Calling for 'Climate President,' 500+ Groups Demand Next Administration Take Immediate Action

Over 500 groups on Monday rolled out an an action plan for the next president’s first days of office to address the climate emergency and set the nation on a transformative path towards zero emissions and a just transition in their first days in office.

“Swift action to confront the climate emergency has to start the moment the next president enters the Oval Office,” said attorney Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.

The set of 10 actions, which together “form the necessary foundation for the country’s true transformation to a safer, healthier, and more equitable world for everyone,” are featured on the new Climate President website.  The actions—which “touch the lives of every person living in America and those beyond who are harmed by the climate crisis”—can all be taken by the president without Congressional, thus can, and should, happen immediately, the document argues. 

The new effort is convened by advocacy groups representing a range of issues, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Climate Justice Alliance, Democracy Collaborative, and Labor Network for Sustainability. Other backers include Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and Dēmos.

The groups’ roadmap kicks off with a demand for the next president to declare a national climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act. It includes a demand to direct “relevant federal agencies to reverse all Trump administration executive climate rollbacks and replace with sufficiently strong action.”

Asserting authority the National Emergencies Act, Siegel and Center for Biological Diversity energy director Jean Su wrote in a legal analysis supporting the action plan, is necessary in order for the next president to reinstate the crude oil export ban and redirect “military spending towards the construction of clean renewable energy projects and infrastructure.”

Declaring a climate emergency, the analysis adds, would also “set the appropriate tone of urgency for climate action.”

The other nine steps for the nation’s next leader to take within their first 10 days of office are, as noted in the document:

• Keep fossil fuels in the ground.
• Stop fossil fuel exports and infrastructure approval.
• Shift financial flows from fossil fuels to climate solutions.
• Use the Clean Air Act to set a science- based national pollution cap for greenhouse pollutants.
• Power the electricity sector with 100% clean and renew-able energy by 2030 and promote energy democracy.
• Launch a just transition to protect our communities, workers, and economy.
• Advance Climate Justice: Direct federal agencies to assess and mitigate environmental harms to disproportionately impacted Indigenous Peoples, People and Communities of Color, and low-wealth communities.
• Make polluters pay: Investigate and prosecute fossil fuel polluters for the damages they have caused. Commit to veto all legislation that grants legal immunity for polluters, undermines existing environmental laws, or advances false solutions.
• Rejoin the Paris Agreement and lead with science-based commitments that ensure that the United States, as the world’s largest cumulative historical emitter, contributes its fair share and advances climate justice.