Issue: Organizational Development

This flipbook was written from the perspective of frontline communities to help leaders evaluate four themes of energy democracy within their own communities: social justice, regenerative energy, moral economy, and governance assistance.

Efforts to take action on climate change have encountered substantial cultural, institutional, and individual residence in the U.S. This resistance can be linked to the environmental countermovement, which has created organized opposition to climate change action that operates at multiple institutional levels and within multiple time frames. Institutionalized efforts to oppose action on climate change uses a variety of tactics to influence cultural perceptions of climate change and spread climate misinformation.

Just Transition is a vision-led, unifying, and place-based set of principles, processes and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. This means approaching production and consumption cycles holistically. The transition itself must be just and equitable, redressing past harms and creating new relationships of power for the future through reparations. If the process of transition is not just, the outcome will never be. Just Transition describes both where we are going and how we get there. 

Starting in 2014, the nation’s broadest climate coalition came together to take bold action on climate. In 2018, this coalition of labor unions, communities of color, environmental advocates, tribal nations, health professionals, faith communities, and businesses coalesced around Initiative 1631 to advance an equitable transition to clean energy and climate resilience. Momentum from Initiative 1631, a stronger legislative climate majority, and a base of mobilized partners and volunteers fed a stronger push for climate progress in the 2019 legislative session and, with momentum on their side, the coalition was able to pass multiple major climate policies with a greater focus on equity and good jobs provisions.
The first five years of building the Alliance (2014-2019), developing and running a ballot campaign, and working in multiple legislative sessions, transformed climate advocacy in Washington State in ways that provide an important example for others working to build power in the climate movement. This assessment was created with a value for an open dialogue with the coalition’s partners in the climate movement, and hope that sharing their story and lessons learned can be useful to others on similar journeys toward a healthy and equitable future.