Number: 2016-04
WHEREAS, human-caused climate change caused by burning fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas is a massive threat facing our nation’s wildlife, habitat, waterways, lands, societal health, and way of life; and
WHEREAS, scientists are telling us that to avert the most dangerous impacts from climate change requires deep decarbonization of the global energy system to limit Earth’s temperature rise to below 2°C, and ideally to 1.5°C; and
WHEREAS, achieving deep carbon reductions requires a rapid shift away from fossil fuels to cleaner renewable energy, greater efficiency, and new energy technologies; and
WHEREAS, at the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting (COP21) in Paris, the United States and 194 other countries committed, individually, to significant carbon reduction goals for the coming years that ramp up over time; and
WHEREAS, the electrical energy markets in the United States have already begun to shift dramatically away from coal generation to natural gas, renewables, and greater efficiency, and that is a major factor in the rapid economic decline and value of the coal industry; and
WHEREAS, communities that rely on fossil fuel industries as their primary source of employment are economically disadvantaged during a clean energy transition; and
WHEREAS, communities that currently rely on fossil fuel industries and particularly coal are also likely to see the negative impacts of environmental degradation, habitat destruction, water contamination and other impacts resulting from years of coal mining and failures to reclaim mined land; and
WHEREAS, such a transition will result in job losses in the fossil fuel industry, but greater job creation in the clean energy industry, though not necessarily in the same localities; and
WHEREAS, reclamation of mine sites and other clean up needs may provide employment opportunities during a transition time in these communities; and
WHEREAS, that a fair and just transition requires management, planning, investments, and policies needed to offset job loss, spur sustainable economic development, retrain workers, honor pensions and healthcare obligations, and generally improve livelihoods in communities disadvantaged by the fossil fuel industry and the rapid shift to a sustainable low-carbon economy.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, in its Annual Meeting assembled June 16-18, 2016 in Estes Park, Colorado, calls for federal and state policies and investments that facilitate a fair, just, and sustainable transition for communities that rely primarily on fossil fuel industries for employment; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation calls on Congress and appropriate federal agencies to invest in negatively impacted communities to facilitate a fair and just transition from fossil fuels, through legislation and policies which would accelerate federal funding into coal mining communities for economic development and reclamation of impacted areas.