For decades, Big Polluters like the fossil fuel industry have knowingly fueled the climate crisis, funded climate denial, and blocked just climate solutions — all while profiting at the expense of communities of color in the US and people across the Global South who are least responsible for the climate crisis. And right now, we are at a critical juncture.
We continuously see how multiple crises converge to expose deeply broken systems and made plain the connections between corporate power, systemic racism, oppressive patriarchy, and the climate crisis. For far too long, these broken systems have enabled, even encouraged, polluting industries to get away with destroying the planet and harming countless people’s lives and livelihoods, just so they can continue to reap profits.
The time to act is now. And the great news is momentum is on our side because increasingly, it is people like you who have the power to demand systemic changes that will get at the heart of addressing the climate crisis. Can you commit to taking action that shifts power away from polluting corporations and into the hands of people?
Why be a part of the Corporate Accountability Climate Rapid Response team?
The climate crisis is fundamentally a crisis of inequity. From building pipelines on Indigenous lands to refusing to be held accountable for environmental destruction and ecocide, polluting industries have long been complicit in intensifying the climate crisis by upholding systemic and environmental racism in Black, Indigenous, and brown communities all across the world.
Chevron and Texaco in Ecuador. BP in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell in Nigeria. The corporations we are up against exploit the systemic racism of our society as a tool to profit at any cost. And in the United States, Chevron continues to pollute in places like Richmond, California — a city whose population is overwhelmingly Black and brown, and where heart disease and cancer rates are far higher in close proximity to its oil refineries than anywhere else.
Historically, the communities that are on the frontlines of climate change and have done little to cause the crisis are those who have borne the brunt of the human rights abuses and environmental destruction that Big Polluters cause. At the same time, these communities have also long been on the forefront of challenging Big Polluters like the fossil fuel industry, and hold the just and equitable solutions we need to address the climate crisis. Some of these solutions are laid out in the People’s Demands for Climate Justice and the Liability Roadmap — tools that can help decision-makers hold polluting corporations liable for the damage they knowingly cause to people and the planet at the local, national, and international levels.
This is why we are putting our power behind a global and unified call to make Big Polluters pay. Cities, countries, and communities who have done next to nothing to cause climate change — especially those in the Global South — should not be paying for the damage they are already enduring and will be facing in the coming years. And you can be an important part of changing the course of the climate crisis.
What am I pledging to do?
Corporate Accountability has a proven track record of taking on corporate power and a 40-year history of mobilizing grassroots actions to create lasting changes. But these victories would not have been possible without the collaboration of hundreds of thousands of people like you, mobilizing strategically and courageously together to challenge corporate power.
As a member of our Climate Rapid Response team, you will:
- Organize people and/or decision-makers in your community to make Big Polluters pay
- Attend or lead climate organizing trainings and webinars
- Call, write to, or meet with elected officials to advance climate justice
- Monitor instances of corporate abuse and climate injustice in your communities that will help inform our campaigning
- Strategize with us on ways to most effectively advance climate justice in your state or city
And more! You’ll be receiving updates from our climate organizers and be part of a growing movement for climate justice. From Minnesota to Washington D.C. to Nigeria and Vanuatu, communities from all across the United States and the world are increasingly demanding for Big Polluters to be held responsible for their actions and abuses.
It’s not too late for us to seek justice. Together we can advance real climate justice, and help build a just and liberated world for all.
