The Shriver Brief : Poverty Law Commentary & Insights : Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law : Affordable Housing, Healthcare Reform

Co-authored by: Lissa Domoracki and Carrie Gilbert

[Part 4 in the Shriver Center’s series on Climate Change and Low-Income Communities.]

Climate change and policies to combat it are subjects that have yet to appear on the radar screens of low-income people and their advocates. It is essential that this hands-off attitude change quickly since Congress has already started to make momentous decisions that will dramatically affect low-income people and communities for decades to come. At the end of this article we will tell you how you can get involved.   

Climate change has a disproportionately negative impact on low-income communities. These populations bear the brunt of the physical changes, such as dangerously high temperatures, yet they lack the resources to combat them. Additionally, the transition to renewable energy sources will increase consumer costs, crippling the purchasing power of low-income people unless adequate and appropriately targeted consumer relief is provided. Climate change legislation must protect low-income families and individuals from these harmful effects. In addition, climate change legislation must guarantee that low-income people can access the jobs and economic opportunities created by the new green economy.

This past June the House of Representatives took a significant step by passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454). H.R. 2454 addresses key climate change issues by proposing the establishment of a cap and trade system for carbon emissions as well as the implementation of heightened emissions, efficiency, and renewable energy standards. It also provides adequate levels of consumer relief to protect low-income people from increased costs and provides the access to green jobs that is needed.  

Senator Kerry, the Senate’s leader on climate change issues, predicts spring passage of climate change legislation.  Currently, there are several proposals on the table in the Senate:

• The Clean Energy Jobs & American Power Act, S. 1733, sponsored by Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Boxer (D-CA), which has already emerged from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
• The Carbon Limits and Energy for American Renewal bill filed by Senators Cantwell (D-WA) and Collins (R-ME).
• The “tripartisan” “Framework for Climate Action and Energy Independence in the U.S. Senate” recently unveiled by Senators Kerry (D-MA), Graham (R-SC), and Lieberman (I-CT), outlining their efforts to move forward in pursuit of climate change legislation. 
• The Clean Energy Act of 2009, sponsored by Senators Alexander (R-TN) and Webb (D-VA), which focuses primarily on the development of nuclear energy.
• A power-plant focused bill introduced by Senators Voinovich (R-OH) and Lugar (R-IN).

Days before the conference in Copenhagen, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared carbon and several other greenhouse gases health hazards under the Clean Air Act. With this declaration, the EPA signaled its intent to implement and enforce regulations on carbon emissions, if necessary. The EPA regulations would be much less flexible than the market-based solutions currently under debate in Congress, and are generally viewed as a “second-choice” plan to combat climate change if the effort to pass legislation fails.           

As negotiations continue, we all must do our part to ensure that the resulting climate bill reduces carbon emissions enough to reverse the effects of climate change while at the same time providing adequate consumer protection for low-income households and meaningful assurances that low-income and minority individuals will benefit from the job opportunities that emerge out of this country’s new green economy. 

Click here to see the letter the Shriver Center recently sent to Senator Durbin (D-IL) urging him to support sufficient reductions in carbon emissions, adequate consumer relief, and job opportunities for low-income and minority individuals in the ongoing negotiations. We sent a similar letter to Senator Burris (D-IL).

Over the crucial next few months, the Shriver Center will continue its efforts to ensure that comprehensive climate change legislation becomes law and that such legislation adequately addresses the needs and concerns of low-income people and communities. We invite you to join us in this effort. If you would like to be kept apprised of advocacy opportunities, including possible group sign-on letters, please contact Carrie Gilbert (CarrieGilbert@povertylaw.org) or Lissa Domoracki (LissaDomoracki@povertylaw.org). 

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 [Part 3 in the Shriver Center’s series on Climate Change and Low-Income Communities.]

After a chaotic two weeks, the 15th United Nations Climate Conference concluded on December 19th with a joint statement of intention that is not legally binding but nonetheless addresses the major global climate change issues and establishes a framework for future negotiations.   The agreement was negotiated by five key nations – the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa – and then approved by the vast majority of the 193 nations that participated in the conference. 

President Obama, who personally negotiated the terms of the final agreement, called it “an unprecedented breakthrough” while acknowledging that it is only a “modest step” in the right direction. 

The agreement sets up a flow of financing for poor countries to adapt to climate change, with the U.S. pledging to pay its share towards increasing this fund to $100 billion a year by 2020.  The agreement also provides a system for major carbon-emitting nations to monitor and report their progress towards meeting national pollution reduction goals, an issue that had been a major sticking point with China.

On the other hand, the agreement contains no firm medium or long term targets for each nation’s greenhouse gas emissions reductions.  Moreover, the overall goal of limiting global temperature increase to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, which would require deep cuts in climate-altering emissions, would not, according to the nations most vulnerable to the physical effects of climate change, be sufficient to ensure their survival.  And, scientists warned that even if the nations of the world achieved this collective goal it would still not be enough to reliably avert the risks of disruptive changes in rainfall and drought, ecosystems and polar ice cover from global warming.

As for the future of global climate change negotiations and agreements, the next UN conference will take place in Mexico City in November 2010, approximately one year from now.  However, the joint statement of intention that concluded the Copenhagen conference did not include a commitment to reach a binding legal agreement by the Mexico City conference, as many had hoped it would.  There are also strong signs that given the unwieldy nature of trying to include 193 nations in the negotiations, future climate change agreements may be negotiated by the roughly 30 countries responsible for 90 percent of the world’s carbon emissions outside of the UN process.

Whether the commitments President Obama made in Copenhagen will be kept hinges on Congressional action later this spring.  As we have just seen with the national health care debate, if the Republicans in the Senate remain unified in opposition, and all signs are that they will, passing such legislation will be very difficult.  In addition, regulating carbon emissions has sharply different regional impacts, complicating the political process.  In spite of these obstacles, Sen. Kerry, the Senate’s leader on climate change issues, predicts spring passage of the necessary legislation, which has already passed in the House.  

Climate change and policies to combat it are subjects that have not yet appeared on the radar screens of low-income people and their advocates. It is essential that this hands-off attitude change very quickly since Congress has already started to make momentous decisions that will dramatically affect low-income people and communities for decades to come. Look for our upcoming blog regarding work at the Congressional level and how you can get more involved.

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