HOW TO Take action

The policy we need

The United States Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), or climate pledge, is developed and delivered every 5 years to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) as a requirement of the Paris Agreement. All countries need to submit a new NDC in 2025.

The US NDC is being developed by the Presidential Administration, specifically the Climate Policy Office under the leadership of Ali Zaidi, White House National Climate Advisor, and John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy. However, the administration needs to be urged to create an ambitious pledge, and to work with Congress to implement the NDC.

Especially with Trump’s election in 2024, this is our last chance to submit a plan that meets the 1.5 degrees of warming, as Trump would not write one and intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

In a Fair Share NDC, we need to:

  • reduce GHG emissions by 80% domestically by

    • ending fossil fuel expansion immediately

    • implementing a Fast, Full, Fair, Funded, and Feminist Fossil Fuel Phaseout by 2031

    • generating 100% renewable electricity by 2030

  • provide international finance to reduce our historical emissions internationally, and to support adaptation and Loss and Damage

  • create a National Adaptation Plan to protect communities in the U.S. from climate damage

Learn more about the Fair Share NDC we need by reading our one-pager and full report.

How to get that policy: Levers of influence

The White House

Congressional

  • Schedule a meeting with your U.S. Representative or Senator to educate them about the NDC process, what the US Fair Share is, and to start a dialogue between Congress and the administration.

    • Learn how to connect with our step-by-step guide on how to meet with your Congress member.

    • Congress members can put pressure on the White House to pass the policy their districts need, e.g. a Fair Share NDC

      • Congressional support for a Fair Share NDC shows the White House that this is what the American people want.

    • We are specifically engaging progressive climate champions in Congress to sponsor a letter to the White House and encourage other members to call for ambitious action from the United States.

Cultural

  • We know that individual action isn’t enough - to address the climate crisis, we must collectively change the deeper systems that have created this crisis. Relational actions speak to the ways we can work together to make change.

  • Shift the narrative and show Congress and the White House that the American people want the US to be a Climate Leader.

    • Share social media content: IPCC charts, Fair Shares Videos, Congressional Inquiry, Tweets

      • TikTok - @POTUS do your fair share for climate action!

      • Community Virtual Tour- Ask your networks and communities to sign on to Biden letter and record a video of themselves telling Biden “Do your Fair Share for Climate Action!” “It’s time to Pay Up for Climate Finance!”

  • Connect the Fair Share NDC to your local community to center the idea that our fights our interconnected, that we need to make change collectively.

    • Pitch an article or blog post about how the US Fair Share NDC can affect your local community’s fight against climate change through our Contact Us page and using our guide for connecting local campaigns to the Fair Share NDC. We would love to post it, uplift your work, and support it in any way.

    • Host a community education and visioning session to imagine what your community could look like if the US did its Fair Share on climate action. You can even invite your local Congress member.

    • Call on your networks and communities/schools/congregations/teams to put pressure on your local representatives together. Talk about local projects could support climate action and local impacts that the climate crisis would have.