Ian Brickey, ian.brickey@sierraclub.org
In Dubai: Jonathon Berman, jonathon.berman@sierraclub.org
***Sierra Club Staff are on the ground in Dubai.***
***Contact Jonathon Berman for interviews or specific comments on COP28 proceedings***
DUBAI, U.A.E. -- The theme for Tuesday at COP 28 is “Energy, industry, and just transition.” The federal government oversees about 640 million acres of public lands across the United States, but much of that remains open for oil, gas and coal development. The federal oil and gas leasing program provides minimal revenue for the federal government while generating tremendous amounts of carbon pollution. The Willow Project on Alaska’s North Slope is projected to generate nearly 300 million metric tons of carbon pollution on its own. Since 2005, 25% of all U.S. carbon emmissions have come from extraction on public lands, and reducing this is critical to meeting U.S. climate targets.
In response, Sierra Club Managing Director Eva Hernandez, released the following statement:
“Protecting public lands and waters is one of the most critical actions we can and must take in the fight against climate change. For too long, the United States has treated many of these landscapes and waters primarily as resources for exploitation and extraction by Big Oil. This has had devastating consequences, degrading these places, supercharging the climate crisis, and lining the pockets of corporate polluters while leaving communities to shoulder the environmental consequences.
“The Biden Administration deserves credit for the initial steps it has taken to reverse this history, like canceling all remaining oil and gas leases in the Arctic Refuge, protecting parts of the western Arctic, and implementing the Bureau of Land Management’s conservation rule, but it cannot stop there. We must stop new oil and gas leasing and coal mining on public lands and waters, and we need to lead the way towards achieving 30x30 – that means protecting more lands and waters in the next decade than we did in the last century. The United States must provide leadership globally on protecting public lands and waters, and that means action – and soon – to ensure these places are part of the solution to the climate crisis and not its victims.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.