Regional Effort to Combat Global Warming Must Ensure that Poor and Communities of Color Share in Benefits of New Green Economy

Published on Jul 24, 2008 - 10:44:55 AM

By: Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and California Interfaith Power & Light

July 23, 2008 - The Western Climate Initiative (WCI), a body of seven U.S. states and four Canadian provinces that is developing regional strategies to address global warming, took an important step today by releasing its draft recommendations for a regional cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions. Although we are not explicitly endorsing the creation of a cap-and-trade system, as the WCI moves forward in creating this program, it must ensure that low-income communities and communities of color share in the environmental, health, and economic benefits of the growing green economy. The following statement comes from California Interfaith Power & Light and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in response to the WCI draft recommendations:

In the absence of federal leadership, today the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) issued its draft recommendations for a global warming pollution cap-and-trade program for participating U.S. western states and Canadian provinces. Global warming presents environmental, economic, and health challenges so severe and widespread that we can no longer afford to delay addressing this issue. We applaud the WCI's efforts to work toward a solution.

In moving forward quickly and thoughtfully, the WCI must recognize that global warming often creates greater impacts and challenges in poor and underserved communities. If the WCI chooses to include a cap-and-trade program as part of a suite of measures aimed at reducing global warming pollution emissions in the West, low-income communities and communities of color must not be disproportionately impacted by pollution "hot spots." We urge the WCI to incorporate enforceable rules that would prevent the concentration of traded carbon allowances in communities suffering from the most significant exposure to air pollution. Nobel Peace Prize winning scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agree that poor and underserved communities already carry the burden of the negative impacts of global warming. We feel that the WCI should actively work to reverse this trend by positioning these communities to share in the environmental and economic benefits that will arise as we transition into a new green economy.

One of the most critical design elements of the WCI cap-and-trade program is the method of allowance distribution. The current WCI draft market design proposal lacks concrete guidelines for the distribution of allowances by allowing states to set their own rules. Instead of leaving this critical design element open to interpretation, we urge the WCI to distribute emission allowances entirely through auction, not free allocation. Giving allowances away for free would create windfall profits for polluters without generating any revenue for public purposes. Alternatively, distributing allowances through auction will ensure that polluters pay proportionally for damage done to the environment while also providing a source of revenue to fund vital services.

On the issue of vital services, the WCI's draft market design proposal addresses the importance of using the value related to greenhouse gas emission allowances for the public good. We feel that funding green jobs, green career technical education, and worker retraining programs targeting specific high poverty regions would serve an invaluable public good and contribute to the future success of the WCI. Therefore, we urge the WCI to call on member states to fund green job, green career technical education, and worker retraining programs using allowance revenues. The Cleantech Venture Network calculates that $4.8 billion in venture capital invested in California cleantech companies between 2005 and 2010 will produce 75,000 jobs over the next two decades. The WCI will no doubt spark even greater investment and job creation in all WCI partner states and provinces. However, we risk losing momentum, or worse failing, in the transition to a green economy if we do not have a properly trained workforce. With training, workers from poor and underserved communities can improve their own circumstances while also serving as the backbone of this historic transition.

The cap-and-trade program now being created by the WCI may one day serve as a model for a national program. Therefore, it is particularly crucial that the program not only create real, measurable, and permanent global warming emission reductions, but that it also be fair and equitable. Keeping this in mind, the WCI's cap-and-trade program must also:

* Strictly limit the use of emission reduction offsets.

* Distribute carbon emission allowances and revenues fairly and equitably.

* Designate a portion of revenues collected from the auction of greenhouse gas emission allowances to fund energy efficiency programs, transportation alternatives, and bill payment assistance.

* Include transportation fuels as a part of the cap-and-trade program (the WCI draft market design proposal does indeed include transportation and heating fuels as part of the cap and we urge the WCI to include this vital design element in the final market program design).

Poor and underserved communities offer vital resources-eager workers-- in the transition to a new green economy, but these communities are also at risk of being left behind. Ensuring that underserved communities share in the benefits of the transition to a new clean economy will surely bolster our success in implementing a regional and future national program to combat global warming.

Sincerely,

Ian Kim
Director of the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Susan Stephenson
Executive Director
California Interfaith Power & Light

Website:
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights: www.ellabakercenter.org
California Interfaith Power & Light: www.interfaithpower.org

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