Capitol Voice September 2024

By Jakob Evans

Earlier this year, we reported that the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) took action against ExxonMobil after the company sued its shareholders to avoid pursuing climate action targets. In response to Exxon’s reckless behavior, CalPERS leveraged its investments and prestige to vote against the company's executive board at its annual shareholder meeting in May. This move by CalPERS against Exxon’s attacks on shareholder rights was a crucial step in mobilizing state treasurers and pension funds around the world to follow suit and hold polluters accountable. 

However, Exxon’s Executive board remains in place, and it continues to avoid accountability by ignoring CalPERS’ calls to align with the pension fund’s sustainability values. Exxon’s refusal to engage with a shareholder as influential as CalPERS shows that it is time for CalPERS to take more aggressive action and exit their investment from Exxon.

This is a unique opportunity for CalPERS to set a precedent for its portfolio companies regarding how they will respond to corporations that do not listen to their stakeholders. CalPERS engages with the corporations in its investment portfolio to ensure that these companies address environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks. This engagement guarantees that the corporations in which CalPERS is vested align with its values and show that these investments can yield long-term profits.

CalPERS’engagement includes four steps: identify, analyze, engage, and resolve. Over the past year, CalPERS has followed all four of these steps in attempting to pressure Exxon to align with its sustainability values. However, Exxon has continually ignored CalPERS’ and other investors' efforts, making it clear that they will continue to rebuff CalPERS’ commitment to investing in companies that address the economic risks of climate change.

Sierra Club California is organizing alongside environmental, labor, and community organizations to demand that CalPERS exit Exxon at CalPERS’ Investment Committee Meeting on September 16th at 8:30 AM. Send in a letter to CalPERS here and RSVP to join us in person or call into the meeting to share a public comment.

By Mahtisa Djahangiri

September is a big month for conservation and biodiversity! We are celebrating the anniversary of the Wilderness Act on September 3, California Biodiversity Day on September 7th, Latino Conservation Week from September 14 through 22, and National Public Lands Day on September 28. 

To kick off this exciting month, our 30x30 volunteers Anne Henny, Vicky Hoover, and Teri Shore traveled to the World Wilderness Congress’ WILD12 Conference in Rapid City, South Dakota to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act. 

The global wilderness community at WILD12 aimed to accomplish the following outcomes:

• An official declaration reinterpreting wilderness through an Indigenous lens
• A globally accepted framework for tribal-led wilderness designations on traditional lands
• A declaration urging the restoration of  Indigenous Peoples lands to meet the Half spatial target
• A platform to help unify the restoration of wild bison to the Northern Great Plains

Anne Henny, our 30x30 volunteer co-lead, represented the Sierra Club, the Power in Nature Coalition, and California at large with a presentation on how grassroots advocacy is driving real progress on the ambitious conservation goals of 30x30—protecting biodiversity, stabilizing the climate, and expanding access to nature’s benefits. Anne focused on lessons we and our partners have learned over the past four years, including:

• Organizing campaign efforts around local conservation priorities 
• Building public awareness statewide
• Engaging more people to join the 30x30 movement
• Effectively targeting our political strategies to achieve 30x30 goals. 

Anne and our Sierra Club delegation also met other leaders working on 30x30 in Africa, Mexico, Canada and other nations.  

A highlight of the conference for Anne was a field trip to Mato Paha (Bear Butte) in the He Sapa (Black Hills) and meeting members of the Sicangu Youth Council. The young people crafted, and then presented, each attendee with a Medicine Pouch to take home, explaining the significance of each medicine and its uses. They shared why the Black Hills hold such importance for them as Indigenous people and expressed the deep pain caused by the ongoing mining there. They also spoke powerfully to the WILD12 group about their arduous journey to repatriate the remains of other youth, their relatives, who were killed at the government boarding school in Carlisle, PA.

Saturday, September 7th is California Biodiversity Day. As well as celebrating California’s incredible biodiversity, this is a chance to encourage folks to protect it. Celebrations across the state will be taking place September 7-15th. Check out the California Biodiversity Day Website to learn more and find a local event near you, including bio-blitzes, birding, art and culture events, virtual classrooms, restoration activities, and more!

On Monday, September 19th at 6:30pm PDT we will be hosting a 30x30 Outings to Advocacy Webinar. The California 30x30 and Outdoors for All Campaigns are teaming up to show you how to combine your love for the outdoors with powerful advocacy. We will be joined by panelists Sergio Aliva, Moises Cisneros, Johanna Iraheta, Barbara Hensleigh, Marissa Llanes, and Roberto Morales to explore how outings can help achieve 30x30 through advocacy and connection to the outdoors. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to:

• Learn about the Outings program and available resources
• Discover how to apply your outings or outdoor experience to advocacy
• Learn more about the movement for 30% land and water protection by 2030 (30x30)

See you there!

 

Welcome Our Newest Associate Organizer Layne Fajeau!

By Michael Blenner

Please welcome our newest Associate Organizer Layne Fajeau (he/him) to Sierra Club California! Layne joined us this month from Lozeau Drury LLP, an environmental law firm based in Oakland, to support the efforts of our water team to fight for water rights and sustainable water solutions across California. Layne has a passion for water organizing, and has been involved in activism since high school.

As Associate Organizer, Layne will be responsible for recruiting and engaging Sierra Club’s members and supporters on issues like improving water policy in California and reducing dependence on destructive infrastructure projects like the Delta tunnel. You can read Layne’s full bio below. Keep an eye out for upcoming communications from Layne on our water campaigns! 

Layne Fajeau Bio
Layne joined Sierra Club in September 2024 as an Associate Organizer. His work is focused on energizing Californians about sustainable, local, equitable solutions to the state’s greatest water challenges and building coalitions to oppose harmful projects like the Delta Conveyance Project. Based in San Francisco, Layne grew up in the Delta region and has been involved in water organizing since his high school days. He received a B.S. in Society & Environment and a B.A. in Political Economy from UC Berkeley in 2024. Outside of environmental work, Layne fills his days with listening to music, running, and spending quality time with friends!

 

Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World

By Bobbi Jo Chavarria

Last month, the Capitol Voice featured an article on the engaging event hosted by the Zero Waste Committee, A Discussion on Total Garbage with Author Edward Humes; watch the recording linked here, and Sierra Club members can expect a recap in Campfire!

By Michael Blenner

Dr. Shaye Wolf will present “Emerging biomass threats: BECCS, hydrogen, and wood pellet expansion in California.” Her talk will cover emerging threats from Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), gasification and pyrolysis, hydrogen from biomass, and expansion of the wood pellet industry. Registration is free and open to all members and supporters.

Register to attend the event on Monday, September 16th at 4pm PDT here.

Shaye Wolf, Ph.D., is the science director at the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute. She is the coauthor of the forest bioenergy briefing book Forest Biomass Energy is a False Solution and fact sheet on emerging biomass threats.  She provides scientific support for the Center’s campaigns to protect people and wildlife from the climate crisis—focused on phasing out fossil fuels and other dirty energy and speeding a just transition to 100% clean, renewable energy in the US. In California she is working to end forest biomass energy which harms forests, the climate, and communities. She has a bachelor's in biology from Yale University and a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.