Call on Congress to stop financing fossil fuel projects around the world!

Most fossil fuel projects around the world are close to Indigenous communities, low-income communities, and communities of color. These projects drive health problems, including higher rates of cancer.

In addition, around 1 million species face extinction in the next few years as a result of Big Oil’s destruction of the planet. And with each species that vanishes, the impact is felt throughout our interconnected ecosystems.

Dear Member of Congress,

US institutions have provided an average of $4.4 billion annually for fossil fuel projects around the world over the last decade, harming communities, disrupting ecosystems, and fueling climate chaos.

As you know, in November 2021, the Biden Administration joined 38 governments and international financial institutions (IFIs) in signing on to the Statement on International Public Support for the Clean Energy Transition at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, committing to align our international public support with the transition to clean energy and out of unabated fossil fuels by the end of 2022.

While the actions taken by the Biden Administration to this end are promising, the related policies released by various agencies in response to President Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad lack critical details and contain several potential loopholes to be exploited in their implementation. Furthermore, as we saw during the transition from the Obama administration to the Trump administration, these policies can easily be reversed.

In order to ensure that US commitments on climate have credibility in the international community and to ensure they are in place long enough to have an impact, it is critical that they be enshrined in law.

Thankfully, legislation that would answer to the US’ commitments has already been introduced in both the House and the Senate. The Sustainable International Financial Institutions Act of 2021, introduced by Senator Merkley and Representative Huffman, would end US financing for fossil fuels abroad through all of its agencies, including multilateral institutions in which the US participates, and would redirect this finance towards helping countries embark on a just transformation of their energy systems and economies.

For these reasons, we write to urge you to co-sponsor the Sustainable International Financial Institutions Act of 2021, and to support its vote and passage.

In order for the US to meet its international climate obligations as the largest historical contributor to climate change, it is imperative that the US immediately stop fueling the problem and make commensurate contributions to the solutions. This legislation would be an important first step to re-establish US leadership on climate internationally with “ambition and humility”, as Special Envoy Kerry said when he signed the US back onto the Paris Agreement.

Sincerely, 
{user_data~First name} {user_data~Last name}
{user_data~City}, {user_data~State} {user_data~Postcode}

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