Aaron Mair with former Vice President Al Gore at Paris Climate Conference.
I arrived in Paris with high hopes.
For the first time in more than 20 years of UN climate negotiations, we had all the major polluting countries, including China and India, at the table, actively trying to tackle the problem of stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to avoid "dangerous anthropogenic (human-caused) interference with the climate system."
The nearly 200 participating nations concluded a binding universal Agreement that would limit global warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 °F) above pre-industrial levels. And after this objective was ratified with great fanfare this past weekend -- along with a more ambitious aim to "pursue efforts" to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) -- there is good reason for optimism.
Aaron Mair with 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben in Paris.
One thing that distinguished Paris from previous climate conferences is that all the participating nations were truly engaged, and realized that the global community is at a significant crossroads in reversing humanity’s impact on climate. National leaders realized that the climate science is in, and accepted the conclusion of over 97 percent of climate scientists that human impacts are contributing to climate change. This was a major wind in the sail that pushed nations to these COP21 talks, and resulted in Saturday's historic Agreement.
No country is immune from climate change, and no country can meet the challenge alone. That's why I was so heartened that nearly all of the 195 participating states came to the conference with specific, detailed commitments to reduce their emissions. But amid the legitimate elation and excitement about the watershed climate Agreement we see emerging from Paris, there is one area that frankly causes me dismay.
An earlier draft of the Agreement included a provision that recognized the importance of respecting the rights and interests of racial minorities, women, indigenous communities, and workers, as we made the fundamental social and economic transformations necessary to achieve climate stability. This provision made clear that none of these things would be compromised in our climate efforts, and that we would not trade off or degrade people, places, or species as we take action.
This provision did not survive in the final Agreement. However, the need for a just transition for workers, and the rights of women, indigenous peoples and the other civil society constituencies are recognized in the preamble of the Agreement. This makes it all the more essential that the people and grassroots environmental NGOs like the Sierra Club hold nations accountable so that efforts to reduce climate change do not come on the backs of the world's most vulnerable and economically disadvantaged.
Tom Goldtooth, Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, with Aaron Mair at the COP21 talks.
The United States has committed to implementing and enforcing the EPA's Clean Power Plan, and in so doing we are demonstrating our seriousness about combating climate disruption and positioning America as a global leader in transitioning off fossil fuels to a clean energy future. We at the Sierra Club must now (more than ever) leverage our strategic partnerships with organized labor (like CWA, SEIU, & UAW) and the NAACP to strengthen our work so that minorities and labor are an active part of our nation’s efforts to transition to a new clean economy and a carbon-free future.
The Paris Agreement will require a whole new way of dealing with clean energy. As we transition to a green economy, it is imperative that we take labor into account. As we retire coal plants and transition away from fossil fuels, we must ensure that we create new clean-energy jobs to replace the dirty-energy jobs that are being lost. As we move forward in the 21st century, we must use the best 20th-century organized labor practices that elevate and lift up a new, clean, green-tech labor force.
Fred Heutte, Sierra Club volunteer and Federal & International Climate Campaign co-lead; Waehl Hmaidan, Director, Climate Action Network International; Aaron Mair; Andy Katz, Sierra Club volunteer and Federal & International Climate Campaign team member; and Dean Hubbard, Director, Sierra Club Labor and Economic Justice Program.
Something extraordinarily meaningful has emerged from Paris over the past two weeks. For the first time, we have taken action on a global scale to combat climate change. But as we move forward in transforming our energy economy here at home, let's not lose sight of the fact that environmental injustice remains rampant, organized labor remains under withering attack in many quarters, and indigenous communities are all too often excluded from the conversation. If we succeed in bringing about a truly just transition to a clean energy future, we will set ourselves on the road to real prosperity as we do what is necessary to save the planet.