The Issue:
- Climate Change Requires Urgent Action: You don’t have to be a scientist to see how our climate has changed. Climate change is already impacting our planet and on communities, including here in Wisconsin.
- We Have a Responsibility to Future Generations: Climate change risks our children’s futures. It’s our generation’s moral obligation to leave behind a livable world for future generations.
- We Risk the Environment We Love: Wisconsinites have a special connection to our beautiful natural environment. Climate change threatens the land, animals and plants that help make Wisconsin a great place to live.
- Climate Action Also Has Economic and Health Benefits: Climate action will not disrupt our way of life, it will enhance it. It will reduce the cost of electricity and heating, reduce harmful pollution, and generate new economic opportunities for urban and rural Wisconsin by creating tens of thousands of family supporting green jobs.
- The Big Fossil Fuel Interests are Blocking Climate Action: One of the main reasons Wisconsin politicians have not acted is the political power of the big for-profit utilities who profit by continuing to burn fossil fuels, jacking up rates, and slowing down the clean energy revolution.
The Solution:
- Climate Pollution is Irreversible if We Fail to Act: If we don’t stop polluting, the climate crisis will only get worse. Because carbon pollution stays in the atmosphere for thousands of years its effects cannot be reversed.
- We Face a Climate Action Deadline. An international consensus of climate scientists tells us that the only way to prevent runaway climate change in the future is to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030.
- It is a Matter of Political Will: The climate goals are easily technologically and economically achievable, if elected leaders have the political courage to say no to big utilities.
- Wisconsin Still Lacks a Plan: Wisconsin has long term climate goals, but lacks a concrete plan that meets the urgency of the situation. Later is too late. We need less talk and more action. We need leaders who have a plan – and will get it done.
- The Climate Action Accountability Act, authored by Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde, requires Wisconsin for the first time to adopt a concrete and accountable climate action plan. Its provisions include:
- Requiring the Legislation to pass a concrete and enforceable plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, in accordance with the Paris Climate Accords and the global consensus of climate scientists.
- Requires the plan to maximize the economic benefits of climate action for all Wisconsin residents, especially people in urban and rural areas currently locked out of economic opportunities.
