STATEMENT – June 4, 2020.
Frontline communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change. Addressing inequality and climate change are inherently linked.
ICLEI condemns racism. Our vision is to support all local governments in the development of community-driven sustainability plans, incorporating both climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, with the goal of lifting up vulnerable people.
ICLEI’s pathways toward low emission, nature-based, equitable, resilient and circular development are designed to create systemic change. We seek to build diverse coalitions, endorsing environmental justice principles to actualize this change.
As a first step, we will review the composition of our network to better understand who benefits from ICLEI USA’s tools, resources, and support and create a plan to increase the diversity of communities advancing local climate action through participation in the ICLEI network.
We will strengthen our organizational capacity through greater diversity in our Board of Directors and strategic partners.
And, we will support capacity-building in our network, beginning with a Climate Equity webinar series to launch in July. If you have resources you’d like to share, please be in touch.
In solidarity,
Angie Fyfe
ICLEI USA Executive Director