The end of this year is quickly approaching, with the holiday season and New Years celebration just around the corner. But before 2022 comes to a close, we’ve made ample space to reflect on some of Sierra Club’s most impactful victories from this year that embodied our unwavering values of Anti-racism, Balance, Collaboration, Justice, and Transformation in our work towards creating a livable planet we all deserve.
Making Change Nationally and Worldwide
1. The Inflation Reduction Act set the stage for making better investments in stopping climate change. Although it is not the climate bill we wanted, and still desperately need, it is a good beginning.
2. The UN Climate Summit commits to helping countries most impacted by climate change financially recover from devastation, recognizing that the countries least responsible for the crisis are often the most heavily impacted.
3. Sierra Club supported Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, the first Black woman to be nominated and confirmed to the high court.
4. Sierra Club en español– our growth within the Latino Media has hit an all-time high since 2010, reaching tens of millions of Latinx communities this year alone! Check out our top hit of the year, from CNN.
5. Protecting the US economy from climate-related financial risk meant ensuring federal agencies held big US banks and global money managers accountable to their climate commitments.
Getting Our Communities Outdoors
6. Detroit Outdoors is getting children and families in the city outside and camping at Scout’s Hollow and at local parks.
7. America’s two largest cities are getting improved public transit to trails. Thanks to the Nature for All coalition, LA Metro stations are adding new bus routes into the Angeles National Forest, and the Military Outdoors is helping veterans and their families get to outdoor spaces in New York City.
Protecting Our Lands, Water, Wildlife, and Air
8. Celebrating new national monuments in Colorado and Nevada! Sierra Club worked with the Biden administration to designate Colorado’s Camp Hale-Continental Divide a national monument and to commit to making Nevada’s Avi Kwa Ame a national monument too.
9. Gray Wolves regained federal protections in 44 states, thanks to Earthjustice, Sierra Club, and partners, after they were delisted from the Endangered Species Act under the Trump administration. However, the fight to protect gray wolves continues on!
10. The Sierra Club Missouri Chapter saved over 7,000 acres of public lands by successfully protecting Eleven Point State Park from being sold and helping open Bryant Creek State Park.
11. On the cusp of the West’s greatest salmon recovery in history, Sierra Club participated in a Indigenous-led totem pole journey, “Spirit of the Waters,” along the Snake River to unblock dams and highlight challenges facing the river’s salmon population and the Pacific orcas who need them.
12. California’s drying Salton Sea is back in the spotlight thanks to work securing a $250 million federal investment to stabilize the sea and connect people who live nearby with decision makers to ensure their voices shape the restoration process.
Retiring Fossil Fuels and Embracing Clean Energy
13. Touchdown for clean energy in Georgia! Sierra Club Beyond Coal hosted their first-ever Clean Energy Tailgate at the University of Georgia vs. University of Tennessee college football game, featuring an electric vehicle, solar panels, and games to engage the audience about how clean energy could benefit the state.
14. Exposing the Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges. Sierra Club launched a new version of our groundbreaking report and interactive tool, The Dirty Truth About Climate Pledges, which unveils how utilities are delaying the transition to clean energy despite their climate commitments.
15. Slow down Joe: How the Dirty Fuels campaign helped stop Sen. Joe Manchin’s fast-track on fossil fuel infrastructure.
16. Sierra Club blocked new fossil fuel leasing on public lands by successfully reaching legal settlements to stop new leasing on over three million acres of public lands in California, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas.
17. An Indiana utility is going coal free! AES Indiana’s Petersburg coal plant is set to retire in 2025, making it Indiana’s first investor-owned utility to ditch burning coal.
18. Clean energy and good-paying jobs are coming to rural America thanks to an unlikely partnership that secured funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
19. Phasing out coal plants in the Deep South– the Beyond Coal team secured the retirements of Plant Barry and Plant Gaston in Alabama, and Plant Wansley and a unit of Plant Scherer in Georgia.
20. A cleaner North Carolina is on the horizon now that the North Carolina Utilities Commission is working to develop a carbon plan that would achieve carbon neutrality for the state by 2050.
21. California communities say “no way” to oil and gas drilling, securing a 3,200 foot health and safety zone around homes, schools, and other sensitive areas.
22. Protecting communities most impacted by polluters– The Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter fought hard with local community members to block Arizona utility SRP from unnecessarily expanding a gas plant in the historically Black community of Randolph.
23. Kansas City Adopts Climate Protection & Resiliency Plan to meaningfully address climate justice and environmental racism in Kansas City, Missouri.
Supporting Clean Transportation for All
24. Hop on the bus– schools nationwide are getting electric school buses, prioritizing school districts with low-income students, in rural areas, or in tribal communities.
25. Biden’s “Buy Clean” initiatives will help reduce pollution in our supply chains; aligning with the Sierra Club Living Economy program’s advocacy on reducing toxic pollution and the broader environmental and health impacts of industrial production.
26. Sierra Club and partners pushed EPA to pass strong Clean Truck Rules to clean up some of the most polluting vehicles on our roads. Reminder: free shipping isn’t free for everyone.
The Quest for Healthy Air Inside
27. California reaches over 65 cities/counties committed to all-electric new buildings, phasing out dirty appliances like gas stoves, space and water heaters, dryers, and more that pollute the air we breathe inside.
28. America’s move to clean appliances– Washington State became the first state to require electric space and water heating for new buildings, and more than 90 cities and counties nationwide have made commitments of their own to address pollution and health harms from gas appliances.
29. California commits to selling only clean, zero-emissions space and water heaters by 2030 thanks to Sierra Club and many partners’ efforts in getting the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to implement a plan to reduce NOx pollution, complying with the Clean Air Act.
30. We pushed the EPA to clean up the air inside and outside of our buildings with electric space and water heaters. The fight for clean air continues– more than 5,000 people have signed on to our public petition to urge EPA to act now, and you can too!
Our Sierra Club guiding principles say: “No matter who you are or where you call home, we all deserve to breathe fresh air, drink clean water, and live and work in a clean economy and a thriving community.” This is why we fight– to create a world that lives by the values of Anti-racism, Balance, Collaboration, Justice, and Transformation for all! There is still much work to be done, but the start of 2023 brings along new opportunities for the Sierra Club to continue working as change agents who empower this movement for a liveable planet, safe and healthy communities, and a democracy that works for us all.