E2. Front Line Community Green

WSPA and Chevron led oil lobbying against California’s Cap-and-Invest program. 

Sacramento, Calif. — Oil and gas corporations spent $10.3 million on California state lobbying and influence in the first quarter of 2026, the biggest first-quarter total on record, according to figures reported to the Secretary of State. The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), a powerful industry trade group, was the top spender, pouring over $4.3 million into lobbying efforts, with its key member, Chevron, following at its heels with $3.7 million spent. 

Top 5 lobbying and influence spenders of Q1:

Company/Trade Association Amount  Western States Petroleum Association $4.3 million Chevron $3.7 million Phillips 66 $544,000 Marathon Petroleum $254,000 California Resources Corporation $156,000

BP America, California Resources Corporation, Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, and WSPA all lobbied the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on the Cap-and-Invest program. This coincides with a misinformation campaign from Big Oil blaming climate policy for refinery closures and high gas prices, and pushing for a $2 billion bailout in Cap-and-Invest. Lawmakers and climate advocates are pushing back against these efforts.

WSPA, California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA), California Resources Corporation (CRC), Chevron, and Valero all lobbied against SB 1259, a common-sense transparency law that would require refineries to disclose estimated costs and timelines for closure and remediation.

“While Big Oil reaps record windfall profits from the war on Iran, they’re spending lavishly on Sacramento lobbyists to try to kill even the most basic community protections and transparency measures,” said Faraz Rizvi with Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) Action. “These lobbying numbers tell you everything you need to know — Big Oil isn’t struggling right now. They’re just determined to leave our communities holding the bag on their way out the door.”

WSPA, CIPA, CRC, and Chevron also all lobbied against AB 2461 (The Oil Well Cleanup Accountability Act), which clarifies existing law to require full bonding for cleanup costs of any transferred oil wells, and worked on AB 2716, which would create massive loopholes in existing bonding rules by allowing what advocates call “pinky-swear” financial assurances in the form of corporate guarantees for transferred oil wells. 

“Big Oil’s eye-popping expenditures to fight legislation that keeps Californians safe shows how far the industry will go to evade common sense oversight,” said Hollin Kretzmann, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “The Oil Well Accountability Act, one of the industry’s targets, would help make sure oil companies actually pay to clean up their idle, polluting wells. It’s a basic protection for Californians, and lawmakers should pass it.”

As California’s transportation fuels transition and a tight state budget remain priority issues for lawmakers in Sacramento, advocates stress that without transparency and accountability for the costs of remediation, both idle oil wells and unplanned refinery closures threaten to saddle taxpayers and communities with pollution and cleanup costs. SB 1259, AB 2461, and AB 2716 are now before the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees.

Oil corporations successfully lobbied against SB 982, the Affordable Insurance and Reliability Act, which would have helped hold polluters accountable for insurance and rebuilding costs from fossil-fuel induced climate disasters, as well as AB 1536, which would have strengthened the state’s protections against President Trump’s offshore drilling push for California’s coast.

Three-quarters of the oil and gas entities spending went towards “other payments” to influence state policy—which include fees to consultants, trade association dues, and donations to industry front groups—rather than on direct lobbying itself: they spent $7.8 million on other payments and $2.6 million on in-house and external lobbyists.

Top industry front group Californians for Energy Independence scored nearly $1.8 million in itemized contributions in Q1, all of it from Chevron. The front group used most of that money to pay Winner and Mandabach Campaigns, a consulting firm that specializes in ballot measures. Winner and Mandabach Campaigns previously worked for Californians for Energy Independence during Big Oil’s failed attempt to overturn California’s health buffer zones between schools and oil wells. 

Other top payees of the oil and gas entities were ML Media Group ($1.2 million from WSPA), The Axis Agency ($507,000 from WSPA), California Business Roundtable ($500,000 from Chevron), and Flexpoint Advocacy ($500,000 from WSPA). Also of note is Washington, D.C.-based PR firm DDC Public Affairs, which is notorious for its work with industry front groups that pushed deceptive messages. The firm got $137,000 from Chevron and has increased its haul from oil and gas firms in California since 2023. 

The top five lobbying firms to service the oil and gas industry in Q1 were Buchalter ($371,000), Carpenter Garcia Sievers ($277,000), Axiom Advisors ($210,000), Kester/Pahos ($110,000), and Prime Strategies of California ($96,000; the firm also received $125,000 from Phillips 66, classified as “other payments”). 

The record lobbying spending comes as oil companies announce their first-quarter profits, with Chevron making $2.2 billion and Valero making $1.3 billion. Average gasoline prices in California topped $6 per gallon on April 30.

Additional information on Q1 lobbying activity is available upon request.

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Methodology: This report analyzes raw data from the California Secretary of State’s Political Reform Division as of May 1, 2026. The analysis includes the lobbyist employers in the “oil and gas” category for the 2025-26 legislative session. The state’s definition of oil and gas lobbyist employers includes, in addition to traditional oil and gas firms, firms that advocate for biomass energy, compressed natural gas, and/or carbon removal. As of May 1, five filers had not submitted Q1 reports: Berry Corporation, E&B Natural Resources, Kinder Morgan, Synergy Oil & Gas, and Woodside Energy. Berry Corporation is now part of California Resources Corporation; E&B Natural Resources and Woodside Energy have terminated their registrations.

LCA LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We acknowledge that Sacramento is the traditional home of the Maidu, Miwok and Nisenan people. Part of our commitment to decolonizing ourselves, our language, and our organizations is a commitment to learning and better understanding the history of Indigenous Peoples of so-called California, including the history of contact, colonization and the extraction of resources from Indigenous lands which has been part of the continuation of modern colonization.

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When I moved to Richmond 25 years ago, Chevron was so entrenched in Richmond’s politics that it was rumored that they had a desk in the city manager’s office.

For ordinary folks—especially immigrant and refugee families—who lived here, the message back then was clear: Richmond isn’t really yours.

But for the past three decades APEN members — driven by courage, creativity, and a fierce love for our city— have challenged Chevron’s power, proving that Richmond belongs to us.

I spent the last 30 years working with national organizations on issues of climate justice and corporate power. Across that time, much of my own political thinking was shaped by the organizing I saw APEN leading in Richmond.

I joined APEN as Co-Director because I know that the reality of a Just Transition is possible. What’s more – I’ve seen it happen, right in my backyard. 

As a new Richmond resident, I knew I had to stand up to Chevron’s toxic policies.

I knew APEN as a neighbor first. I met APEN staff as our children ran around together while we packed the Richmond city council chambers during meetings.

One experience that sticks out is a meeting in 2020. The council was deciding on whether Richmond’s port would continue to store and handle coal and petroleum coke, a carbon-rich solid byproduct of oil refining.

The tension in the air was palpable as activists and residents packed the chambers.

When APEN members arrived in a sea of green shirts, I knew that our community had shown up: organized, informed, and ready.

But we weren’t the only ones turning people out – fossil fuel interests had brought speakers to give old and misleading arguments. 

The lack of empathy was at a fever pitch; I even overheard someone scoffing and rolling their eyes at “yet another” resident testifying about suffering from asthma. 

APEN members gave essential and powerful testimony to combat the misinformation parroted by fossil fuel representatives. The passion and dedication to Richmond was crystal clear. 

Together, we moved the city council to vote to end storage of harmful substances in our city.

Over the past three decades, APEN members have inspired me with their tenacity and bold presence.

So much has changed in Richmond in the last 25 years.

In 2024, grassroots organizers won a $550 million settlement from Chevron—a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in a Just Transition for Richmond. 

And, Chevron is on the defensive, going so far as to fund their own newspaper to parrot their talking points, because they know that ordinary, working-class people are transforming Richmond and taking back control. 

This is the transformative power of grassroots organizing. The energy of Fire Horse year reminds us that bold, courageous action is needed to ignite lasting change. 

APEN members are exactly that – passionate and fearless – as they continue to raise their voices in Richmond, Oakland, and Los Angeles’ South Harbor.

I’m excited to draw on my experience and build grassroots power alongside Co-Director Vivian Huang.

This month, we are raising $28,000 to fund the crucial work of our bold members.

In the coming weeks we’ll share victories from youth in Richmond and LA’s South Harbor, as well as milestones in Oakland’s Chinatown—all are a testament to the transformative power of APEN’s long-term grassroots organizing.

We have received a generous matching grant of up to $25,000! This means when you give today, your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar; that’s double the impact!

I’m honored to join the team at APEN to support our members and build a Just Transition that makes sense for poor and working class communities of color in California.

In Solidarity,

Michelle Chan, Co-Director, APEN

The post My front row seat to the power of grassroots organizing appeared first on Asian Pacific Environmental Network.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 1, 2026

The eight-hour workday. Voting rights. Desegregated buses and schools. Every hard-won right Californians depend on today came from people who organized, refused to accept the status quo, and fought back.

In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions made a declaration: in five years, workers across the country would strike on May 1 for an eight-hour workday.  No guarantee of success—and no central command to make it happen. The idea spread anyway, city to city, carried by ordinary workers who organized locally and walked off of the job together. At Haymarket Square in Chicago, workers paid for that defiance with their lives. The movement grew anyway. They won, and May 1 became the international workers’ celebration, May Day.

That is the spirit that drives Public Advocates. For 55 years, we have combined civil rights litigation, policy advocacy, and deep partnership with grassroots communities to challenge the laws and power structures that lock low-income communities and communities of color out of good schools, stable housing, and reliable transit. We do this because rights declared on paper mean nothing without power behind them—and power is built through sustained organizing and coordinated struggle over time. That is how we win resourced schools, renter protections, and transit systems that serve the people who need these most.

That work has never been more urgent.

California is the fourth-largest economy in the world. The people who built it—teachers, nurses, farmworkers, transit workers, essential workers of every kind—are being pushed out of it. The Tenant Protection Act, the state’s primary shield against extreme rent hikes and unjust evictions, expires in 2030. Tens of thousands of affordable homes sit approved but unfinanced. Students in under-resourced school facilities are still denied what the law guarantees. This is not a series of policy failures. It is a system working exactly as it was designed—to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few rather than spreading it to include the people who make this state run.

We know it can be different today because we have seen it. In Minnesota years of cross-racial organizing produced the 2023“Minnesota Miracle,”— a single legislative session that delivered a billion dollars in affordable housing, free school meals for every child, expanded voting rights, paid family leave, and protections for workers and immigrant communities. This past January 23, that same coalition drove a massive ICE presence out of Minneapolis through peaceful community action. It didn’t happen by accident. It happened because people built power—across race, across issues, across years—together.

That is the work of May Day. That is the work of Public Advocates.

This May Day we recommit to the California that should exist—where the people who built this economy can afford to stay here, where every child has a school worthy of their potential, and where no community’s future depends on the goodwill of those in power.

Power isn’t given. It’s built. We’re building it.

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Public Advocates Inc. is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing, transportation equity, and climate justice.

The post Statement: Public Advocates Stands with Workers and Communities Fighting For a Just California on May Day appeared first on Public Advocates.

Now Hiring: Director of Rural Justice The Central California Environmental Justice Network (CCEJN) is seeking a passionate and experienced leader to serve as its next Director of Rural Justice in Fresno. This full-time leadership role focuses on advancing environmental justice across the San Joaquin Valley—supporting efforts around clean water, pesticide reform, and farmworker rights. The […]

April 30, 2026—LAist reporter Mariana Dale spoke with Senior Staff Attorney Alicia Virani about Miliani Rodriguez v. California, Public Advocates’ lawsuit challenging California’s inequitable distribution of Prop 2 school modernization funds. Virani explains why the firm filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in March—and why low-wealth districts facing asbestos, leaks, and toxic mold can’t afford to wait for the next bond measure. A hearing is scheduled for May 20.

Read the Story

The post LAIST: California voters greenlit billions of dollars to fix schools. How much has it helped? As schools age, the requests for modernization funding exceed the funding available.As schools age, the requests for modernization funding exceed the funding available. appeared first on Public Advocates.

Contact: kayla@unbendablemedia.com

WASHINGTON – Nearly 120 community, labor, climate and environmental justice organizations representing millions of people across the country today urged Congress to reject efforts to fast-track artificial intelligence or data centers through permitting reform or other must-pass legislation.

Despite growing nationwide opposition, data center expansion is moving ahead without basic safeguards or meaningful community consent. The data center boom is driving up electricity bills, straining water supplies, and worsening pollution from diesel generators and fossil-fuel-powered grids, while deepening environmental injustice by concentrating facilities in low-income communities and communities of color already overburdened by pollution and limited resources.

The letter sent to congressional leaders today is backed by environmental justice leaders on the frontlines, including Memphis-based Young, Gifted & Green and Memphis Community Against Pollution. Those groups are fighting an xAI data center and working to ensure their efforts inform communities facing similar developments, serving as both a warning and a model for action.

“Our democratic process was sidelined when our most powerful leaders both elected and unelected championed a data center while community voices were shut out,” said LaTricea D. Adams, CEO and president, Young, Gifted & Green. “What happens in Memphis can happen in cities and states across the country. We need the U.S. Congress to do its job now to preserve and protect our rights as constituents and fight for our democracy.”

“Perpetuating the long-standing practice of environmental injustice costs our families their human right to clean air while burdening our bodies with illness that impact everything from breathing to birthings,” said KeShaun Pearson, executive director of Memphis Community Against Coalition. “Congress must put an end to the continual sacrificing of majority Black families and futures like ours. We deserve a healthy environment that doesn’t harm our communities and our planet for corporate gain.”

The letter warns that data center developers are replicating the fossil fuel industry’s long-standing pattern of targeting low-income communities, Tribal communities and communities of color. Nearly half of U.S. data centers are already located in these areas, deepening cumulative pollution burdens, raising utility costs and straining infrastructure in communities with the least resources to respond.

“Congress must not let Big Tech block oversight and hide data centers’ real harms from the public, including their immense energy and water use, dangerous pollution and rising local costs,” said Camden Weber, senior climate and energy policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Data center giants spend consumers’ money to gut regulations, buy up utilities and avoid accountability, enriching billionaires while shifting risks to everyone else. Members of Congress are supposed to represent their communities, not strip the people who elected them of the power to protect themselves from these massive operations moving into their neighborhoods.”

“We’ve seen this playbook before: strip away safeguards, sideline public input, and call it progress. But there is nothing ‘clean’ or responsible about an industry that drives up our energy bills, drains our water, and concentrates pollution in our communities,” said Mar Zepeda Salazar, legislative director at Climate Justice Alliance. “If lawmakers move forward with a deregulatory approach, what guarantees are there that anyone will be held accountable—to the law, to public health, or to the people most impacted? Our communities should not be forced to subsidize corporate growth with their health, their land, and their futures. Real progress means durable and enforceable protections, community consent, and investment that doesn’t come at the cost of environmental justice.”

“All communities deserve to have a say in what is being built in their backyards, especially for environmental justice communities facing a legacy of dangerous facilities polluting their neighborhoods,” said Yosef Robele, federal policy manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. “This is even more important now as harmful, undemocratic practices are being employed in the build-out of data center projects, such as using non-disclosure agreements that keep communities in the dark. These facilities often bypass necessary guardrails of both public input and impact analysis, threatening the health and safety of communities by polluting the air and water, while also guzzling critical water resources. This highlights the need for Congress to reject legislation that fast-tracks data center development, and to protect and strengthen bedrock laws like NEPA that protect communities’ rights, resources, and health.”

“It is time for Congress to stand up to Big Tech and reject these dangerous permitting rollbacks,” said Jim Walsh, policy director of Food & Water Watch. “Communities should not have to sacrifice their water so multibillion dollar companies can build data centers faster with less accountability, especially at a time when we are facing a water supply crisis across the United States. Rather than fast tracking these projects, Congress should listen to communities around the country that are rejecting the massive expansion of data centers and put the brakes on these projects so we can better understand the impacts on scarce water supplies and communities that depend on this essential resource.”

“Using permitting reform and other legislation to fast track the data center boom is a slap in the face to local communities who will be the ones to pay the price. No amount of giveaways to data center projects will stave off irreversible harm, including rising electricity costs and polluted environments,” said Raena Garcia, senior energy campaigner from Friends of the Earth U.S. “If Congress is truly committed to protecting our people and the planet, they will halt altogether the attempts from both the Big Oil and Big Tech industries to scale up data centers without meaningful protections.”

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following the Trump administration’s decision to invoke the Defense Production Act to subsidize fossil fuel expansion under the guise of an “energy emergency”, Mar Zepeda, Legislative Director for CJA, issued the following statement: 

“This decision is not a solution to the rising costs, climate disasters, and public health challenges communities are facing. Rather, this is a continuation of false proclamations designed to lock the United States into deeper fossil fuel dependence while maintaining a system that profits from pollution and extraction. 

This action builds on a broader pattern of public giveaways to an already profitable industry, including billions in federal subsidies that shift financial risk away from corporations and onto taxpayers. At a time when the U.S. is already one of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers, doubling down on oil, gas, and coal will not deliver energy security or affordability. It will instead entrench price volatility, delay the transition to stable, community-centered clean energy, and deepen the climate crisis.

At its core, this is about the continued consolidation of wealth and power. By invoking emergency authorities to fast-track fossil fuel expansion, the administration is sidelining public input, weakening accountability, and concentrating decision-making in the hands of corporate actors. This undermines democratic governance and strips communities of their right to shape their own energy futures.

From an environmental justice perspective, the impacts are stark. These investments will concentrate pollution in frontline and low-income communities that are already overburdened, increasing risks to public health while driving up economic costs. At the same time, they deepen global inequities, locking countries into cycles of fossil fuel dependence, volatility, and debt.

Fossil fuel corporations are not passive in this system. They actively shape and defend it, using financial and legal tools to protect profits and limit democratic decision-making.

This is not energy security. It is wealth consolidation at the expense of communities and the planet. A just energy future requires investing in community-led solutions that reduce pollution, lower costs, and protect the health and self-determination of all people.”

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The post CJA Condemns Trump Administration’s Use of the Defense Production Act to Expand Fossil Fuels appeared first on Climate Justice Alliance.

Cameron Steinback has taken a long journey from beginning his career as a teacher to Climate Justice Program Manager for Front and Centered in Washington State. In late 2025, he found himself in a data-center roundtable convened by Washington state Governor Bob Ferguson. It was an “experience” for someone who still considers himself new to the policy landscape. 

The following is from our conversation on January 15th, 2026. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

~

Mark Chavez

How did you get from Hayward, California to being the Climate Justice Program Manager of a nonprofit in Seattle? 

Cameron Steinback

I have always enjoyed and been encouraged to try and do many things from sports to various educational and artistic activities. That was something that was instilled by family members and my elders: from horseback riding and Black rodeo shows to museums and science centers, and enjoying the mountains up in the Sierra Nevada and the beaches and coastlines in California. 

So when I chose my educational pursuits, science, exploring and understanding the natural world were definitely motivating factors. Through my undergraduate work and my first professional experiences, a lot of them centered around schools and working with young people because I had so many great experiences being out and learning in those spaces, being shaped by those educators in the classroom as well as in those outdoor learning environments just instilled the love and appreciation for those people and places. 

At the same time, I have also very much taken pride in the movements that Black folks have shaped on this continent for generations upon generations. From a very early age, going to MLK marches in the Bay Area, being exposed and understanding what my parents’ generation lived and experienced as teenagers and adults during the Black Power movement, and being proud of my connection to that history gave me the confidence to go out into a lot of new and different spaces and places. So with all of that, education became a natural place for me. I worked in public schools  in Oakland, California, and Atlanta, Georgia, in the first part of my teaching career. From there I transitioned to teaching in museums and science centers in the Bay Area. The last focus was on doing ocean conservation, marine mammal and climate change education to everyone from kindergarteners up to university students from different parts of the country. 

I came to Seattle after that because I wanted to take my next step in my educational career. I wanted to see what else could unfold. And through the excitement and joy that I get from teaching young people, I built up enough skill that I was like, “How can I shape the next educators?” How can I continue to build upon the joy and the experience of teaching and connecting people to the parts of the world that sustain us, that let us thrive, and speak to the inequity of people’s access to and relationship with healthy environments, or the burdens of climate change on Black, brown, and poor folks all over the world. I wanted to take that next step, and [think about] how I could shape educators. So I came to Seattle for a graduate program at Antioch University concentrating on urban environmental education, which at that time was a confluence of so much of what I cared about, learning about environmental justice and climate justice, with education as a tool for community agency and civic action, [I was thinking] how do we take our knowledge and understanding to actually continue to shape the world into the place that we want and to need it to be. 

From that graduate school experience, I got experience working with a land-use policy organization. I never thought of policy as part of what would be my professional pathway. But by virtue of the kind of things that I ended up doing next, which was working with an environmental education organization here in Seattle, creating new science-based curriculum, that did not just focus on the science, but tied it to the narratives of people and social movements for climate justice. 

We cannot solve environmental issues without solving social issues. They’re intertwined, they’re interconnected, and the solutions lie in how we grapple with both. 

I started seeking out roles and positions where I could continue to leverage my educational skills and build upon my policy knowledge, and it just so happened that Front and Centered was looking for a climate justice program manager. I read the description, read the kind of policy sphere in which Front and Centered works and operates. I recognized the value of community education, community activation, it’s a key part of how they do that work. I’m like, yeah, I’m an educator. I can do that stuff. I don’t have the deep policy experience, but I’m just going to put my name in the hat because you’ve got to give yourself a shot. You’ve got to give yourself a chance.

MC

If you went back to Hayward and you ran into somebody you haven’t seen in decades, how would you describe Front and Centered to them? 

CS

I’d describe it in a lot of the same ways that I’ve described it in Washington. Front and Centered is an organization that aims to advance climate and environmental justice in Washington State, in part by supporting a statewide coalition of organizations that represent and serve “frontline communities.” That means the people who are most impacted by environmental harm and policymaking, the people who are hit first and worst by the impacts of climate change. These communities are literally at the front and center of the work we do to undo those harms and create a just future. Whatever the ways in which that happens – from creating and making policy, to holding state agencies and government accountable, to creating resources for folks to continue to be activated and working for justice in their communities – frontline communities are the ones to shape it.

MC

What are some of the key issues that Front and Centered is focused on moving into 2026? 

CS

One key legislative focus is the CURB Pollution Act and how we are taking the cumulative risk burden (CURB) of pollution that frontline communities already face and using that information to create clear boundaries in terms of where new polluting industries can and cannot go. We recognize that frontline communities have borne an inequitable, disproportionate measure of that pollution for far too long—a burden they shouldn’t have borne in the first place—and that no new polluting facilities should be permitted in or near those communities. That’s a very general summary of what the CURB Act is. 

We are advocating heavily and strongly for measures for affordability, specifically a bill to create a statewide energy assistance program, HB 1903 (Update: this bill was passed and signed into law on March 30th!). This new energy bill assistance program supplements existing programs run by utilities, and we hope will be a step closer to closing the assistance need gap. Energy costs are rising for everyone, for a lot of reasons, and we believe every person has a right to enough energy to thrive while not continuing to burden low-income households. And there’s a lot of other laws that need to be enacted to ensure we protect rate payers from continued increases as we make an energy transition. 

MC

You straddle these two places, where you grew up in the Bay Area and now Seattle, that have such deep ties to the tech industry. But as you mentioned ratepayer burden, I’m curious if you can share a little bit about the recent boom of data centers and AI and how you all have seen that unfolding in Washington. 

CS

There are so many things to talk about when it comes to artificial intelligence, data centers specifically, and probably the most important place to start is right at the resource consumption of these new facilities. The first interest for us for Environmental and Climate Justice: is there harm being done where these facilities are being sited. And that goes to the way in which Washington State has a permitting system set up. Is there appropriate and enough transparency, and access to assistance for communities to really understand what these permits are saying and what’s being put in, before the cranes and construction start moving in? The resource consumption of electricity, these things take a significant amount of energy every single day. Here in Washington, we are committed to a clean energy transformation, which is to move to an electricity supply free of greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. So at the same time we’re coming off of fossil fuels, we’re also increasing demand for electricity in which we need a continued rollout of renewable energy supply. There’s a pinch that happens in there. As utilities need to build out and update infrastructure, they can recoup some of those costs on rate payers. But if rate payers aren’t the driving force behind the demand, that’s an equity issue, right? We need to ensure that data centers are paying not just their fair share, but more explicitly paying for all of the new energy and new interconnection that their demand is pushing. 

Another important resource is, of course, water. Water has been and it’s going to continue to be, such an important Environmental Justice concern. The way in which water rights are established and distributed, to the ways dams and hydroelectric power blocks divert and impact fish passage, causes me quite a bit of concern 

I apologize if that feels like a little bit of a word salad, but there’s so many things that are going on in there. The first and foremost is protecting those resources from the exploitative nature of industry. Industry is going to find the best way to make it profitable for themselves and make the protection of people, lands, and waters optional. Let’s make sure those protections are first, front and center. 

MC

You were part of a six month data center working group convened by Washington’s Governor Bob Ferguson. How was that? What happened?

CS

That was an experience, as a person being new to the policy and political landscape. And for context, I’ll probably call myself new at this for the next five years. (laughing)

MC

Welcome.

CS

It was an important space for us to be at the table. Our coalition is concerned about Environmental and Climate Justice in all the ways that it shows up. So we recognize this is a place that is important, and we’re grateful for the invitation from the governor’s office to participate. 

It was the full spectrum of folks interested and involved in data centers. Everybody from people invested in the data center consortium, the lobby of folks who want to ensure that they have the best incentives and least amount of hindrance to their business model, to Google and Amazon Web Service, to electeds here in Washington state, to other groups that prioritize the public interest and environmental concerns, including folks representing the Yakama Nation were there as well. So a lot of people, right, at and around that table. And the charge, the responsibility given to this work group was to provide recommendations to the governor’s office around what could and should be done, as this was an emerging issue for Washington State and nationally. 

There are incentives for data centers that are already in Washington state law, in the form of tax incentives. So there was a subgroup focused on economic landscape of the data centers in Washington. The other subgroup focused on resource and environmental issues related to data centers. With two subgroups: one focused on tax,revenue, and economics, and the other one focused on resource and environmental concerns there was a lot to cover and an accelerated timeline over six months – with the facilitators’ charge to get recommendations done by the end of October 2025. 

So many questions were brought up. The pace was accelerated in ways in which it was hard to be confident that we would arrive at clear recommendations to the governor’s office that would alleviate a lot of the concerns, at least a lot of the concerns that came up from the folks who were working in the public interest and those butting against what kind of new restrictions that could or should be put in place, and have those restrictions immediately challenged by folks working on the pro data center side. 

One point that was explored was if data centers are receiving tax incentives, should those incentives be tied to certain efficiency mandates and what kind of energy was being brought onto the system? It is an imbalance that we incentivize industries that are straining our grid and potentially bringing non-renewable sources to the grid when we have a net zero law that requires us to reduce emission by 2045, 2050?

What eventually came out in the recommendations were not as bad as I felt going into the process. The findings established that there was need for clear guidelines from the legislature, more powers to the Utilities and Transportation Commission, and utilities to be able to set appropriate kinds of rates for these new large loads, to the transparency of the kind of connections that were being asked for from data centers. 

Right now, what’s being worked on for this legislative session are a couple of bills to clarify some of the things, to put in place some transparency, put in place some restrictions, so that if and when new data centers do come online, they’re not creating harm, and they’re in line with our commitments as a state to a clean energy transition. And of course, we’d like to see and ensure communities have a lot of say and control ultimately of where these facilities are built and the kind of benefits that can come from them. We’re in the 21st century, artificial intelligence is a tool. How significant a tool it’s going to continue to be is to be determined. I’m old enough to have enough awareness of the dot-com boom of the 90s and this industry is known for booms and busts. And it would be horrible if we as a state continue to allow a proliferation of these data centers in communities with a lot of flashy, maybe potentially short-term benefits, but long-term we could be left holding the bag. (Update: Through the 2026 short legislative session, a coalition of organizations led by the NW Energy Coalition worked hard to pass HB 2515, which would have brought comprehensive regulation on data centers in Washington state. It did not pass, but the process illuminated the challenges of such legislation and the determination to come back stronger in 2027.) 

MC

Were there any points that the people in favor of data centers brought to the table that you thought to yourself, “wow, I hadn’t thought of it that way?”

CS

When I talk about an idea that any new data center or new large load facility needs to bring its own clean energy. Right? So, that can look a lot of different ways from they’re paying for new infrastructure to go right here in Washington for the energy grid, or they get permission to build their own facility behind the meter to power themselves directly, or they go into a power purchase agreement to get power from Oregon or Montana or Idaho or something like that. 

And the part in that I hadn’t thought about, or it was like tying into all the different threads, was the thinking okay, so yeah, say they go into a power purchase agreement, who’s to say that power is not coming from a coal plant? or who’s to say that, say it is a renewable facility, but they may be operating under unfair labor practices, right now there’s not a collective bargaining agreement happening in that part of the country. You know, are we offloading the issue to someone else just to meet our goals? 

That was the piece I was like yeah, the Northwest power infrastructure, and where it all comes from, where it all is all sourced is complex and takes dedication to really understand the current needs and in capacities to how it’s maintained and upgraded for this new century. 

MC

Oh, there’s so much. I feel like we could keep going on this forever. I have a curveball. Do you still ski? 

CS

I do. I still consider myself a skier. It’s happening less and less for a number of reasons. You know, age. I put in my miles when I was young, so I’ve got early onset arthritis. But it’s become really prohibitively expensive for most folks. I could, but it’s so far from what I was able to grow up with, I was part of a great Black national ski club. I still love the sport. I invested in a lot of it. Yeah, I still ski. Sorry, that was a long answer

MC

Do you want to go up someday? I snowboard, but I won’t hold it against you that you’re a skier.

CS

Oh yeah for sure. I’d be down.

MC

What else do you do for fun? 

CS

Science fiction, short stories. I love short stories. For the past four years I’ve particularly been focused on Black, indigenous, people of color authors. First, it’s great, amazing creativity that I’ve always loved. Also the ways in which folks bring their culture and their own stories that have been passed down into these new ways of expression. Let’s see, let’s see. 

I made a commitment last year to learn to play the banjo. I’ve been inspired by different banjo musicians and how they’ve talked about the history of that instrument being a unique instrument of the Black diaspora in the Caribbean and the Americas, and how that’s been transformed throughout history. And there’s some great folks in Oakland and North Carolina, doing some really cool reclamation of that instrument. And then the cultural music that has been muddled by minstrelry, right? There’s a whole beautiful musical tradition and culture that was appropriated and turned into minstrelry. And so that’s why the banjo is associated with that, but it’s transcendent, it goes way, way before all that. So I’m enjoying learning to play the banjo. 

And getting my hands in the soil and dirt. I love gardening. Doing some great projects. A significant part of my family lives in Georgia now, and I go back there pretty frequently and try to get a wildflower meadow established and working on my mom’s legacy out there that she really wants to pass down to her grandchildren. 

MC

That’s awesome. Who’s a sci-fi author that people should know about? 

CS

I mean, I think everybody knows Octavia Butler. Probably another author that’s moved me with their books, N.K. Jemisin. Those are two that immediately come to mind. 

MC

So great talking to you, Cameron. I really appreciate it. 

CS

Thank you

The post Cameron Steinback on Coming to Climate Justice Work as an Educator, WA’s Data Center Working Group, and More. appeared first on Climate Justice Alliance.

First International Conference for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels Will Convene April 28-29, Santa Marta, Colombia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 15, 2026 

New York, NY– Representatives from the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) will be on-the-ground at the upcoming First International Conference for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels 28–29 April 2026 in Santa Marta, Colombia, as well as the related Global Science and Policy Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (April 24-25). 

The conference, co-organized by Colombia and The Netherlands, aims to bring together countries that recognize the need for climate action to discuss pathways for a fossil fuel phase down. This is the first of a series of conferences that will develop a roadmap for this phase down. 

GAIA and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) are co-convening a group of experts to develop recommendations for the phase down of petrochemicals as part of the roadmap, to inform government discussions at the conference. 

When developing strategies for a fossil fuel phase down, countries at Santa Marta cannot let petrochemicals fly under the radar. Petrochemicals are created from fossil fuels, and, and the IEA projects that the chemicals sector will increase energy demand by 2035 by more than any other industrial sector.  Plastics alone are on track to take up a third of the global carbon budget by 2050. Without setting a target phase down for the petrochemical industry, world leaders will fatally undermine their own progress in reducing fossil fuel extraction and use. 

The wars in the Middle East have also exposed the fragility of the fossil fuel/petrochemical supply chain prone to escalating conflicts, showing once again that relying on these industries is a risky business.

The development of this conference also signals that a critical mass of countries are willing to find common ground outside of the dysfunctional climate negotiations space. This could provide lessons for other multinational policy fora– particularly the plastics treaty talks, which have fallen prone to the same strategies that have stymied the climate talks, namely a small handful of fossil fuel-producing countries blocking meaningful action. 

GAIA’s policy experts, (Ana Rocha, Global Plastics Policy Director and Dr. Neil Tangri, Science and Policy Director) will be at the conference, and are available for comment on this topic in the lead-up as well as during and after the proceedings. 

Press contacts:

Claire Arkin, Global Communications Lead 

claire@no-burn.org | +1 973 444 4869

###

GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 1,000 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 100 countries. With our work we aim to catalyze a global shift towards environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance solutions to waste and pollution. We envision a just, zero waste world built on respect for ecological limits and community rights, where people are free from the burden of toxic pollution, and resources are sustainably conserved, not burned or dumped. 

The post GAIA URGES PETROCHEMICAL PHASE DOWN AS ESSENTIAL CLIMATE SOLUTION AT SANTA MARTA CONFERENCE first appeared on GAIA.

3 de marzo, 2026

Con el objetivo de fortalecer capacidades locales y promover soluciones estructurales frente al aumento sostenido de los residuos sólidos en el país, el Centro Salvadoreño de Tecnología Apropiada (CESTA) desarrolló dos actividades estratégicas: la segunda jornada del Seminario de gestión integral de desechos sólidos dirigida a municipalidades, y el foro público “La invasión plástica en El Salvador: Importación y exportación de desechos plásticos”. Ambos espacios pusieron en el centro la transición hacia modelos basura cero como respuesta técnica, social y ambiental a la crisis de los residuos.

Municipalidades fortalecen capacidades técnicas para avanzar hacia basura cero

En el marco del proceso formativo impulsado por CESTA, representantes de nueve alcaldías y de organizaciones de sociedad civil participaron en la segunda jornada del Seminario de gestión integral de desechos sólidos.

El objetivo general fue establecer lineamientos que conduzcan a los municipios hacia una gestión sustentable de los desechos sólidos, reduciendo al mínimo la generación de basura y fortalecer la planificación institucional mediante una Hoja de Ruta hacia Municipios Cero Basura.

Durante la sesión se abordaron contenidos técnicos sobre tipos de plásticos, micro y nano plásticos, reciclaje e impactos ambientales y sanitarios, incluyendo los riesgos asociados a la incineración de residuos. La discusión subrayó que estas tecnologías representan falsas soluciones, ya que liberan contaminantes altamente tóxicos como dioxinas y furanos, con impactos directos en la salud y el ambiente.

“Para evitar una crisis de basura de grandes proporciones en un futuro cercano y dar sustentabilidad a la gestión de desechos sólidos, es necesario implementar nuevas acciones creativas que no solo se concentren en la etapa final de la recolección y disposición, sino que abarquen todas las etapas, desde la generación, almacenamiento, recolección, transporte, recuperación y disposición final de desechos y consideren los aspectos económicos, ecológicos, sociales y políticos.”, señaló Laura Mejía, de CESTA.

Por otro lado, el contexto institucional presenta desafíos complejos para que los gobiernos locales implementen acciones relacionadas a los residuos sólidos , por ejemplo, la reducción del Fondo para el Desarrollo Económico y Social (FODES), los procesos de reestructuración de los municipios a distritos y la creación en 2024 de la Autoridad Nacional de Residuos Sólidos (ANDRES) han limitado la autonomía y los recursos financieros de los gobiernos locales.

Frente a este escenario, el proceso de formación representa una contribución valiosa para el fortalecimiento de capacidades de los gobiernos municipales, aportando herramientas e información actualizada y una propuesta para la gestión sustentable de los desechos sólidos. En CESTA, esperan que a futuro cada gobierno municipal cuente con su hoja de ruta clara, realista y aplicable en el corto y mediano plazo, con metas medibles y un compromiso institucional; que cuenten con una visión estratégica con el fin de alcanzar Municipios basura cero.

“Este proceso educativo ha permitido conocer las diversas aristas desde lo ambiental, social, político de la problemática del mal manejo de los desechos sólidos. Esto ha permitido sensibilizar a los /as funcionarios municipales y participantes, para que revisen sus planes operativos e iniciativas para una gestión sustentable de los desechos sólidos y la reducción de la contaminación especialmente de los desechos plásticos.”, afirmó Laura Mejía de CESTA.

Foro nacional analiza la importación de desechos plásticos y sus impactos

Como parte del fortalecimiento de la formación ambiental y política, CESTA realizó además el foro “La invasión plástica en El Salvador”, con la participación de 60 personas entre jóvenes, universidades, recicladores de base, comunidades urbanas, organizaciones sociales y referentes municipales.

El objetivo fue actualizar a la sociedad salvadoreña sobre la magnitud de los desechos plásticos que ingresan al país, así como sobre la creciente generación interna de basura plástica. El espacio incluyó un análisis de la Convención de Basilea y sus enmiendas sobre desechos plásticos peligrosos, examinando el estado de su implementación a nivel nacional.

El foro puso en evidencia que El Salvador continúa recibiendo importantes volúmenes de desechos plásticos desde Estados Unidos, lo que incrementa la vulnerabilidad territorial y ambiental. Las y los participantes coincidieron en la necesidad de fortalecer la coordinación regional y la capacidad de respuesta informada para enfrentar esta problemática.

“Es muy importante hablar sobre importación y exportación de desechos plásticos porque seguimos siendo uno de los países que más recibe basura de Estados Unidos y la población tiene que estar informada para demandar nuestros derechos a no aumentar la vulnerabilidad del territorio. Podemos a nivel regional, encontrar estrategias comunes para enfrentar estas problemáticas.”, comentó Linda Rubio de CESTA.

Entre las principales conclusiones se destacó la urgencia de profundizar la formación político-ambiental, mantener el análisis crítico sobre las dinámicas de importación y exportación de residuos, y articular estrategias comunes que prioricen la justicia ambiental y la reducción en la fuente.

Resultados y reflexiones

Más allá de los contenidos técnicos, ambos espacios dejaron una reflexión transversal, la gestión de residuos sólidos no puede abordarse únicamente desde la infraestructura, sino que debe hacerse desde un enfoque integral que considere dimensiones económicas, ecológicas, sociales y políticas. La transición hacia basura cero requiere voluntad institucional, participación comunitaria y decisiones basadas en evidencia.

Con estos procesos, CESTA refuerza su apuesta por soluciones locales, socialmente justas, ambientalmente responsables y sin falsas soluciones como la incineración de residuos.

Sobre CESTA

• Frente a las crisis socioambientales planetarias que tienen sus causas inmediatas en el modelo de desarrollo inadecuado y en la estructura de poder que sustenta ese modelo; CESTA contribuye a impulsar esos cambios estructurales que permitan construir sociedades más sustentables con justicia social, ambiental y de género.
• Sitio web: cesta-foe.org.sv/
• Redes sociales: Instagram / Facebook / X

The post CESTA forma a municipalidades salvadoreñas para avanzar hacia hojas de ruta basura cero y abre el debate sobre la invasión plástica en el país first appeared on GAIA.

By Mariel Vilella, February 13, 2026

GAIA (Global Alliance for Incineration Alternatives) today welcomed the COP31 Presidency’s decision to make zero waste and waste methane reduction a top climate priority. The announcement underscores the urgent need to tackle methane—a super-pollutant over 80 times more potent than CO₂ over 20 years—and accelerate near-term climate action under the Paris Agreement, while ensuring a just transition for frontline communities.

“Zero waste is a practical, fast, and equitable climate solution”

Waste methane is one of the fastest and most cost-effective emissions sources to address. Proven solutions—like composting, recycling, waste separation, and biological treatment—can reduce methane emissions by up to 95% and cut total waste-sector emissions by more than 1.4 billion tonnes, while delivering cleaner air, jobs, healthier communities, and stronger local economies. Crucially, these solutions must be implemented in ways that ensure a just transition for waste workers and marginalized communities.

Türkiye has a unique opportunity to lead
Türkiye can elevate zero waste as a core climate solution, mobilizing finance toward local implementation, demonstrating scalable models, and integrating equity and community-led approaches. This sets a powerful precedent for global ambition, practical delivery, and a just transition.

Local communities are already showing what works
Across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, local governments and community organizations are demonstrating that zero waste systems can deliver rapid, equitable climate action. Key examples include:

• Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: 4,500 households in Bonyokwa ward divert 100% of organic waste, cutting 16.4 tonnes of methane annually. World Bank funding supports scaling, led by local GAIA member, Nipe Fagio.
• Brazil: 20+ waste picker organisations in São Paulo and Brasília implement organic waste recycling under the National Strategy for Municipal Biowaste, supported by over US$ 70M.
• Philippines: The Zero Waste Cities Network includes 37 cities committed to reducing 70% of methane from waste by 2030. The Philippine National Waste Workers Alliance (PNWWA) unites 1,000+ workers advocating for safe working conditions.
• Durban, South Africa: Food waste from Warwick markets is composted for the Durban Botanic Garden, reducing landfill costs (~US$ 93/tonne) and creating jobs. The project is expanding to three markets and eventually all nine city markets.
  Accra, Ghana: Green Youth Africa Organization (GAYO) integrates 600 informal waste workers into municipal systems, reducing burning and improving livelihoods.
• Europe: Nearly 500 municipalities are committed to zero waste through the Zero Waste Cities Certification. Highlights include Milan collecting 95 kg of organics per person annually, Salacea (Romania) increasing separate collection from 1% to 61% in three months, and Partizanske (Slovakia) reducing residual waste by 57 kg per person within a year.
  

Financing zero waste solutions is key to a just transition
To scale these proven approaches, GAIA calls on governments, multilateral climate funds, and private investors to:

• Shift finance away from high-emitting, harmful waste disposal practices, such as waste-to-energy incineration, toward community-led zero waste initiatives.
• Support frontline waste workers and local organizations to ensure equitable and effective implementation.
• Provide inclusive access to finance for marginalized communities, ensuring a just transition and that no one is left behind.
  

Zero waste is not only a climate solution—it is a justice-centered development opportunity. The time to act is now. COP31 must ensure finance and support to reach those already delivering results on the ground, so local successes can scale to global impact, while advancing a just transition for all communities involved.

For more information, and case studies of community-led zero waste solutions, visit: GAIA Zero Waste Business Models

The post GAIA Welcomes COP31 Zero Waste Priority, Calls for Climate Finance to Scale Community Solutions and Support a Just Transition first appeared on GAIA.

28th Annual Ward Valley “Ground Zero” Spiritual Gathering

Date: Saturday, February 21st, 2026
Time: 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

All are invited to attend this meaningful spiritual gathering honoring the history, culture, and community of Ward Valley.

Event Includes:

Spirit Run

Opening Prayer

Reflection of the Ward Valley Occupation

Tributes & Recognition

Bird Singing and Dancing

Refreshments Provided

Location Directions:

Ward Valley “Ground Zero”
Take I-40 West to Water Road Exit
(Approximately 24 miles west of Needles, California)

Hosted by the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe.

PRESS STATEMENT
Feb 13, 2026

GAIA welcomes the COP31 Presidency’s decision to prioritize zero waste and waste methane reduction—a critical and timely step toward accelerating climate action and advancing a just transition for frontline communities.

Mariel Vilella, Director of GAIA’s Global Climate Program, said:

“Recognizing zero waste as a top climate priority is both urgent and overdue. Waste methane is a super-pollutant driving near-term warming, yet zero waste solutions—like composting, recycling, and organic waste treatment—can reduce methane emissions by up to 95% and cut total waste-sector emissions by more than 1.4 billion tonnes. These solutions deliver cleaner air, jobs, healthier communities, and stronger local economies, while ensuring a just transition for waste workers and marginalized communities.

“Türkiye has a unique opportunity to lead by elevating zero waste as a core climate solution, mobilizing finance toward implementation, and demonstrating scalable, equity-driven models. Across the globe, communities are already showing what works—from Dar es Salaam diverting 100% of organic waste from 4,500 households, to Brazil’s 20+ waste picker organisations supported with USD 70M, and 37 Philippine cities committed to cutting 70% of methane emissions from waste by 2030.

“Climate finance must shift from harmful disposal practices, like waste-to-energy incineration, to community-led zero waste initiatives that deliver results on the ground. Zero waste is not only a climate solution—it is a justice-centred development opportunity. The time to act is now.”

Additional information about zero waste in practice across the world

Across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, local governments and community organizations are demonstrating that zero waste systems can deliver rapid, equitable climate solutions. The cases of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Quezon City (Philippines), and Accra (Ghana) illustrate how decentralized, community-based organic waste management creates green jobs, reduces methane emissions, and strengthens local governance. These examples show that solutions already exist, but scaling them requires supportive policies, networks, and financial backing. (GAIA Zero Waste Business Models)

Additional transformative examples worldwide include:

• Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: The Bonyokwa ward zero waste model collects 1.74 tonnes daily from 4,500 households, achieving 95% source segregation and 100% organic waste diversion, cutting 16.4 tonnes of methane annually.
• Brazil: Over 20 waste picker organisations, including in São Paulo and Brasília, are implementing organic waste recycling systems under the National Strategy for Municipal Biowaste, supported with over USD 70M in funding.
• Philippines: The Zero Waste Cities Network now includes 37 cities committed to cutting 70% of methane emissions from waste by 2030. The Philippine National Waste Workers Alliance (PNWWA) unites 1,000+ workers advocating for labour rights and safe working conditions.
• Durban, South Africa: Food waste from the Warwick markets is composted for the Durban Botanic Garden, reducing landfill costs (~USD 93/ton) and creating jobs. The project is scaling to three markets and eventually all nine city markets.
• Accra, Ghana: Green Youth Africa Organization (GAYO) integrates 600 informal waste workers into municipal waste systems, reducing burning and improving livelihoods.
• Europe: Nearly 500 municipalities are committed to zero waste under the Zero Waste Cities Certification. Highlights include Milan collecting 95 kg of organics per person annually, Salacea (Romania) increasing separate collection from 1% to 61% in three months, and Partizanske (Slovakia) reducing residual waste by 57 kg per person within a year.

MEDIA CONTACT:  

Sonia Astudillo, Global Climate Communications Officer | +639175968286 | sonia@no-burn.org

GAIA is a network of grassroots groups as well as national and regional alliances representing more than 1000 organizations from over 100 countries. With our work we aim to catalyze a global shift towards environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance solutions to waste and pollution. We envision a just, Zero Waste world built on respect for ecological limits and community rights, where people are free from the burden of toxic pollution, and resources are sustainably conserved, not burned or dumped. www.no-burn.org

The post GAIA Welcomes COP31 Zero Waste Priority, Calls for Climate Finance to Scale Solutions first appeared on GAIA.

GAIA condemns the Environmental Protection Agency‘s (EPA) official revocation of its 2009 Endangerment Finding (“Finding”) under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act. The Finding was based on decades of overwhelming scientific evidence and legal precedent that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) endanger public health and welfare. The administration argued that the Clean Air Act does not give it legal authority to regulate GHG, thereby destroying the legal foundation upon which vital climate protections were based.

By decoupling greenhouse gas emissions from the documented harm they do to human and environmental health, the administration is flinging open the door for massive deregulation at the federal level. Their initial stated intent for revoking the Finding is to gut motor vehicle emissions regulations. But it won’t stop there.

On Wednesday, the day before officially revoking the Finding, the administration continued to prop up the coal industry in an Executive Order requiring the Pentagon to source energy from coal-fired power plants, following up on their June 2025  proposed “Repeal of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units.”

For GAIA and our members working at the intersection of waste and environmental justice, this revocation will limit the tools we have to hold polluters accountable and to protect our communities, and especially Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities where polluting infrastructure is most often sited. 

The waste sector is one of the biggest emitters of methane, a greenhouse gas with 82.5 times the warming potential of CO₂ over a 20-year period.  Ending the Finding will take away the authority of the EPA to regulate methane and co-pollutants from landfills, incinerators, and other waste facilities. Additionally, this will stall progress toward true zero waste systems, such as organics diversion, composting, and nontoxic reuse, that cut methane at the source while advancing climate, health, and equity goals. 

Plastics production and disposal are exponentially expanding  GHG emitters. If plastics were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest GHG emitter.  Without EPA authority to regulate GHG emissions, the plastics and petrochemical industry will be free to expand all of the processes–including pyrolysis and gasification–that release extensive GHG emissions, in addition to using toxic chemicals.

This decision is so egregious that numerous organizations have promised to sue the administration, which GAIA fully supports. 

The post EPA revokes its Endangerment Finding, dismantling the legal basis for U.S. climate pollution limits first appeared on GAIA.

La sociedad civil insta a la nueva Presidencia a garantizar mayor transparencia e inclusión.

PARA SU PUBLICACIÓN INMEDIATA: 7 de febrero de 2026

Ginebra, Suiza – El 7 de febrero, los Estados Parte se reunieron en Ginebra, Suiza, en el marco del INC-5.3 para elegir a una nueva Presidencia de las negociaciones del Tratado de plásticos.

El anterior Presidente, el embajador Luis Vayas Valdivieso de Ecuador, anunció formalmente su renuncia a finales del año pasado, generando un vacío de liderazgo en un momento decisivo del proceso. Durante su gestión, las negociaciones fueron objeto de reiteradas críticas por la falta de transparencia, lo que socavó aún más la frágil confianza de los países y de los observadores en el proceso. De manera sistemática, la Presidencia se alineó con el mínimo común denominador, pese al aumento de la ambición por parte de la mayoría de los Estados.

Ahora que el embajador Julio Cordano, Chile, asume la conducción del proceso, la membresía de GAIA le insta a trazar un rumbo distinto al de su antecesor y a restablecer la confianza mediante la recuperación de la transparencia, el ejercicio de una conducción neutral, la habilitación de una toma de decisiones eficaz y la garantía de un acceso y una representación adecuados de la sociedad civil en las negociaciones. Pero lo más importante, deberá sostener la ambición asumida por los Estados Parte desde el inicio del proceso: entregar al mundo un tratado que aborde el ciclo de vida completo de los plásticos, desde la extracción hasta la disposición final,  priorizando la ciencia independiente, los derechos humanos y el liderazgo del Sur Global por sobre los intereses corporativos y de los petroestados.

Larisa de Orbe, Acción Ecológica México:

“El Sur Global ha sido históricamente una de las regiones más afectadas por el ciclo de vida de los plásticos, y por eso ha liderado las metas más ambiciosas. La nueva Presidencia debe reconocer este liderazgo y garantizar que su voz sea escuchada.”

Cecilia Bianco, Taller Ecologista:

“La Presidencia debe asegurar el cumplimiento de la Resolución 5/14 sobre el ciclo de vida de los plásticos, desde la extracción de materias primas hasta la disposición final. Es esencial reducir la producción de plásticos mediante metas globales vinculantes.”

Jam Lorenzo, BAN Toxics:

“La elección de una nueva Presidencia es un paso importante, pero un tratado que aborde todo el ciclo de vida de los plásticos solo será posible si los Estados dejan de proteger a los grandes contaminadores. Proteger la salud humana y el ambiente debe ser el objetivo central.”

Shahriar Hossain, Bangladesh:

“En esta etapa de las negociaciones, lo que falta no es evidencia, sino ambición. La ciencia es clara y los impactos son innegables. Se necesita voluntad política colectiva para lograr un tratado vinculante y creíble que actúe en el origen del problema.”

Robert Kitumaini Chikwanine, SOPRODE RDC:

“La sociedad civil aporta las voces de las comunidades afectadas, conocimiento independiente y la vigilancia necesaria para un tratado creíble. La Presidencia debe garantizar nuestro acceso y asegurar un proceso transparente e inclusivo.”

Kwame Ofori, Ako Foundation:“Para millones de personas que sufren a diario el impacto de la contaminación plástica, este liderazgo es lo que determinará si la ciencia, la justicia y los medios de subsistencia se garantizan o se retrasan”.

Frankie Orona, Society of Native Nations:

“Los Pueblos Indígenas y las comunidades en primera línea viven a diario los impactos de la contaminación plástica. Su participación es esencial para que sus derechos, saberes y realidades no queden relegados frente a los intereses de los contaminadores.”

Contacto de prensa:

Camila Aguilera | camila@no-burn.org | +56 9 8913 6198

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GAIA es una alianza mundial de más de 1000 grupos de base, organizaciones no gubernamentales y personas de más de 90 países. Con nuestro trabajo, buscamos impulsar un cambio global hacia la justicia ambiental mediante el fortalecimiento de los movimientos sociales de base que promueven soluciones a los residuos y la contaminación. Imaginamos un mundo justo y sin basura cero, basado en el respeto por los límites ecológicos y los derechos de las comunidades, donde las personas estén libres de la carga de la contaminación tóxica y los recursos se conserven de manera sostenible, sin quemarse ni tirarse a la basura.

The post Nueva Presidencia para las negociaciones del Tratado global de plásticos first appeared on GAIA.

Civil Society Urges New Chair to Enforce Greater Transparency, Inclusivity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 7, 2026

Geneva, Switzerland– Member States convened in Geneva, Switzerland, on the 7th of February for INC-5.3 to elect a new Chair of the plastics treaty negotiations. Today they formally elected Julio Cordano, diplomat and Director of Environment, Climate Change, and Oceans at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile.

The previous Chair, Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso of Ecuador, formally announced his resignation as Chair late last year, creating a leadership vacuum during a pivotal moment in the treaty process. Under his watch, the negotiations were frequently criticized for a lack of transparency, breaking down the already fragile trust countries and Observers had in the process. The Chair consistently catered to the lowest common denominator, despite growing ambition amongst a majority of countries. 

As Mr. Cordano takes the helm of the treaty process, GAIA members are urging him to chart a different course from his predecessor and restore trust by reestablishing transparency, promoting neutrality, enabling effective decision-making, and ensuring that civil society has appropriate access and representation in the talks. Most critically, he must uphold the ambition Member States committed to at the outset of this process: to deliver the world a treaty that addresses the full life cycle of plastics, from extraction to disposal, prioritising independent science, human rights, and Global South leadership over corporate and petro-state interests. 

Jam Lorenzo, BAN Toxics, Philippines: “The election of the new Chair is an important step towards progress, but a treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastics can only be achieved if Member States cease to protect the interests of plastic polluters. The impacts of plastic throughout its lifecycle are undeniable, and Member States need to be united in the central goal of protecting human health and the environment if we want an effective global plastics treaty.” 

Shahriar Hossain,  ESDO, Bangladesh: “At this stage in the negotiations, ambition, not evidence, is the missing ingredient. The science is settled, impacts are undeniable, and the moment now calls for collective political will. A credible, legally binding treaty must address plastic pollution at its source while safeguarding equity and human health.”

Robert Kitumaini Chikwanine, SOPRODE DRC:  “Civil society brings the voices of affected communities, independent expertise, and the vigilance necessary for a credible treaty. The Chair must guarantee our access and ensure a transparent and inclusive process.”

Kwame Ofori, Ako Foundation, Ghana: “To millions of people who experience the impact of plastic pollution on a daily basis, this leadership is what will decide whether science, justice, and livelihoods are secured or delayed.”

Larisa de Orbe, Acción Ecológica México: “The Global South has historically been one of the regions most affected by the plastic life cycle, which is why it has taken the lead in setting the most ambitious targets. The new Presidency must recognise the region’s leadership and ensure that its voice is heard.” 

Cecilia Bianco, Taller Ecologista, Argentina: “The Chair must ensure compliance with Resolution 5/14 on the life cycle of plastics, from raw material extraction to final disposal. It is essential that the treaty address the reduction of plastic production with binding global targets.”

Frankie Orona, Society of Native Nations: “Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities are living with the impacts of plastic pollution every day. Indigenous Peoples participation is essential to ensure lived realities, the rights and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples are not sidelined in favor of polluter interests. 

Press contact:

Claire Arkin | claire@no-burn.org | +1 973 444 4869

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GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 1,000 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 90 countries. With our work, we aim to catalyze a global shift towards environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance solutions to waste and pollution. We envision a just, zero waste world built on respect for ecological limits and community rights, where people are free from the burden of toxic pollution, and resources are sustainably conserved, not burned or dumped. 

The post Countries Adopt New Chair of Plastics Treaty Negotiations  first appeared on GAIA.

February 6, 2026

Read the CalMatters story featuring comment from Greenaction’s Bradley Angel:

“California spends billions based on this pollution tracker. Who benefits from its latest update?”

 

February 3, 2026

Read Greenaction & Allies Written Comments to California EPA/Department of Toxic Substances Control critiquing, pro-polluter draft regulations on hazardous waste facility permit criteria on cumulative impacts and community vulnerability.

Click below to Read

Comment_Updated-Hazardous-Waste-Facility-Permit-Criteria_2026-02-03