Keeling Curve

Primary Project Category:

Secondary Project Category:

Project Summary / Description:

We are running out of time to change the course of global warming. Navigating the largest energy revolution since the emergence of electric utilities will shape our collective future. Although scientists have known for more than a century that burning fossil fuels would warm our atmosphere, people have prioritized profit and convenience over preservation. Temperature increases must be kept below 1.5¬∞ to 2¬∞ Celsius to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change. To achieve this, WRA is acting strategically and efficiently to maximize opportunities and investments in clean energy‚Äîfrom eliminating the burning of fossil fuels and introducing new clean-energy technologies to carbon capture and modernizing the electric grid. WRA launched the Climate Fix in 2018 to reduce carbon pollution from the West‚ power sector 40% below 2016 levels by 2030. Since then, WRA has emerged as the leading architect of change in transitioning the West‚ power sector to clean energy through designing and implementing energy policy and working directly with utilities to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. Due to the success we‚ ve seen thus far, we have increased our goal for cutting carbon emissions from the region‚ power sector to 60% below 2016 by 2030, the equivalent of 105 million tons of reductions annually.

Regions of Operations:

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

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

It is no secret that the conservation movement has regularly failed historically marginalized groups. Over the last four years, WRA has gained a deeper understanding of how social inequalities threaten both lives and livelihoods through societal movements like Black Lives Matter and our own organizational DEI efforts. There is also a long history in the West of systemic and societal inequitable treatment of Indigenous populations that was often genocidal. Contemporary Indigenous, Black, and other people of color have to a large degree been excluded from decision-making where conservation policies are designed and advanced, which has had an continues to have a detrimental effect on both many aspects of their lives and equitable progress. WRA leverages its policy and advocacy expertise to integrate and drive conservation equity by working in partnership with those most impacted by policies of the past, developing solutions that affirmatively benefit disproportionally impacted communities, and by becoming a more inclusive and diverse organization. As an organization, WRA‚ key strategies are to recruit and retain diverse staff, board members, and partners; use our unique policy expertise to integrate equity into the policies and outcomes we advance; and proactively seek and engage partners who have been and continue to be disproportionally affected by climate change.
WRA recognizes that climate justice cannot occur without a rapid reduction in carbon emissions that are causing climate change and its impacts. By advancing and implementing policies that reduce carbon pollution as quickly as possible, our impact also reduces the harms of climate change borne by communities of color and low-income families. WRA crafts its decarbonization policies in ways that center equity and advance inclusivity.

Sub-Categories: