Democracy Collaborative

 

Dear Colleague, It’s been nearly two weeks since government leaders and climate activists dispersed from the COP26 international climate change conference in Glasgow, and we find ourselves still sorting through the question of what all of the earnest speeches and resolutions accomplished. Getting the right answer to that question matters. Fortunately, The Democracy Collaborative has at its disposal three of the best people around to make that assessment. Board member Charles McNeill was actually at COP26—the 26th “Conference of the Parties” of the United Nations Climate Change Conference—as senior advisor for the UN Environment Programme. Longtime senior fellow and environmental movement leader Gus Speth has an intimate understanding of the issues and political dynamics of these conferences. Carla Santos Skandier, director of our climate and energy program, is a leader in the effort to replace the fossil fuel economy with one that is both sustainable and just.  We asked Charles and Gus about their impressions of COP26 and what should come next, and asked Carla how COP26 affected her thinking about the work we have ahead of us. Here are their answers, edited for brevity. (We’ve published their answers in full on our website.)  What is your assessment of what was (and was not) accomplished during COP26? Charles McNeill: In COP26, the dynamism, creativity, and impact of civil society engagements in and outside the Glasgow negotiating area were beyond anything I have seen before. I was particularly encouraged by the “Glasgow Leaders Pledge on Forests and Land Use”—by 127 countries covering over 90% of the world’s forests—to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade. Although we saw the first-ever reference to “loss and damage” in a COP outcome, It was disappointing that in spite of developed countries’ historic responsibility for the climate crisis there were no firm commitments nor a mechanism to channel those funds to developing countries. Although we are closing in on the goal (or limiting global warming to 1.5˚ C, we are moving much too slowly in view of the massive suffering that has already started in our world at 1.1 ˚ C warmer than pre-industrial times. Gus Speth: These annual COP events are like huge souks with a thousand little stalls with vendors selling their solutions, inventions, findings and results, promises, and more. And all this gets bigger and bigger as the crisis grows. All that is for the good. But the COPs are also supposed to lead to binding intergovernmental agreements to reduce GHG emissions on a firm schedule, and that is the one thing they seem incapable of doing. I would not say that the 26 COPs were a waste of time, but they sure have wasted a lot of time. Given that, what would you say is the key policy demand we need to be making in the US and other industrialized countries? Charles McNeill: The U.S. and other countries need to be followed up and supported to deliver on their significant forest and land use, and methane commitments, as well as their pledges to fund adaptation measures in developing countries. Industrialized countries need to be more forthcoming with finance for climate change mitigation and adaptation since just one flooding event from this year is costing Germany $30 billion. All industrialized countries need to push for the phasing out of coal and of oil and gas subsidies—not just ‘phasing down’—and transition to clean energy, domestically and internationally. The trillions of dollars spent on propping up polluting technology can be directed to fight inequities, build social safety nets, and support the transition to clean energy economies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve human wellbeing. Gus Speth:  Six things are essential: President Biden's climate agenda needs to move powerfully through the federal regulatory process. We need a massive, unprecedented civic mobilization of protest, demands, nonviolence, building on the start made by Sunrise, Extinction Rebellion, youth, Native peoples, and others. We need to get far, far more involved in electoral politics at all levels. We need to bring the judicial branch into the picture since the other two branches have failed us miserably. It's past time to get busy reforming the international processes of environmental governance. Getting serious about climate protection also means getting serious about building a new political-economic system. As the banner at climate marches says, “System Change, Not Climate Change.” What should be the top priorities of our climate work in the coming year? Carla Santos Skandier: COP 26 was a turning point for the fossil fuel industry, which has been for decades successful in masking its main role in the climate crisis and degrading climate action and the imminent needs of those in the ground. Yet, with fossil fuel lobbyists being the single largest delegation, it is no surprise that three decades later decisions made in the COP space still promote unsatisfactory and even false solutions to the climate crisis. Governments have allowed fossil fuel companies and their executives to have a political stranglehold for too long on all levels of decision-making.  Now we must confront the reality that to limit greenhouse gas emissions, our top priority has to be to challenge and dismantle fossil fuel’s power. With that in mind, in the coming year, TDC’s Climate Program will double down on its efforts to advocate and build alignment for public ownership of the fossil fuel industry (and its twin sibling, investor-owned utilities). This is our key policy weapon to clear the political arena and build the future we desperately need on a common ground of equity, sustainability, and democracy. ☙ A final note: It is more clear than ever that our work to end the fossil fuel economy is inextricably linked to our work to bring about a democratic economy of shared wealth and prosperity. If silicon and lithium become the oil of the 21st century, but we do not change the fundamental structure of ownership and wealth in the global economy, our world will be greenwashed but not more sustainable in terms of equity, reparative justice, and a culture of mutuality. In the coming months, you will see us make even more explicit the connections between our climate, community wealth building, and democratic public ownership work.  If you have questions about our climate and energy work, contact Carla Santos Skandier at csantos@democracycollaborative.org. Sincerely, Ted Howard President and Co-Founder, The Democracy Collaborative Breakthrough for employee ownership A specific and promising opening for federal support for employee ownership conversions is contained in newly issued guidance from the Department of the Treasury for the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), a $10 billion program included in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The guidance explicitly allows states and lenders to use program financing to support transitions to employee ownership. Through such vehicles as the local economy preservation funds The Democracy Collaborative proposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this lays the groundwork for potentially millions of dollars to flow into employee ownership deals. Read more Making health innovation work for people The healthcare industry spends millions of dollars promoting the idea that having free rein to follow the dictates of "the market" is the best way to foster the innovation we need for the treatments we want. But profit-driven innovation is not actually delivering on its promise. In fact, according to a new Democracy Collaborative report by the University of Michigan's Shobita Parthasarathy, this kind of “innovation” is sometimes actively harming us. It is certainly leaving behind millions of people from low-income and marginalized groups. This new report spells out the crisis and how it can be addressed by sponsoring much more interdisciplinary research, engaging marginalized communities as experts, and exploring nonmarket avenues for health innovation. Read the report Community development’s “new direction”  As Black and Brown communities continue to be displaced by “revitalization” schemes that improve communities for people other than the residents who are already there, there is a clear need for a “new direction” for community development. Democracy Collaborative fellow Nishani Frazier writes that a new approach based on the principle of community wealth building is in fact not new but has deep historical roots in the Black power and economic self-determination movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The “new direction” of that era, she writes, has much to inform the future of economic development. Read the paper In the news... The missed opportunity to have “40 years of a smooth transition out of fossil fuels” is detailed by Gus Speth in an interview for Dartmouth University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Watch the video. Gus Speth and his latest book, They Knew, are also featured in the "Vermont Conversations" podcast. Listen on VTDigger. The “Future Beyond Shell” podcast features Carla Santos Skandier discussing nationalizing the fossil fuel industry along with Dr. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò of Georgetown University. Hear the podcast. The success of the Preston model in the UK is explored by the BBC. “An abysmal failure”: As neoclassical economics loses intellectual legitimacy, it's time to consider new systems thinking, writes economist Steven Klees (author of The Conscience of a Progressive) in Evonomics.  Indigenous community values shape solutions to the climate crisis that promote community wealth in the work of The Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation. See how. Pushing back against turning public goods into private profit centers is the focus of The Privatization of Everything, the new book by Donald Cohen and Allen Mikaelian. Learn more. Community land trusts are featured in a recently released short video by the Sanders Institute. Copyright © 2021 The Democracy Collaborative, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up for updates from Community-Wealth.org and the Democracy Collaborative. Our mailing address is: The Democracy Collaborative 1200 18th Street NW Suite 1225 Washington, DC 20036 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.