Doubling Down on Environmental Justice: All of Us Will Lead

As advocates who accompany communities around the world as they seek to defend their human and environmental rights, Accountability Counsel condemns in the strongest possible terms the Trump administration’s stated attempt to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. The Trump administration’s galling failure to defend this historic agreement to confront climate change both undermines American leadership and is inspiring a global commitment to new forms of environmental action. We note that even as American political leaders leave the negotiating table, defenders of environmental rights, activists from around the world, many major corporations, and the political leaders of nearly every other country on earth remain committed to the principles of the Paris accord.

This move will reinforce what we’re already seeing that gives us hope: grassroots communities organizing in the United States and abroad, cities and states taking on stronger regulation of polluters, corporations voluntarily working to reduce emissions, and the governments of China and the EU stepping up their commitments.

At the same time, threats to communities from environmental hazards, exacerbated by climate change, have never been greater. Communities on the margins, struggling for economic justice, are among the most vulnerable and least able to adapt to these hazards. We stand with them in calling for all economic powers to take bold action to curb the effects of climate change, which threaten ecosystems, homes, livelihoods, and lives.

We are part of this movement. We stand in support of communities we accompany as they seek justice for violations of their environmental rights — Liberians who fight industrial water contamination and deforestation, Kenyans who are calling for renewable energy over coal-fired power plants, and indigenous communities in southern Mexico who work to protect their waterways. Accountability Counsel stands in solidarity with a movement that will only grow with the urgency of our global crisis.

Filling the void of U.S. leadership, there are billions of people activating to take action on climate change, justice, and our future, into our own hands. We hope you join this movement, as it belongs to all of us.