adapted to the farm’s extreme northern location. “The rows of panels on the 45-acre site are set 50 feet apart, much wider than at lower latitudes, and they collect solar power on both front and back in order to capture the maximum amount of summer sunlight as the sun dances across the horizon all day and all night.” The electricity produced from such agrivoltaics can run farm equipment and be sold to provide an extra source of income for farmers; the food produced can help meet local food shortages.

As in so much Greentech, China is creating radical advances in agrivoltaics. For example, the Chinese company GCL says it has combined four new agrivoltaic technologies: Bifacial solar panels harvest sunlight from both sides, enabling them to assume a space-saving vertical position when needed. Tunable solar panels that enable more or less light to pass onto crops can be adjusted to a range of 15-40% light pass-through. Elevated racks can be raised to 9 feet with tracking capability to optimize the sun-collecting angle. Advanced system management integrates meteorological data, crop growth sensors, inverter analytics, and AI algorithms to optimize module tilt and irrigation schedules.

Greentech Unlimited

There are thousands of Greentech goods, services, and systems that have been introduced or are in development around the world that will increase efficiency and reduce GHG emissions – far too numerous and diverse to review here. For a knowledgeable review, see Mark Jacobson’s Still No Miracles Needed. A few of the most important additional sectors of Greentech advance:

• Climate-safe factories are now being built around the world. For example, Ford has opened a carbon neutral assembly plant in Cologne, Germany, to produce EVs for the European market. According to Ford, the plant uses “digital advancements that connect machines, vehicles and workers” including “self-learning machines, autonomous transport systems, and big data management.” New technologies are even reducing the carbon released in steelmaking, one of the most intense greenhouse gas producers on earth.
• Circular reuse and recycling include the upcycling of waste materials into new products, promoting a cycle of continuous use, and GHG-reducing waste management practices like composting. It can include air and water filtration systems, waste-to-energy technologies, and methods for safely disposing of or repurposing industrial waste.
• Public transit may well be the most cost-effective single way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Green construction is substituting low-carbon materials like hempcrete and recycled steel for more climate-destructive materials.
• Greentech building decarbonization is creating carbon-neutral buildings.It includes insulation, electrification, and on-site renewable energy. Improved heat pumps can produce three or more units of heat for every unit of electricity they use.
• Protecting and restoring ecosystems can rebuild degraded lands, preserve endangered species, and support sustainable agriculture practices.

These are only a few of the many examples of Greentech transformations of consumption. More are being implemented every day.

Infographic: Who has pledged an INDC so far, and what percentage of the world’s emissions are covered. Credit: Rosamund Pearce, Carbon Brief, based on EU data. Only UN parties have been included in the emissions total. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, not covered by the EU’s INDC. It is not a UN party. Taiwan is also not a UN party. Source: Carbonbrief.org

Reducing energy consumption can make an important contribution to the transition to climate-safe energy. For example, the IEA’s modelling of a world on track to meet the Paris agreement targets for GHG reduction shows final energy consumption falling by as much as 15 percent compared with current levels by 2035, even as GDP continues to grow. That’s because of electrification and other energy efficiency measures such as better insulation.

As shown in this and the previous commentary, Greentech production and consumption are now far more efficient and therefore far less costly and more competitive than fossil fuel-based systems. This Greentech revolution will have profound effects on the future of the US as well as the rest of the world.

Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are determined to reverse the Greentech revolution. Their success would mean catastrophe for the US economy and the American people. Conversely, the Greentech revolution has enormous potential benefits for the US economy and for the American people. Subsequent commentaries in this series will explore what the Greentech revolution means for the American people – and how we can take advantage of it.

Get “Strike!” via EmailGet “Strike!” via Substack DONATE ONLINE

The post Greentech Revolution: Energy Consumption first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Read and subscribe to our monthly newsletter and support our work.

The post Latest Newsletter first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Carlos Torrealba currently is the Network and Formations Manager at Taproot Earth, where he’s helping build the Gulf South to Appalachia Formation, a powerful 17-state network of over 100 frontline organizations.

For the past decade, Carlos has been building the new while fighting the bad; from creating community-led disaster response systems to deepening and building labor and climate justice solidarity across local, regional, and national movements. His work leans heavily on not only building local alternatives but also linking them to regional, national and international movements of decolonization, anti-neoliberalism, and anti-imperialism. His political roots were shaped in undergrad while engaged in pipeline fights and Palestinian Solidarity work in Vermont. Carlos is also deeply engaged in Latin American solidarity and food sovereignty efforts. Outside movement work, Carlos enjoys travelling, early French Modernist Literature, and vinyl collecting.

The post May LNS Spotlight: Carlos Torrealba first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

What does a Black climate activist say when interviewed by someone who describes themselves as a “Redneck Gone Green”? Here’s how LNS executive director started his rap:

“I appreciate as a black Southerner the idea of starting with joy. In my old church tradition they’ll say, “Out of all the things I’ve been through, I still have joy.” And I think that joy and love are still the key attributes of what is to be done. This radical notion of love, love that calls you to a responsibility of taking care of yourself and the ones around you. The responsibility of this moment, of this political moment, this socioeconomic moment, this rise of authoritarianism. And if we don’t start practicing that love and moving our boots and moving our asses, then we just may be in the dystopian future that we fear.”

Watch Joshua’s “Same Boss, Same Enemy” interview on “Redneck Gone Green” here.

The post Same Boss, Same Enemy first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Photo credit:Yasmin Gabriel, LNS Development Manager

My kids are climate justice leaders in our household, always looking for ways of reducing our carbon footprints. They see themselves as stewards of the planet and I am aware that it is crucial for us to alleviate disproportionate energy burdens and reduce exposure to environmental hazards. According to ScienceDirect.com, Black families emit 20% less CO2 than average households but we suffer higher energy costs and poorer health outcomes, making sustainable action a key strategy for health and financial equity.

As a family, we chose a solution that would reduce our financial obligations and carbon footprint. Over the winter break, I researched how to safely get around with two kids. We settled on a cargo bike, allowing me to transport multiple kids, pets, and plants, all at the same time. According to the Guardian, bike riding reduces your carbon emissions by 90%, compared with electric vans that reduce by one-third. We are able to demonstrate to our community what reducing a family’s carbon footprint actually could look like – choosing to ride a bike around town instead of driving.

I know the cargo bike saved us money, but what about the impact it has on our family joy? Our bike recently broke, devastating to me, but my 4-year-old daughter offered to ride her bike to school and my 8-year-old son offered to walk the 2 miles to school, so we could continue to spend time with each other and do our part for the planet. The impact on our family’s quality of life is immeasurable, and yet so clear! If you are interested in talking or learning more about cargo bike journeys, feel free to reach out to me via email at yasmin@labor4sustainability.org.

Happy working to ensure everyone has a livable wage on a livable planet,

The Gabriel Family

The post Stewards of the Planet first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

LNS invites you to a national webinar on May 5 at 4 PM ET, co-hosted by Taproot Earth and the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council (HTC), in partnership with U.S. Climate Action Network, Labor Network for Sustainability, and Just Transition Alliance.

As Climate Week NYC approaches, we’re deepening solidarity between the climate justice and labor movements. With the NYC hotel workers’ union contract set to expire this summer, this moment offers a powerful opportunity to align our values and actions. This session is designed for decision-makers and operations leads at climate organizations participating in Climate Week NYC. We’ll explore how to show up in solidarity and support workers in their fight for a fair contract.

Click here to register.

The post Solidarity in Action: Mobilizing Labor & Climate Justice at NYC Climate Week and Beyond first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

LNS and our partners were happy to have had a successful Transit Equity Week 2026. We are excited to continue growing our transit equity work and organizing riders and workers everywhere towards a just and sustainable future.

For a brief video report on Transit Equity Week 2026: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWpBnPQiOA4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D.

The post Transit Equity Rolls On first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

The Labor Network for Sustainability has joined many other organizations around the country to support the campaign to close the county-owned HERC (Hennepin Energy Recovery Center) incinerator in Minneapolis. Shutting down the incinerator, which burns toxic trash in the center of a Black and working-class community, has been the goal of a long-running local campaign. Shutting the incinerator was one of the demands of the first union-authorized strike on climate issues in the US by janitor members of Service Employees International Union Local 26.

In 2023, Hennepin County Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to create a closure plan — but it does not actually require HERC to close. The Zero Burn Coalition, an alliance of environmental and labor groups, wants the board to hold a public vote this year to close the HERC by 2028. Local environmental justice advocates held a hunger strike calling on Hennepin County Commissioners to close their incinerator; at press time they had fasted for nearly two weeks.

Local labor organizations that are part of the campaign include:

• MAPE – Minnesota Association of Professional Employees
• MNA – Minnesota Nurses Association
• MFE – Minneapolis Federation of teachers
• SPFE – Saint Paul Federation of Teachers
• AFSCME – Local 2822
• AFSCME – Hennepin Healthcare Local 2474
• CTUL – Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha

The post Hungering for Environmental Justice first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

More than 8 million people joined more than 3,300 organized events across the country on March 28 for No Kings Day to protest the Trump administration’s growing authoritarianism, attacks on immigrants, and war in the Middle East. It was the largest single-day protest in American history.

Major unions with millions of members including SEIU, AFT, and NEA supported the day of action, and local unions around the country played a major role in organizing local events. Endorsing the mobilization, Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO, said:

Since Inauguration Day, the radical pages of Project 2025 and the fever dreams of America’s corporate billionaires have come to life with a relentless assault on America’s workers. The Trump administration has committed the single biggest act of union-busting in history, attacked good jobs across the country, launched a brutal assault on immigrants, ripped health care from millions, jeopardized the essential services that working families rely on and threatened our fundamental freedoms. But America’s labor unions have been leading in our courts, on Capitol Hill, and in our streets to fight back– and our movement will be there on No Kings Day to peacefully and powerfully say that our government doesn’t answer to a king. It answers to working people.

The post 8 Million People—And Labor—Say “NO KINGS” first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

By Yasmin Gabriel, LNS Development Manager

As a 6th generation Louisianian, I am always in awe when I see different members of my community serving as change agents. In mid-April, I was able to witness the combined organizing power of Earthworks, St. James Rising, Healthy Gulf, Concerned Citizens of St. John, Green Army, Louisiana Against False Solutions, Sierra Club-Delta Chapter, and Lake Maurepas Preservation Society as they challenged a proposed carbon capture project.

As storms, heat waves, fires, floods, and other devastating effects of global warming have grown, more and more people in Louisiana have become convinced of the need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere. “Carbon capture” is proposed as a solution, but it is unproven, costly, problematic for health and the environment, not a job producer, and ineffective for climate protection. The Air Products company has proposed a 38-mile carbon dioxide pipeline — running from Ascension Parish to Lake Maurepas — as part of a carbon capture project. It is dangerous for so many reasons. Here are two major reasons: Sorrento Primary School and the Orange Grove subdivision situated within ½ mile of the proposed pipeline.

There is something special that happens in a community when people pull together across fault lines and work for a common goal. There is often a level of social connection that can provide a sense of support for families, even during the toughest of times. The changemakers in parishes of south Louisiana are working to stop the project from being built because of pollution, noise, traffic, and other unjust impacts.

Follow this link for more information about the Blue Hydrogen Project and how you can support the fight.

The post “Carbon Capture Does Not Belong in the Boot” first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s war against Iran has unleashed a cavalcade of global economic disruptions. Most severe is the impact of the blockage of shipping through the Straits of Hormuz on worldwide oil prices, and supply chains for other commodities (including natural gas, fertilizer, and chemicals). Even though Canada produces far more oil. Gas, and fertilizer than we use, the resulting price spike has hit us, too – as a result of our policy choice to tie domestic prices (even for our own energy) to that global roller-coaster.

In this CBC national radio interview with host Piya Chattopadhyay, Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford discusses the impacts of the war (on top of the disruptions from Trump’s tariff policies) on Canada’s economy, in the lead-up to the federal government’s spring fiscal update.

What the government's policy playbook might mean for your pocketbook.

The post CBC Sunday Morning Feature Interview: Trump’s War and the Macroeconomic Outlook appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

We need clean, renewable energy to protect our health and to drive down energy costs. As organizations representing public and environmental health as well as frontline healthcare professionals, including the American Lung Association, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Concerned Health Professionals of New York, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, we urge Governor Hochul and the New York State Legislature to ensure that renewable energy investments remain a central priority in this year’s state budget negotiations.

At a moment defined by rising energy costs, worsening air quality, and increasing climate-driven health risks, failing to fully fund wind, solar, and geothermal energy would be a profound mistake; one that New Yorkers cannot afford. Our organizations see firsthand how pollution and climate instability harm our communities. Fossil fuel combustion remains a leading contributor to increasing asthma attacks, worsening COPD exacerbations, cardiovascular disease, and premature death across New York State. Rising temperatures and poor air quality have led to more emergency room visits and hospitalizations. These burdens fall disproportionately on low-income communities, communities of color, children, and older adults, populations who already face systemic health inequities.

The fossil fuel-based energy system has created both a climate crisis and a public health crisis that demands courageous and equitable policy action now. Renewable energy is a public health intervention that can help improve patient outcomes. Expanding wind, solar, and geothermal infrastructure will reduce harmful air pollutants, decrease hospitalizations, and improve quality of life for millions of New Yorkers. At the same time, renewable energy is one of the most effective ways to bring down long-term energy costs for everyday residents. Unlike fossil fuels, which are subject to volatile global markets and geopolitical disruptions, renewable sources like wind and solar provide stable, predictable pricing once infrastructure is in place. Investing in these technologies now will shield New Yorkers from future price spikes while reducing reliance on imported fuels.

For example, geothermal systems offer households consistent, efficient heating and cooling, cutting utility bills significantly over time. Leaving these investments out of the state budget would mean locking families into higher, less predictable energy costs for years to come. Renewable energy development drives economic growth and job creation across the state. From offshore wind projects along our coasts, to solar installations in rural and urban communities alike, these investments support thousands of good-paying jobs while strengthening local economies. They also reduce strain on our healthcare system by preventing illness before it begins, an often overlooked but critical form of cost savings.

New York has already positioned itself as a national leader in climate action through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). But leadership requires follow-through. If renewable energy funding is weakened or omitted from the state budget, it will not only delay progress toward our climate goals, it will also jeopardize the health and financial stability of New Yorkers. Governor Hochul and state legislators face a clear choice. Invest in a cleaner, healthier, and more affordable energy future, or allow short-term budget decisions to undermine long-term wellbeing.

The evidence is overwhelming. Renewable energy saves lives, reduces healthcare costs, and puts money back into the pockets of working families. For the sake of public health, economic stability, and environmental justice, New York must not leave renewable energy behind.

Authors:

Max Micallef, NYS Advocacy Manager – Clean Air Initiatives, American Lung Association
Bryanna U. Patterson, MS, FNP, RN-BC, Fellow, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
Carmi Orenstein, MPH, Program Director, Concerned Health Professionals of NY
Zach Williams, MPH, Associate Director, Environment & Health, Physicians for Social Responsibility

The post For Public Health and to Save Money, New York Needs Renewable Energy appeared first on ANHE.