Climate Accountability Act

Why Climate Change Matters:

• 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 Creates Economic Opportunity and Improves Health: Climate action if done right will not disrupt our way of life, it will enhance it. It will lower the cost of living by reducing 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 unionized family-supporting green jobs.

 

Why Large Scale Climate Action is Urgent:

• The Climate Has Already Changed for the Worse: 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 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. 
• 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.

 

Structural Barriers: What is Blocking Action?

• Wisconsin Still Lacks a Plan: Wisconsin has long term climate goals, but lacks a concrete plan that meets the urgency of the situation.
• The Big Fossil Fuel Interests are Blocking Action: One of the main reasons Wisconsin politicians have not acted is the political power of the big utilities who profit by continuing to burn fossil fuels and build new fossil fuel plants, jacking up rates, and slowing down the clean energy revolution.
• 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. 

 

The Solution: The Climate Accountability Act

• The Climate Accountability Act, Assembly Bill 145/Senate Bill 150, authored by Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde and Senator Chris Larson, requires Wisconsin for the first time to adopt an accountable climate action plan. Its provisions include:
• Requiring the Legislature 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.
• Call your State Legislators and ask them to Co-Sponsor The Climate Accountability Act.
• Call your State Assembly Representative and ask them to co-sponsor Assembly Bill 145
• Call your State Senator and ask them to co-sponsor Senate Bill 150

 

Additional message guidance on how to tell a good climate story see here. For Citizen Action’s Strategy and Theory of Change see Explainers on Radical Pragmatism and Agenda Setting see here.

To join our organizing fighting climate change, contact: Kat.Klawes@citizenactionwi.org