We Look Forward To Harlem’s Peggy Shepard Act To Shape DNC’s Environment And Climate Platform

Today, the DNC Environment and Climate Crisis Council announced its Platform Committee, whose members will be tasked with developing recommendations for the climate, environment and energy planks of the 2020 Democratic Party Platform. The Council, a permanent entity of the DNC, launched in February to push the Democratic Party to take bolder and more ambitious action to address the climate crisis and other environmental issues, starting with the 2020 Platform.

As the Council prepares policy recommendations for the Democratic Party Platform, it will be guided by the following principles:

• Use the Green New Deal’s vision and aspirations as a framework
• Address climate change with urgency, boldness and comprehensiveness
• Center environmental justice and a just transition
• Advocate for the use of executive actions regarding the climate emergency, and make specific recommendations for those actions

“As the Democratic Party develops its 2020 platform, it’s absolutely urgent that it include science-based, ambitious policy solutions that address the climate crisis,” said Michelle Deatrick, Founder and Chair of the DNC Environment and Climate Council. “In addition to addressing climate change with the necessary urgency and boldness, our Platform Committee will look to the Green New Deal’s vision and aspirations as a framework; center environmental justice and a just transition; and advocate for executive actions to ensure the steps that need to be taken aren’t blocked along the way.”

The DNC Climate Platform Committee member from Harlem (all bios available here)::

• Peggy M. Shepard, Executive Director, Co-Founder, WE ACT For Environmental Justice – Peggy Shepard has a long history of organizing and engaging Northern Manhattan residents to address environmental protection and environmental health policy, locally and nationally.

Other DNC Climate Platform Committee members include:

• Michelle Deatrick, Founder and Chair, DNC Environment and Climate Council – A Michigan DNC member, Michelle Deatrick serves on the Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy’s Board of Directors and as a delegate to her regional labor federation, representing UAW Local 1981.
• Bryan Newland, Chairperson of the Bay Mills Indian Community – Bryan serves as the Chairperson of the Bay Mills Indian Community (Ojibwe) in northern Michigan. Previously, he served as a Policy Advisor at the Department of the Interior under President Obama.
• Elizabeth Bunn, DC-based labor-environmental activist – Elizabeth Bunn is the Maryland State Director for the Labor Network for Sustainability (LNS), a position she has held since September 2018.
• Jaclyn Lopez, Florida-based environmental law expert – Jaclyn Lopez is the Florida Director and a Senior Attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Florida Political Director at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund.
• Jennifer Burney, Associate Professor, UC San Diego (Environmental Science & Policy) – Jennifer Burney is Associate Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. Her work focuses on the relationships between climate, energy, water, and food security.
• Justin Onwenu, Detroit-based Environmental Justice Organizer – Justin Onwenu is an environmental justice organizer based in Detroit, focusing on addressing the public health impact of industries on local communities, protecting the Great Lakes and drinking water from the impacts of climate change and empowering local residents.
• Katherine Trisolini, Professor, LMU Loyola Law School – Katherine Trisolini is a Professor at LMU’s Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on climate change and energy law, local environmental governance, and administrative agencies.
• Linda Rudolph, MD, MPH, Oakland-based public health physician – Dr. Rudolph is a public health physician with extensive experience and expertise in climate change, health equity, Health in All Policies, chronic disease prevention, and healthy communities.
• Rev Michael Malcom, MDiv MBA, Executive Director of Alabama Interfaith Power and Light and Founder of People’s Justice Council – The Reverend Michael Malcom is the Executive Director of Alabama Interfaith Power and Light and the Founder of People’s Justice Council and the Environmental Justice Representative for the Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ.
• Nicole Hernandez Hammer, Environmental Justice and Climate Science Advocate – Nicole Hernandez Hammer is a sea-level researcher, climate change expert and environmental justice advocate. A Guatemalan immigrant, Ms. Hernandez Hammer works to address the disproportionate impacts of climate change on communities of color across the US.
• Stephen Kretzmann, Founding Director, Oil Change U.S. – An expert in global energy and climate politics and finance, and an activist leader in climate and energy campaigns for thirty years, Stephen Kretzmann founded Oil Change in 2005 to use data, advocacy, and organizing to remove barriers to the clean energy transition and to challenge corporate power and industry influence within governments and institutions.

Ms. Shepard, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Harlem-based WE ACT for Environmental Justice, has been named a member of the DNC’s Environment & Climate Council’s Platform Committee, which is tasked with developing recommendations for the climate, environment, and energy planks of the 2020 Democratic Party Platform.

We feel it’s a great honor, and a great opportunity to elevate the voice of environmental justice and climate justice in shaping the 2020 Democratic Party Platform.