The University of California Green New Deal Coalition is a democratically organized coalition of UC organizations and individuals, including students, trainees, staff, unions, faculty, retirees, alumni, and local community members that campaigns for concrete and integrated actions which the University of California (UC) must take to help prevent the worst effects of the climate crisis and to promote environmental justice.
As a leader in climate science, the UC has a responsibility to model the types of climate policy that the world should be adopting. While recognizing the effects climate change will have on our own campuses, we stand in solidarity with frontline communities bearing the brunt of climate change. We call on the UC to deploy its investment, procurement, educational, labor, and research power to help drive a just transition to a more equitable, accountable, and carbon-free future.
History and Timeline: A Roadmap For Success
- March 2020: Inception of the UC GND Coalition
- UC GND Policy Platform drafting timeline
- May 2020: UC GND Coalition began monthly meetings.
- Aug. 2020: First meeting of the UC GND Policy Working Group (WG).
- Nov. 6, 2020: UC GND Policy WG voted to approve each section of the first draft (V.1) of the UC GND Policy Platform.
- Nov. 6, 2020 — Feb. 1, 2021: Open feedback period for community comments on V.1.
- Nov. 2020 – Oct. 13, 2021: Revisions of the UC GND Platform included incorporating community input from UC GNDC town halls, comments on the platform, emails, outreach, and one-on-one Zoom conversations into a new iteration of the platform (V.2).
- Spring 2021 – Oct. 13, 2021: Following revision, discussions, and more revisions took place (V.3 and V.4), until the UC GND Policy WG voted to finally approve each section of the document one at a time. The final sections were approved by the Policy WG on Oct. 13, 2021.
- Oct. 19, 2021: Internal approval of UC GND policy platform by whole Coalition (V.4)
- Dec. 15, 2021: Petition launch!
- Dec. 15, 2021 — Apr. 22, 2022: We are at this stage right now! Gather support for policy platform through petition signatures, endorsements, and by growing the coalition!
- Tactics: class wraps (for petition and for Earth Day rally); one-on-one meetings with sympathetic student organizations, outside organizations, and student government bodies; in-person tabling and promotional material; events: teach-ins, rallies, Fridays for Future, campus visibility (chalking, drawing in sand, posters, social media, etc.); speak to the regents; labor + climate collaboration; student & established media coverage of petition, actions, milestones/victories, etc.; streamlined messaging.
- Petition information and an endorsements page were approved to add to the final version (V.4) of the UC GND Policy Platform, and will be updated regularly as more signature comments and endorsements roll in.
- Tactics: class wraps (for petition and for Earth Day rally); one-on-one meetings with sympathetic student organizations, outside organizations, and student government bodies; in-person tabling and promotional material; events: teach-ins, rallies, Fridays for Future, campus visibility (chalking, drawing in sand, posters, social media, etc.); speak to the regents; labor + climate collaboration; student & established media coverage of petition, actions, milestones/victories, etc.; streamlined messaging.
- Apr. 22, 2022: Coordinated, cross-campus, Earth Day ‘22 rallies (at all 10 UCs) demonstrating support and highlighting the need for a UC GND.
- Get the UC to commit to enacting major components of our UC GND (and formulating those policies into a UC Climate Action Plan) necessary to reach critical targets in line with the IPCC’s 1.5°C pathway projection. For the UC, this means total raw emissions need to decline by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching carbon zero by 2050 (including scope 1 (direct), 2 (indirect), & 3 (value chain) emissions).
- Each campus (including its satellite institutions), in partnership with the local and campus community, will need to draft its own Climate Action Plan (in line with the UC-wide, GND-integrated Climate Action Plan), tailored to the specific needs of that campus to reach the aforementioned 2030 and 2050 targets above.
- UC GNDC representation during the policy-drafting process will be critical to ensure the UC is collaborating in good faith with us to ensure the major measures of the UC GND Policy Platform make it into the UC’s Climate Action Plan.
- Each campus (including its satellite institutions), in partnership with the local and campus community, will need to draft its own Climate Action Plan (in line with the UC-wide, GND-integrated Climate Action Plan), tailored to the specific needs of that campus to reach the aforementioned 2030 and 2050 targets above.
- After the UC releases the language of their Climate Action Plan to the public, it will enter a review process where the UC’s proposed Climate Action Plan will be analyzed and critiqued in a public hearing and comment period to make sure it is: 1) bold enough to meet the IPCC’s 1.5°C emissions targets, 2) adequately addresses environmental justice concerns and meets the needs of vulnerable populations and affected communities to ensure equity, and 3) provides a just transition to workers in the fossil fuel industry.
- UCOP, UC Regents, and Chancellors approve their Climate Action Plans and set them into motion with the UC GND Coalition represented at every level in the UC’s implementation efforts to make sure that the UC actually sticks to its commitments for once.
- Periodic, yearly reviews will track emissions progress made in key areas outlined in the UC and individual campus-level Climate Action Plans to course-correct if planned objectives are off track.