When it comes to addressing the climate crisis at the global level, the U.S. has been a major roadblock. The Trump administration has consistently sided with Big Polluters, and even announced the U.S. would leave the Paris Agreement, while continuing to meddle in the global climate talks. And now, Trump has nominated a wholly unqualified person to be our ambassador to the U.N. And she’s got deep ties to the coal industry.
Kelly Knight Craft is married to the CEO of Alliance Resource Partners, one of the largest coal corporations in the Eastern U.S. And her views are, not surprisingly, in lockstep with polluting corporations. She’s parroted the oft-used talking point that she doesn’t know how much humans contribute to climate change. And recently, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emailed Mrs. Craft (who is now serving as ambassador to Canada), according to the Associated Press, the “email the EPA got back a few hours later wasn’t from the ambassador. It was from her husband, coal magnate Joseph Craft, a wealthy GOP donor who had been taking part in a months-long press by the coal industry for access and regulatory relief from the EPA and the Trump administration in general.”
We deserve an ambassador who will represent people, not coal corporations and other Big Polluters. Especially at the United Nations, where there is real and urgent need to address the climate crisis.
Take action and tell your U.S. Senators not to confirm Kelly Knight Craft as U.N. ambassador.
For years, we’ve been working shoulder-to-shoulder with Global South governments and allies organizing for climate justice to kick Big Polluters out of the U.N. climate talks. So this nomination is especially egregious.
For decades, oil, gas, and coal corporations have had armies of shills and lobbyists at these talks, pushing to protect their profits instead of addressing climate change. From where we sit, this obstruction is the single biggest obstacle to making real progress and enacting just climate policy.
And it’s clear that Kelly Knight Craft overseeing the U.S. delegation to the U.N. would give Big Polluters yet ANOTHER voice at the global climate talks.
That’s why we’re joining with Climate Hawks Vote, and a coalition of other organizations to pressure the U.S. Senate to reject Trump’s nominee. If enough of us speak out, we can stop this unqualified corporate shill from being approved as ambassador to the U.N. Take action now!
