The Green Party of the United States today slammed President Biden and Congressional Democrats for apparently agreeing to slash funding for fighting climate change in their “Build Back Better Plan” to $30 billion a year. That figure amounts to 1/25 of the budget for the U.S. military, the world’s biggest consumer of oil.

Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Contact:

Michael O’Neil, Communications Manager, [email protected], 202-804-2758
Diana C. Brown, Co-chair, Media Committee, [email protected], 202-804-2758
Philena Farley, Co-chair, Media Committee, [email protected], 202-804-2758
Mark Dunlea, Co-Chair, EcoAction Committee, [email protected], 518 860-3725

The Greens also criticized the Democrats for scaling back investments in social and economic programs needed to help Americans recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and for failing to address income inequality and immigration reform. The Green Party said the Republicans’ position is even worse, as they continue to deny the reality of climate change and block funding on climate action or social improvements.

“The United Nations and the IPCC have repeatedly sounded the alarm that time is rapidly running out for the radical action needed to prevent climate collapse. But President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Schumer are more interested in coddling Senator Manchin and his donations from and investments in fossil fuels than they are in providing the chance of a decent future for Americans,” said 2021 Green Party candidate Kearni Warren, who is running for the City Council of Chester, PA. Since Manchin has been in the Senate, he has made more than $5 million from his investments in coal.

The Green Party, which began calling for a Green New Deal in 2010, has advocated for $2.7 trillion in annual funding in solutions for the climate crisis while eliminating the false climate solutions promoted by the Democrats such as carbon capture technology, biomass and nuclear. Even mainstream climate groups allied with the Democrats, like the Sierra Club, have cited the need for at least $1 trillion a year in climate funding.

Senator Schumer has allowed Manchin to remain as head of the Senate Energy committee, raking in donations from the fossil fuel industry, while Manchin has sought to undercut climate action at every step. The Green Party said Schumer should bring a robust funding package for climate and social investments up for a vote and force Senators Manchin and Sinema to vote on it.

“Biden claims he wants to be a climate president and yet, for the ten months he has been in office, he has refused to declare a climate emergency and issue Executive Orders to take critical action on this crisis. Instead of a full-scale mobilization of the country’s resources to respond to the escalating damage from extreme weather, Biden has retreated on his pledges to take climate action. For instance, during his first six months his administration approved more than 2,500 leases to drill for oil and gas on public lands. He also signed off on allowing the Line 3 pipeline to move forward,” stated Connor Mulvaney, Green Party candidate for Pittsburgh City Council (District 4). The Green Party has endorsed the package of climate executive orders proposed by ClimatePresident.org.

The Greens said the disastrous performance of Biden and Congressional Democrats further erode America’s ability to push other industrial, polluting nations to take action at what many are calling the “last chance COP”. World leaders will gather in Glasgow starting November 1 to update provisions of the Paris climate accords.

“COP26 is viewed as the most significant climate summit to date because its agenda hopes to get binding national commitments to carbon emission reductions that are big enough to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius. COP26 also seeks bigger commitments from rich countries to fund climate programs in the poor countries. While Democrats promote net zero by 2050, the reality is emission cuts must be made sooner in order to avoid climate collapse. The U.S. should aim to hit zero emissions much closer to 2030 than 2050,” said Howie Hawkins, the Green Party nominee for President in 2020.

The Greens said the U.S. should dramatically increase its commitment to funding international aid from the rich G20 countries to the poor countries to compensate for the climate damages that G20 emissions have already imposed. Aid must also help poor countries build their own clean renewable energy infrastructures.

“We should demand these U.S. climate investments in poor countries not only as climate justice reparations for damages we imposed, but also as investments in the habitability of the whole planet that will benefit all of us,” Hawkins added.

The EcoAction Committee of the Green Party is organizing in support of the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice called for November 6 by the COP26 Coalition. The Obama administration was one of the major obstacles to effective climate action at both the 2015 COP meeting in Paris and 2009 in Copenhagen, and then the Trump administration rescinded U.S. involvement in the accords. Yahoo News recently published a report titled “Why the U.S. Lags Behind Europe on Climate Goals by 10 or 15 years,” which documents how the United States has not only failed to lead the world on the climate crisis but has actually been the main culprit blocking timely collective action to head off a global, existential crisis.

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