For Immediate Release: August 1, 2022
Rapid City — In response to the announcement of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a bill introduced by Senate Democrats yesterday which provides $369 billion for clean energy and combating climate change, the Climate Justice team at NDN Collective released the following statement:
“Although the current version of this new climate deal, if passed, would provide large investments into renewable energy and open up funding streams for low income and vulnerable communities, it is missing many critical solutions that Indigenous organizers have been uplifting for years.
“In fact, Black and Indigenous communities are at risk of being further harmed by this deal, as it moves to open up oil and gas leasing in Alaska and the Gulf Coast South, as well as includes further investment into carbon capturing technology – a false solution that has harmful impacts on land and people.
“Major aspects of this climate deal undermine climate justice solutions by introducing new harms to frontline communities that already bear the brunt of both polluting industries and severe and escalating climate change. Lawmakers must take time to understand how the implementation of policies in this bill would impact frontline communities, and commit to providing further resourcing and protections for those who need it most.
“We need to expand our scope beyond only calculating greenhouse gas emission reductions and stop emission reduction at the source by pulling away from building new fossil fuel infrastructure. And lawmakers must pass climate justice legislation with Indigenous communities at the table.”
In 2019, NDN Collective released Mobilizing an Indigenous Green New Deal, a paper which discusses the harm carbon capture technology can cause.
Members of NDN Collective attended COP26 in October, where they met with world leaders and advocated for solutions rooted in traditional ecological knowledge and expressed grave concerns about false solutions such as carbon trading and other market based solutions.
###
NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building, and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.
