EESI Impact 8 - November 2021 | Newsletter

What You Are Making Possible

Can't Stop Now

Regardless of what we accomplish this year in terms of climate action, we still have a lot of work to do to avoid the worst scenarios described by the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report tells us to expect global warming to continue and get worse unless “deep reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.”

There are positive developments internationally and here at home. World leaders delivered the Glasgow Climate Pact, which keeps a path open for countries to limit warming. President Biden just signed the bipartisan infrastructure bill into law, and lawmakers are inching toward passage of the Build Back Better Act.

But to realize the necessary reductions to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius or less, we need Congress to make even bigger investments to speed up an equitable transition to a decarbonized, clean energy economy. And we need to ensure a long-term federal commitment to keep making such investments, help harness new technological innovations, and enact new policies.

If you think the big investments now are hard to accomplish, wait until we get to that long-term commitment.That is why you are so important. You make possible all the briefings, fact sheets, articles, newsletters, and podcasts that policymakers and their staff rely on to make decisions. And your commitment to equitable and affordable financing helps transform federal investments into clean energy improvements that help rural households and small businesses save money.

I look forward to working together toward a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable world.

- Daniel Bresette, Executive Director

Keep Climate Action Momentum Going!

Prepared Policymakers for a Successful COP26

Distinguished speakers Sir Robert Watson (bottom left) and Christiana Figueres (top left) joined EESI on October 8 for a briefing on global sustainable development, kicking off EESI's series on what Congress needs to know ahead of this year's international climate negotiations, COP26. EESI Board member Rosina Bierbaum (bottom right) co-moderated with Executive Director Daniel Bresette. Rosina chairs the Scientific and Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility. Previously, she was a lead author of the U.S. National Climate Assessment and served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

"We are sailing in the right direction—we're incontrovertibly decarbonizing—but not quick enough. We need stronger winds to sail much quicker." -- Christiana Figueres, Former U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Founding Partner, Global Optimism

"We need major shifts in investment and regulation because they're the key to a just and informed transformation." -- Sir Robert Watson, Lead author of the U.N. Environment Programme’s report Making Peace with Nature Former Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Intern Spotlights

EESI Future Climate Leaders Scholarship

NAACP Equitable Solar Policy Principles

“What makes these principles real is that folks got together with intentionality to create system change that bends that arc towards justice and equity.”

-- Denise Abdul-Rahman, Field Organizer for the National NAACP Environmental Climate Justice Program

The high upfront cost of solar energy can limit adoption by poor communities and communities of color.

The NAACP Solar Equity Initiative was launched in 2018 to boost solar installations in communities of color and connect them to solar job training. The Equitable Solar Policy Principles were created to help guide this work.

EESI's Miguel Yañez-Barnuevo helped draft the Principles as part of the Initiative's committee.

EESI is proud to be an original signatory to the Equitable Solar Principles.

Listen to Denise discuss the Principles on EESI’s podcast, The Climate Conversation, at eesi.org/podcastNAACP

Making Clean Energy Achievable For All

The federal Rural Energy Savings Program (RESP) offers zero-percent loans to rural utilities so they can help their customers finance clean energy upgrades like better insulation, solar panels, and battery storage.

You have helped make RESP a success since its launch in 2016. To date, EESI has worked closely with 18 utilities in 12 states to develop and launch inclusive on-bill financing programs and apply for 23 RESP loans worth a total of $51 million.

Going forward, RESP will double its impact. This means $220 million or even more is likely to be available for clean energy loans in rural areas in 2022—twice as much as ever before!

Thank you for making it possible to promote affordable and equitable access to clean energy in rural communities in Alaska, Colorado, Ohio, Vermont, and (almost) everywhere in between.