Keeling Curve

Primary Project Category:

Project Summary / Description:

In 2007, Citizens‚ Climate founder Marshall Saunders was touring the west coast giving Al Gore‚ An Inconvenient Truth presentation. At one presentation, an elderly woman stood up and said alright, we‚ re terrified. What can we do? When Marshall responded we need a peaceful army of advocates asking for a national climate solution with one unified voice, he decided to found the first chapter in San Francisco. From there, chapters have been spread through person to person coalition building, and there are now 464 chapters covering 91% of US congressional districts and an additional 103 chapters spanning 65 other countries.

Country or Countries of Operation:

United States

Afghanistan

Albania

Algeria

Andorra

Angola

Anguilla

Antigua & Barbuda

Argentina

Armenia

Aruba

Australia

Austria

Azerbaijan

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belarus

Belgium

Belize

Benin

Bermuda

Bhutan

Bolivia

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Botswana

Brazil

British Virgin Islands

Brunei

Bulgaria

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cambodia

Cameroon

Canada

Cape Verde

Cayman Islands

Central African Republic

Chad

Chile

China

Colombia

Comoros

Congo

Cook Islands

Costa Rica

Cote D Ivoire

Croatia

Cruise Ship

Cuba

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Democratic Republic of Congo

Denmark

Djibouti

Dominica

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

Egypt

El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Estonia

Ethiopia

Falkland Islands

Faroe Islands

Fiji

Finland

France

French Polynesia

French West Indies

Gabon

Gambia

Georgia

Germany

Ghana

Gibraltar

Greece

Greenland

Grenada

Guam

Guatemala

Guernsey

Guinea

Guinea Bissau

Guyana

Haiti

Honduras

Hong Kong

Hungary

Iceland

India

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Ireland

Isle of Man

Israel

Italy

Jamaica

Japan

Jersey

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Kenya

Kuwait

Kyrgyz Republic

Laos

Latvia

Lebanon

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Macau

Macedonia

Madagascar

Malawi

Malaysia

Maldives

Mali

Malta

Marshall Islands

Mauritania

Mauritius

Mexico

Micronesia

Moldova

Monaco

Mongolia

Montenegro

Montserrat

Morocco

Mozambique

Myanmar

Namibia

Nauru

Nepal

Netherlands

Netherlands Antilles

New Caledonia

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Niger

Nigeria

North Korea

Norway

Oman

Pakistan

Palau

Palestine

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Puerto Rico

Qatar

Reunion

Romania

Russia

Rwanda

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Samoa

San Marino

Sao Tome and Principe

Satellite

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Serbia

Seychelles

Sierra Leone

Singapore

Slovakia

Slovenia

Solomon Islands

Somalia

South Africa

South Korea

South Sudan

Spain

Sri Lanka

St Kitts; Nevis

St Vincent

Sudan

Suriname

Swaziland

Sweden

Switzerland

Syria

Taiwan

Tajikistan

Tanzania

Thailand

Timor L'Este

Togo

Tonga

Trinidad & Tobago

Tunisia

Turkey

Turkmenistan

Tuvalu

Uganda

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom

Uruguay

Uzbekistan

Vanuatu

Venezuela

Vietnam

Virgin Islands (US)

Yemen

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Regions of Operations:

How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Citizens' Climate (composed of two separate organizations, 501c3 Citizens' Climate Education and 501c4 Citizens' Climate Lobby) coordinates a nationwide coalition of 210,000+ supporters in order to build the political will for durable policy solutions at the state and federal level. Our policy objectives are clean energy permitting reform, healthy forests, carbon pricing, and building electrification and efficiency.

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

We believe that establishing inclusive and equitable climate solutions will require input from a wide range of voices. Citizens‚ Climate‚ commitment to diversity is best exemplified through its diversity value statement: We empower everyone in exercising their personal and political power regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, ability or political affiliation. This is exemplified through a new aggressive DEI strategic plan that was approved by the board in November 2019. 

Citizens‚ Climate is deeply committed to long-term capacity building efforts to demographically diversifying its nationwide constituency. To ensure a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive coalition, Citizens‚ Climate strategically focuses its outreach efforts to better engage people of color and political conservatives, with an intersectional focus on youth. Moreover, Citizens‚ Climate seeks to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the entire organizational structure, with special attention given to volunteer leadership, board members, and staff. 

Citizens‚ Climate recognizes that people of color are disproportionately affected by the negative impacts of climate change and face greater risk in the implementation of inequitably designed policies. Moreover, research shows that people of color are among the biggest advocates for climate action, yet are still underrepresented in environmental organizations and sidelined by the climate movement as a whole. In order to redress this injustice, Citizens‚ Climate has hired a Diversity Outreach Manager and a Diversity Outreach Coordinator focused on outreach to communities of color, offered scholarships for people of color to attend the international conference, developed diversity fellowships for young professionals, and offered racial sensitivity training to all Citizens‚ Climate volunteers and staff. 

Citizens‚ Climate is also committed to engaging political conservatives because we acknowledge that climate solutions will not be implemented quickly nor survive inevitable political fluctuations unless 1) climate change becomes a bipartisan issue and 2) political conservatives begin exercising meaningful leadership on climate action. In pursuit of this goal, Citizens‚ Climate has hired a conservative outreach director, begun a bipartisan meet in the middle marketing campaign, and hired conservative outreach fellows in several majority-conservative states. 

Our commitment to diversity is also illustrated intersectionality throughout all departments within the organization. For example, at the 10th international Citizens‚ Climate June conference in 2019, the event planners made a commitment that every break out session would feature at least one woman or person of color on their panel. Furthermore, the Marketing and Communications Teams are committed to regularly featuring people of color and conservatives in their work. The creators of the Citizens‚ Climate blog makes sure that people of color or conservatives are featured in at least one blog post per week, our weekly podcast is committed to featuring at least one person of color or conservative every month, and speakers on the national monthly call are frequently accomplished people of color, conservatives, and women. 

Moreover, Citizens‚ Climate recognizes the absolute need to improve organizational diversity on every level, including its own leadership. The organization is therefore in the process of actively working to diversify its boards and staff. Currently, 57% of governing board members identify as women, 28% identify as a person of color, and 15% are under the age of 40. On CCE‚ advisory board, 25% of members identify as a person of color.

Sub-Categories:

Mission Statement:

Citizens’ Climate exists to build political will for a livable world by enabling individual breakthroughs in the exercise of personal and political power. We envision a diverse, well-informed citizenry so actively engaged in the legislative process that effective and equitable climate change policies have the momentum to be enacted, regardless of the political party in power.

Greatest Current Funding Need: