Our Impact

Mobilizing communities to restore a safe climate​

2021-22

After making great strides helping communities declare climate emergency, we began building power to demand equitable climate justice policies that lower carbon emissions and pollution.

Successful power building to demand equitable climate justice policies that lower carbon emissions and pollution

Check out our local work in Acton, MA and Sonoma County, CA.

  • Brought 52 Acton residents to Town Meeting where we passed an EV Charging for All resolution, an opening salvo for electrified transportation in the community.
  • Filed recycling complaints that led to new proposed regulations that will guarantee recycling access for apartment and condo buildings.
  • Developed a climate action policy platform and won the addition of 7 proposals to Acton’s Climate Action Plan.
  • Got the Town of Acton to set aside $30,000 for a pilot housing stabilization program.
  • Incubated a strong climate and housing justice group that is ready to become an independent force for justice in Acton going forward.
  • Launched a new transit rider union and grew its rider list to over 250 riders, then passed $1.4 million of funding for two proposals–one for fare free buses for all youth countywide, and another to add new express buses on the four main intercity bus routes.
  • Mobilized 20+ organizations, including the local NAACP, North Bay Jobs with Justice, and 350 Sonoma, to take action for transportation justice.
  • Convened 7+ community groups into an Equitable Transportation Alliance.
  • Supported an existing BIPOC-led grassroots group (Roseland CBI & Equidad) to add “Safe & Slow Streets” to their focus areas, and provided coaching and networking to help the group gain policy and organizing skills. 

2018-2021

Declarations of Climate Emergency

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U.S. Governments have declared a Climate Emergency

Local Climate Emergency Action

In the last 5 years, more than 190 cities, counties, and other jurisdictions in the United States have passed a formal declaration of Climate Emergency — a critical first step in acknowledging the emergency situation that climate disruption poses to communities and ecosystems across the planet. Climate Emergency organizing has helped advance ambitious local climate action across the U.S. beyond the goals of the Paris Agreement — 30 localities that have declared a Climate Emergency have also committed to reaching zero emissions by 2030.

2019

National Climate Policy

The impact of The Climate Mobilization on the national stage is remarkable for an organization of its size and age. Our campaign for a national climate emergency declaration, which was sponsored by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Earl Blumenauer and Senator Bernie Sanders in July 2019 achieved an additional 110 co-sponsors, including six presidential candidates, Kamala Harris among them.

 

Early Local Wins

The Climate Mobilization chapter in Hoboken, New Jersey was first to declare a climate emergency in 2017, and has been critical to the campaigns that have stopped two fracked gas power plants from being built in Northern New Jersey. In Kearney, NJ Transit is now exploring a 100% renewables microgrid after 15 municipalities and 13 state legislators followed the Hoboken City Council’s opposition to the fossil fuel project. 

After declaring a climate emergency in 2018, Berkeley, California banned gas infrastructure in new buildings in 2019, citing their declaration. This was foundational to the building electrification movement that has moved into several other states. The Sierra Club shows 38 additional municipalities that are phasing out natural gas in buildings in California. Now, a coalition of nearly 70 companies, either headquartered or with operations in California, is urging the governor and the energy commission to enact all-electric codes for residential and commercial buildings in California starting in 2022. 

New York City passed their “Climate Mobilization Act,” in April 2019, the United States’ most ambitious local climate action initiative to date, according to a new policy scorecard by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The Act imposes significant financial penalties of any buildings that fail to rapidly cut greenhouse gas emissions via energy efficiency upgrades, targeting the city’s largest driver of emissions. The ACEEE scorecard ranked climate action from 100 U.S. cities; 11 of the top twenty cities on the scorecard have adopted our framework and declared a climate emergency.

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Alexia Leclerq

Network Coach

Alexia (she/they) is an environmental justice organizer based in Austin, TX. They graduated summa cum laude from NYU (’20), where they self-designed a major titled “The Politics and Economics of Inequality.” Their research focuses on political ecology, environmental justice, AAPI communities, inequality, postcolonialism. As an organizer and researcher they have spent the past 5 years working on various issues from preserving the Colorado River, water rights, fighting land use policy and zoning that enforces race-based discrimination, conducting ethnographic research on climate health, to organizing mutual aid, youth programming, and shaping national legislation alongside members of the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance; today Alexia continues to work as an organizer with PODER, a grassroots EJ org. Alexia is also the co-founder of Start: Empowerment, a BIPOC led social and environmental justice education non-profit working with youth, educators, activists, and community members to implement justice-focused education and programming in schools and community spaces. S:E curriculum and programming has reached over 2,000 students, been recognized by the NYC Department of Education, and taught in universities. In 2021, their work was recognized by the prestigious Brower Youth Award.

Emmett Hopkins

Co-Leader and Director of Operations & Programs

Emmett manages operations and leads Climate Mobilization’s intersectional organizing around transportation justice, where he works with local community groups to build commitment, alignment and action among frontline constituents who rely on public transit and active transportation modes. He brings over a decade of experience collaborating with diverse stakeholders to activate power towards equitable, climate-friendly transportation systems, build mutual-aid-based community food systems, ensure equitable access to public lands, and mobilize resources towards a just transition. In 2021, Emmett developed an online platform for collaborative, community-scale visioning of a just, zero-carbon future. In 2022 he helped launch a transit riders union in Sonoma County, CA, which has engaged in mutual aid, storytelling, and a successful campaign to win fare-free buses and expanded frequency.

Suha Dabbouseh

National Organizer

National Organizer Suha Dabbouseh leads national strategy for The Climate Mobilization. They are originally from Chicago but have lived, organized and rebel-roused in seven states and 11 cities. Suha received their law degree from CUNY-School of Law where they focused on social justice lawyering representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay. While practicing law, Suha had worked to advocate on behalf of domestic violence survivors, transgender clients and fighting employment discrimination. Their passion is building people power and organizing to dismantle structural inequities.

Matt Renner

Executive Director of The Climate Mobilization

Matt has worked as a nonprofit executive in clean energy, climate policy, and journalism for over a decade, focusing on the near-term social and economic impacts of climate change. He leads organizational expansion and works closely with the communications and organizing teams. Matt earned a BA in political science from UC Berkeley, where he was deeply inspired by the work of Professor George Lakoff.

Mariyah Jahangiri

Co-Leader and Network & Movement Building Director

Mariyah is a first-generation Pakistani community organizer who is on a life-long journey of working to create alternative, anti-capitalist models of collective healing, popular education, community organizing, and revolution. She has been inspired by studying social movements and organizing in many movement ecosystems and geographies – most recently in Cape Town, Iowa, Puerto Rico, Atlanta, and currently in Los Angeles. At Climate Mobilization, she is a Network Organizer where she leads programming, coaching, and other resource development for a learning hub of 43+ local decarbonization and climate justice campaigns. She also develops strategy for youth, BIPOC-led, climate movements alongside the Network Support Team at Power Shift Network, and is currently leading a Pakistani collective spearheading political education on the need for climate reparations to the Global South and coordinating grassroots fundraising for Pakistan flood relief efforts. She also recently organized with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network to base-build in Wilmington and San Pedro alongside low-income API communities most impacted by extractive industries in Los Angeles.

Rebecca Harris

Co-Leader and Director of Resource Mobilization

Rebecca has been with Climate Mobilization since 2019 leading our organizing efforts. In this role, she has coached dozens of local climate groups, coordinated organizing trainings, and launched the campaign for a national Climate Emergency Declaration. In July 2021, she collaborated with Acton, MA residents to launch Housing and Climate Justice for Acton, a renters rights and climate justice group led by public housing and Section 8 renters and other low-income residents, and has already won several campaigns. Along with a history of social movement organizing, Rebecca previously worked as a journalist covering equity in Chicago public schools and as the Development and Communications Manager at Latino Union of Chicago, an immigrants’ and workers’ rights organization. She is a 2017 graduate of the Reframe Mentorship in strategic communications and a 2019 participant in the Anne Braden Organizer Training Program.

Marina Mails

Co-Leader and Director of Operations
Marina manages operations and volunteers for both The Climate Mobilization and Climate Mobilization Project. She brings broad experience working in non-profit organizations, health care settings, and running her own private counseling practice. Before joining Climate Mobilization, Marina maintained a practice focusing exclusively on climate-related emotional coping, helping people make bold choices for lifestyle and professional change in response to the Climate Emergency. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish from Wake Forest University and a Masters in Counseling from UNC Greensboro.

Meghann Beer

Co-Leader and Director of Resource Mobilization and Strategy

Meghann brings more than 20 years of nonprofit management and fundraising experience to The Climate Mobilization and Climate Mobilization Project. For over a decade Meghann has worked as a nonprofit consultant helping organizations expand their capacity, secure revenue, develop successful strategies, and effectively evaluate their programs, enabling them to create greater positive change in the world. She has also worked as an executive director, designed and facilitated international service learning experiences, and taught university courses in fundraising and nonprofit management. Meghann earned a MPA in Nonprofit Management and Comparative and International Affairs from The School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, in Bloomington, IN and a BA in Art History and American Studies from Tufts University in Boston, MA.

Cris Lagunas

Strategy Director

Cris is helping to grow the Climate Emergency Movement by supporting creative campaigns and extending the reach of the movement’s message. Cris is a co-founder of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, an organization dedicated to using direct action tactics to expose, challenge and dismantle the immigration detention system.Cris got his start in organizing when he was 15 years old, getting involved in a local group of fellow undocumented youth.

Zack Burley

Policy Associate

Zack provides policy support for the Climate Mobilization team, and brings a versatile set of policy skills and experiences in labor organizing, journalism, legislative politics, and legal practice to the climate emergency movement. Zack earned a JD from Denver University Sturm College of Law, is a founding organizer of the Political Workers Guild of Colorado, and formerly served as a legislative aide in the Colorado General Assembly.

AriDy Nox

Co-Leader and Director of Narrative Strategy

 AriDy Nox is a multi-disciplinary black femme storyteller and social activist with a variety of forward-thinking creative works under her/their belt. They create out of the vehement belief that creating a future in which marginalized peoples are free requires a radical imagination. Their tales are offerings intended to function as small parts of an ancient, expansive, awe-inspiring tradition of world-shaping, created by and for black femmes. They have over a decade of experience as a young social activist and organizer, within reproductive justice and racial justice frameworks with organizations like the Young Women of Color Leadership Council with Advocates for Youth, the Toni Cade Bamabara Collective at Spelman College and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. They bring creativity, enthusiasm and a tremendous capacity for organization to her/their role and deep belief that times of apocalypse are opportunities for rebirth. We need first imagine the world we want in order to create it.