FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, April 22, 2021
With U.S. on Path to Reclaiming Global Leadership on Climate, Utah Organizations Celebrate the Gathering of International Leaders for President Biden’s Climate Summit
Climate Summit Follows Historic Commitments by the Biden Administration to Address the Climate Crisis and Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement
Salt Lake City, Utah — Today, as we celebrate Earth Day, President Biden is convening global leaders from the world’s major economies and galvanizing efforts to tackle the climate crisis and significantly reduce air pollution during this decade in order to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Many Utahns are optimistic that the Summit will be a catalyst for climate action in the U.S. that will cut pollution, create jobs, expand clean energy and protect public health.
The Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance (MESA), Healthy Environmental Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah) and the Utah Sierra Club Chapter are a coalition representing diverse communities and interests working together to promote a just, equitable, resilient and prosperous future, with a concerted focus on climate change.
The two-day Leaders Summit on Climate follows historic commitments by the Biden administration to address the climate crisis and set ambitious climate pollution reduction goals per the new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Climate Agreement.
“This Earth Day summit seems enormously consequential,” says founding MESA Board member Soren Simonsen. “We are inspired by the courage, conviction and commitment of advocates from around the world and across the political spectrum who are engaged in finding swift, reasonable, appropriate and sustainable solutions to the climate crisis and other enormous environmental challenges of our time.”
The President’s commitment to building back better and hosting the global Summit within his first 100 days of office underscores his goal of returning the U.S. to a position of global climate leadership.
“For over twenty years, HEAL Utah has taken on the state's biggest environmental threats to our health. But we are now facing the threat of climate change which can't be solved locally or even nationally. This summit will help the U.S. get back on track as an international partner in the significant and rapid steps that are needed to slow the rate of global warming and climate change,” said HEAL Utah Executive Director Scott Williams.
During the Summit, President Biden will call on other nations to commit to invest in clean energy technology and infrastructure and global climate action. By returning the U.S. to a position of global climate leadership, President Biden is setting a course for a clean energy future and committing to ambitious action to tackle the climate crisis and create good-paying jobs here at home.
President Biden’s American Jobs Plan invests more than $2 trillion over the next eight years – including more than $620 billion in improvements to transform our transportation infrastructure. These investments will create millions of new jobs across the country. President Biden has also made a commitment to environmental justice by directing that 40% of the benefits from these investments are directed to disadvantaged communities.
"Biden's plan is the type of big, bold vision needed to ensure everyone can not only survive, but thrive in our country. At this moment we must remain vigilant in moving a package forward that centers equity, justice, and climate action across all investments. And we must hold this effort to the most stringent of standards to begin the necessary transformation that would dismantle systemic racism and economic inequities in our country," said Carly Ferro, director of the Sierra Club’s Utah Chapter.
ABOUT OUR COALITION:
Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance: The Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance (MESA) is an independent nonprofit organization, not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are a community of Latter-day Saints, friends and supporters, who find faith-affirming work in caring and advocating for environmental stewardship and conservation efforts that improve society and our relationship toward the natural world that sustains all life. We strive to work in a manner consistent with this statement of principle by the president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M. Nelson: “As beneficiaries of the divine Creation, what shall we do? We should care for the earth, be wise stewards over it, and preserve it for future generations. And we are to love and care for one another.” For more information, visit mesastewardship.org.
HEAL Utah: The Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah) has been an environmental advocacy organization, watchdog, and strategic influencer in Utah since 1999. By empowering grassroots advocates, using science-based solutions, and developing common-sense policy, HEAL has a track record of tackling some of the biggest threats to Utah’s environment and public health — and succeeding. The organization focuses on clean air, energy and climate, and radioactive waste. HEAL uses well-researched legislative, regulatory, and individual responsibility approaches to create tangible change, and then utilizes grassroots action to make it happen. For more information visit healutah.org.
Utah Sierra Club: As the Utah Chapter of the national Sierra Club, the largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the U.S., together for over 126 years we have been working in Utah since 1969 to shape the way people can participate in local, state, and national advocacy and policy work.In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information visit sierraclub.org/utah.
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