EDITOR'S NOTE:When Gov. Inslee left the 2020 presidential race, he made his 218-page “gold standard” policy plan into an open-source document. It lives on today as the Evergreen Action Plan—a foundational document for our work. This document has not been updated since 2020.
America stands at a moment of crisis: of public health, of economic security, faith in institutions, and of the global climate. This is the moment for elected leaders to embrace a bold agenda that will confront these interrelated crises and build a better future. Success requires commitment to fact-based, science-driven policy, and investment in the public good.
As America grapples with the major health and economic consequences of this pandemic, federal leaders must also work with a long-range vision to rebuild the economy for future growth. Congress today and the next President in January must revitalize economic opportunity while taking action to stop the disastrous impact of impending crises.
The next President and Congress must launch a national mobilization at the scope and speed necessary to defeat the climate crisis, and create millions of good-paying union jobs building a more just, sustainable and inclusive clean energy economy. We have a short period of time to act. And whether we shrink from this challenge, or rise to it, will define America’s future. The next President and Congress must make defeating the climate crisis and building a clean energy economy a top priority. And current federal lawmakers should look for every opportunity to make a down payment in this agenda.
As we recover and rebuild from the economic collapse created by global pandemic, and our government’s failure to respond, this agenda provides enormous opportunity for economic revitalization: rebuilding infrastructure, growing manufacturing and innovation, protecting workers and front-line communities, and restoring American leadership and global standing.
This was the driving force behind Governor Jay Inslee’s presidential campaign, which put forward a comprehensive and actionable “Climate Mission” for the next President and Congress. At the end of that campaign, Gov. Inslee offered his 6-part, 218-page plan as an open-source document for any candidate or elected leader to use. Following in that spirit, this team has adapted and updated the Climate Mission Agenda into a 12-part climate action plan for federal lawmakers: The Evergreen Action Plan.
Our challenge is very clear: To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the global community must cut greenhouse gas pollution approximately in half by 2030, and achieve global net-zero pollution by mid-century, according to a 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Implementing this Evergreen Action Plan will help ensure that America meets these targets and leads the world in defeating the climate crisis. As the world’s largest historical emitter of climate pollution, and the global leader in technology innovation, America should be among the first to achieve that net-zero target, as fast as possible and well before mid-century.
The Evergreen Action Plan offers a comprehensive program that catalyzes trillions in investment over the next decade into clean energy technology, new infrastructure, and climate solutions. Through bold federal investments and high standards for private markets, these policies will leverage trillions more from the private sector to create millions of high-quality union jobs. The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it more clear than ever before that we must rebuild our economy in response to the clear demands of science. True recovery will come through intelligent, fact-based leadership focused on the future and grounded in growth, opportunity and inclusion.
This plan is built on this team’s decades of direct experience advancing ambitious climate policy, and is inspired by modern-day movements fighting for urgent climate action. It is informed by the clean energy successes of state and local governments, as well as past federal progress, and by the ambitious investment vision of a Green New Deal, the bottom-up organizing of environmental justice organizers, front-line communities, and the grassroots leaders fighting against fossil fuel corporations and their pollution. It synthesizes the original Inslee campaign Climate Mission Agenda into twelve planks.