Latest news with #MakePollutersPay
Associated Press
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Texas Parents and Fossil Free Media's Make Polluters Pay Campaign Hold Memorial Outside White House After Deadly Flooding
WASHINGTON, July 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Texas parents gathered outside the White House for a solemn memorial and press conference following the catastrophic flooding in Kerr County that claimed more than 120 lives, including 27 children attending summer camp. Organized by impacted families and the Make Polluters Pay, a campaign by Fossil Free Media, the memorial featured a powerful visual display of 27 children's camp trunks on the Ellipse Lawn—each representing a young life lost. Parents placed yellow roses atop the trunks in silence before delivering impassioned remarks demanding federal accountability and urgent action to protect children from worsening climate-driven disasters. The ceremony concluded with a stirring performance by a local choir, who sang 'Lean on Me' and 'Rise Like the Water' as families stood arm in arm, calling for justice and change. Parents directly blamed the Trump administration's cuts to disaster preparedness and early warning systems, including FEMA, NOAA, and the National Weather Service, which they say left communities vulnerable. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, recently inserted language into H.R. 1 that slashed millions from NOAA programs essential for flood forecasting and public alerts. 'We know that this administration, by destroying renewable energy and using our tax dollars to prop up the fossil fuel industry, an industry that earned $102 billion dollars last year, is doing everything it can to supercharge this climate crisis,' said Texan and mom Samantha Gore. 'To also be defunding our NWS and NOAA, the agencies we use to keep our children safe, at the same time is unthinkable. How dare they. Parents won't sit back while our children die from floods that shouldn't have been supercharged, from DOGE cuts that put their lives on the line, and from weather services not being funded. What are they thinking? We won't back down. They are destroying everything we love.' In addition to demanding the restoration of life-saving public programs, demonstrators called on President Trump and Congress to hold fossil fuel companies financially accountable for the damage their pollution has caused. 'Texans are grieving because public safety systems were dismantled to serve fossil fuel interests,' said Cassidy DiPaola, spokesperson for the Make Polluters Pay campaign. 'Senator Cruz helped cut flood forecasting programs days before the storm. Now families are paying the price while polluters and their allies deflect blame. Texans deserve accountability, not excuses.' Speakers stressed that the Kerr County tragedy reflects a growing pattern of climate disasters that will only intensify without bold action and restoration of critical safeguards. 'It feels like we've lost our way as a country in a very short time. In the six months since this administration has been in charge they have encouraged, enabled, allowed a temporary government agency, one with no oversight, to wantonly cut budgets and offer early retirements for roles that are crucial to the safety of our communities. There were other serious failures at lower levels of government, all of which directly contributed to the loss of dozens of children's lives. These weren't accidents or acts of God. These were intentional choices. Let that sink in,' said Texan and mom Helen Waters. ' This event affected me deeply as I grew up going to summer camp in the area and I have close friends who were caught in the flooding and nearly died. However it's clear to me that this has, and will, happen in other places. We must fight for a social contract with reliable and accountable.' 'As an Austin mom, I've been feeling the losses of the children from my community in a very visceral, immediate way,' said Texan and mom Eileen McGinnis. 'As the founder of The Parents' Climate Community, a climate nonprofit in Central Texas, I was moved to join because it's also vital to connect these losses, this collective grief, to a larger story: kids around the world are bearing the brunt of climate change's impacts, and we are failing to protect them.' To speak with parents or campaign representatives, please contact: Cassidy DiPaola | Fossil Free Media | [email protected] | 401-441-7196 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
Scoop
01-07-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Alliance Of Climate Civil Society Organisations Rally In Seville For Global Levies To Make Polluters Pay
30 June, Seville, Spain — A global coalition of civil society leaders, including Global Citizen, the Glasgow Action Team and Greenpeace International, have rallied this morning outside the FIBES Conference Center in Seville, where world leaders gather for the 4th UN International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4). Their message: No more free riders. It's time for polluters and the ultra-rich to pay their fair share. The rally centered around a bold new demand for Solidarity Levies—international taxes on fossil fuels, aviation, shipping, financial transactions, and billionaires—to fund climate resilience and equitable development in countries most affected by climate change. The action accompanies an open letter signed by more than 47 NGOs – representing 231 organisations – underscoring the broad and diverse backing for the call to Make Polluters Pay. The rally centered around a large banner declaring 'Make Polluters Pay: Solidarity Levies Now,' alongside placards and powerful street visuals, including Spanish-inspired traffic signs to highlight the responsibility of highly polluting sectors. The coalition is urging world leaders at FFD4 to adopt taxes and fines on the world's most polluting industries for fueling storms, floods, heat waves, drought and wildfires, as well as other climate related disasters. World governments are also encouraged to join the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force, led by Barbados, France and Kenya, and backed by governments and institutions like the UN, IMF, and African Union. The goal: to raise much needed revenue to fight against climate change and support development and nature through international levies that reflect the responsibility of polluters and elites. 'The richest individuals and dirtiest industries are profiting while the planet burns,' said Andrew Nazdin, Director of the Glasgow Actions Team. 'Solidarity levies are not only fair — they're necessary for a liveable future.' 'We must hold oil and gas corporations to account for the enormous damage they cause,' said Rebecca Newsom, Global Political Lead for Greenpeace's Stop Drilling, Start Paying campaign. 'As fossil fuel barons rake in obscene profits, and people are battered with increasingly violent floods, storms and wildfires, it's no surprise that 8 out of 10 people support making them pay. Members of the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force and rich countries around the world should act upon this enormous public mandate: commit to higher taxes on fossil fuel profits and extraction by COP30, while ensuring that those being hit hardest by the climate crisis around the world benefit most from the revenues.' 'Right now, world leaders face a clear choice: will they do what's fair and necessary?' said Michael Sheldrick, Co-Founder of Global Citizen. 'Citizens across major economies — from the U.S. to the EU to Brazil — are on board. They want action to fix the climate crisis and support the communities being hit the hardest. The ask is simple: those most responsible for the damage should help pay for the solutions. Over 55,000 global citizens have already backed this call. It's not about politics — it's about fairness, and securing a better future for all of us.' Louise Hutchins, from Make Polluters Pay Coalition said, 'If we're serious about ending the debt crisis in the Global South and halting climate breakdown, we need a global financial system that holds those driving the crisis to account - starting by making the big polluters pay. For 50 years, oil and gas giants have raked in $1 trillion a year while driving devastating climate damage. The emissions of the richest 1% is more than that of half of the world combined. Success at this summit means ending this grotesque state of affairs.' The rally follows a march of thousands across the streets of Seville on Sunday night and is part of a broader week of action at the FfD4, where campaigners are calling for debt cancellation, progressive global taxation, and a finance system that puts people and the planet first. The Vatican's advocacy arm bolstered these messages with a live mural, installed in the heart of Seville, calling for a solution to debt injustice. Campaigners are demanding urgent steps to dismantle illegitimate debt burdens, establish a UN-based framework for debt resolution, and stop the influence of powerful nations and institutions that continue to impose economic domination over the Global South.
The Guardian
09-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump takes aim at city and state climate laws in executive order
Donald Trump is taking aim and city- and state-led fossil fuel accountability efforts, which have been hailed as a last source of hope for the climate amid the president's ferociously anti-environment agenda. In a Tuesday executive order, Trump instructed the Department of Justice to 'stop the enforcement' of state climate laws, which his administration has suggested are unconstitutional or otherwise unenforceable. The president called out New York and Vermont, both of which have passed 'climate superfund' laws requiring major fossil fuel companies to help pay for damages from extreme weather. 'These State laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration's objective to unleash American energy,' the executive order says. 'They should not stand.' He also targeted the dozens of lawsuits brought by states, cities and counties against big oil in recent years, accusing the industry of intentionally covering up the climate risks of their products and seeking compensation for climate impacts. The move left advocates outraged. 'This order is an illegal, disgusting attempt to force everyday people to pay for the rising toll of climate disasters, while shielding the richest people in the world from accountability,' said Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the youth-led environmental justice group the Sunrise Movement. The new order came as Trump touted new moves to revive the coal, the dirtiest and most expensive fossil fuel. It also followed a March meeting at the White House where fossil fuel executives reportedly lobbied Trump to give them immunity from climate litigation. Days earlier, 200 environmental, consumer advocacy and social justice groups had urged top congressional Democrats to block attempts from big oil to gain legal immunity, the Guardian reported. Oil interests applauded the new move from the president. 'Directing the Department of Justice to address this state overreach will help restore the rule of law and ensure activist-driven campaigns do not stand in the way of ensuring the nation has access to an affordable and reliable energy supply,' Ryan Meyers, senior vice-president of top US fossil fuel lobby group American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement. But advocates say the order is an an anti-democratic attack on municipalities' climate action, which serve a crucial role in counterbalancing Trump's anti-environmental agenda. 'Make no mistake: this executive order isn't about energy independence or economic security – it's about ensuring billionaire polluters never have to face a jury of ordinary Americans,' said Cassidy DiPaola, communications director of Make Polluters Pay, which backs the climate superfund laws. 'The American people deserve better than a government that protects polluters' profits over people's lives.' Fossil fuel companies poured $96m into Trump's re-election campaign and affiliated political action committees, as he pledged to roll back environmental regulations and loosen regulations on the industry. This was slightly less than the $1bn Trump requested from the sector in an infamous meeting at his Mar-a-Lago club last spring, but still constituted record levels of spending. Trump pledged to attack climate lawsuits, which he has called 'frivolous', on the campaign trail. And during his first term, his administration filed influential briefs in the cases supporting the oil companies. But environmental lawyers question the validity of the new executive order. 'This illegal and unconstitutional order panders to the biggest polluters on the planet and shows Trump's utter hypocrisy on states' rights,' said Jason Rylander, legal director of the climate law institute at the conservation organization Center for Biological Diversity. 'Trying to sic the justice department on state officials who are protecting their people from pollution will fail because the US attorney general has no power to declare state laws illegal.' In recent months, rightwing groups have launched campaigns attempting to shield oil companies from city and state climate accountability. Some have ties to Leonard Leo, who is known as a force behind the Federalist Society, which orchestrated the ultraconservative takeover of the American judiciary and helped select Trump's supreme court justice picks. A truck parked outside a major fossil fuel conference last month in Houston warned that city and state policies and lawsuits 'are threatening America's pro-consumer energy dominance', linking to an op-ed from a group with links to Leo. The new executive order echoes this sentiment, saying the litigation and laws 'threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security'.
Boston Globe
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
It's time to make the polluters pay the price for climate change
Recent exposés of internal documents show that these Big Oil companies have long understood with Instead of finding new business models or at least warning the public and government officials, these companies conspired to wage a massive disinformation campaign to prevent regulators, investors, and consumers from understanding the risks their products were creating. And now regular people are Advertisement That's not fair. The companies that created this mess should help pay to clean it up. That's exactly what the Someone will have to pay for the climate harms and extreme weather disasters our communities are already facing, and that we will continue to experience with growing regularity and lethality in the coming years. Advertisement Should all of that burden be borne by working families and local businesses? Or should the corporations that made By supporting the Climate Superfund Act, Rhode Island lawmakers would ensure that at least some of the costs of climate change fall on those most responsible. Rhode Islanders have already paid too much for Big Oil's reckless conduct. It's time to make the polluters pay. Aaron Regunberg is a former Rhode Island state representative and director of the Climate Accountability Project at Public Citizen. Cassidy DiPaola is a native Rhode Islander and director at the Make Polluters Pay campaign.
