Bringing Together a Movement to #KeepItInTheGround

Last week, I had the honor of joining an incredible group of indigenous and frontline leaders and activists from across the Americas for the "Climate Equity Summit: Keeping Fossil Fuels in the Ground." The event, organized by Amazon Watch and the Sierra Club, was envisioned as a space to connect the heroic efforts of people fighting coal, oil and gas developments from the Arctic to the Amazon, and create an opportunity for each of these powerful movements to come together into one broader movement to Keep It in the Ground. 

The summit, hosted at the Sierra Club's San Francisco office,  brought together leaders of the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, Ecuador, the Zapara people of Peru and Ecuador, members of the Inupiaq and Pit River/Wintu and Neets’aii Gwich’in Athabascan tribes of Alaska, the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, the Navaho (Dine) Nation, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation of Northern Alberta, Canada, the Dakota of Minnesota and Mdewakanton Dakota nations, along with activist leaders from the U.S., Mexico, Ecuador, and Canada. 

Over the span of two days, we sparked lasting connections and bonded over our shared goals of protecting communities and staving off climate catastrophe by keeping fossil fuels in the ground. We coalesced around the growing consensus that we must leave at least two thirds of proven fossil fuel reserves un-burned if we hope to avoid throwing our planet into a state of unrecognizable peril. 

We also agreed that our fledgling movement must articulate and elevate what we're for, not just what we're against. We discussed that while we’re against new fossil fuel projects that will drive development and unlock the carbon reserves that will push our planet far past the two degrees C* of warming scientists say our planet can handle, we're for the distributed, democratized clean energy that is rapidly taking hold around the world. While we're against government-backed perpetuation of the fossil fuel economy through subsidies and leasing of our public lands, we're for a just transition to a future that protects communities from toxic pollution and fosters an equitable, inclusive and sustainable world for us all.

Those are just a few of the commitments the group hopes to formally announce in a declaration unveiled on World Environment Day, June 5th, a draft of which was adopted unanimously on the last day of the summit.  Many of the groups' participants will be attending the United Nations' climate talks in Paris and may even present the declaration there, as an affirmation of the rights of indigenous peoples and the need to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Throughout the course of the two day agenda, we heard from activists fighting fracking across the US, from those fighting tar sands developments in Canada and the pipelines that would carry them through the US, from others working to protect the Amazon rainforest from the destruction caused by oil drilling and deforestation, and to block efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.

We heard from artists using their craft to engage community members and demonstrate the value of protecting land from fossil fuel developments, and from women working to empower other women to speak up about the urgency of action on climate change. We heard from indigenous leaders fighting to convince their own tribal governments that energy sources other than coal are a viable option and from community members that had formed their own organizations to fight coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest. The work we learned about was varied and broad, but a single theme connected it all -- we are disparate actors of a single movement to keep it in the ground.

As we neared the end of the summit, we discussed next steps and assessed interest in continued collaboration -- and the desire to keep this moving and take it to the next step was overwhelming. I've never been part of a conference or coalition meeting that elicited more enthusiasm. Clearly, we've touched on something big here -- our movement may be small yet, but it will grow. We hope you'll join us to #KeepItInTheGround.

The event was made possible through the generous support of the Hillary Institute. Particular thanks are due to Mark Prain, Executive Director of the Hillary Institute, who joined us all the way from New Zealand to be part of the inception of our movement. Thank you, Mark and the Hillary Institute for your generous support and visionary leadership!  Photo by Caroline Bennett of Amazon Watch.