Climate activists will deliver a petition with 15-thousand signatures today (Thursday) to trade negotiators ahead of next week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in San Francisco. Suzanne Potter of California News Service explains.
President Joe Biden will be meeting with other world leaders to announce the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which would govern 40 percent of global economy. Will Wiltschko is with a coalition of groups called Bay Climate Action.
"First, we want them to take concrete action to end climate pollution, by no longer propping up the fossil fuel industry and by rapidly zeroing out greenhouse-gas emissions. Second, we want them to globalize climate justice by acknowledging and taking action to end the disproportionate impact climate change is having on communities of color, both within and between nations."
The pillar of the trade deal published so far doesn't even mention the word climate change. Advocates are hoping to influence the document as it is being finalized — so it spells out binding commitments to a clean-energy transition.
Wiltschko says advocates also want nations to sign a global climate peace clause that would end the use of existing trade rules that are used to challenge climate policy.
"If a country decides to go the clean energy route, companies that stand to lose a little bit will sue for essentially unlimited sums of money under the Investor-State Dispute Settlement System. And so that is something that is kind of scary, because it means that you're basically held hostage by multinational corporations."
The Biden administration has pledged to prioritize climate change, workers' rights and the health of low-income communities hardest hit by climate pollution and sea-level rise.
