Welcome to 2023: Our safe climate future is within reach with the passage of the IRA and CHIPS, the Defense Production Act, numerous Biden Administration actions, and the failure of climate deniers in the midterm elections. We’re in a much better place than we were at the beginning of 2022. 50% by 2030 in the US is possible. But, we have many big challenges moving into 2023, and we need to keep the momentum up on all fronts. Here are a few of the positives to reflect on.

1. U.S. Leadership on Climate Solutions
2. Ukraine War Accelerates Renewables
3. Massive Investments EVs and Batteries
4. Climate Justice Moves Toward Center Stage
5. Brazil Shifts to Amazon Protection
6. Growing American Public Support for Climate Action
7. Climate Deniers Thumped in Mid-Term Elections
8. Big Oil Mendacity and Lies: Admitted
9. ecoAmerica Goes Local with Climate Ambassadors
10. We Can Still Meet Climate Targets

Sixteen national denomination leaders participated in a historic roundtable convened by ecoAmerica’s Blessed Tomorrow program at Auburn Seminary on November 14, 2022, to collaborate on a new era of faith climate action. The leaders focused first on the impacts and urgency of the climate crisis and then on the opportunities for the faith community to lead, prioritizing justice and inclusion for people historically excluded and oppressed. The discussions focused on comprehensive creation care engagement of congregations and clergy to broaden participation beyond the activists, and collaborating as denominations and major faith organizations for collective impact. The findings were presented at the White House one week later.

Blessed Tomorrow Director, Rev. Carol Devine, was invited to the White House on Thursday, December 8 to share findings from the Interfaith Roundtable held in November.

The Climate for Health team has distributed thousands of ClimateRx badges — be sure that you have requested yours! This is a groundbreaking tool for clinicians to engage patients, colleagues, and the community on climate & health.

The 27th Conference of Parties (COP), attended by over 35,000 people, took place November 6 – 20th in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Blessed Tomorrow Director, Carol Devine, spoke with Jessica Maudlin who represented the Presbyterian Church (USA) at COP27. She said that if we want to impact the next COP, we need to get started now by letting our representatives know that we want the United States to lead with ambitious and just climate solutions globally. Watch this short episode of Let’s Talk Climate now.

On November 9, 2022, the children of Kivalina, a small Inupiaq village on the coast of the Chukchi Sea of the Arctic Ocean in Western Alaska, rode a bus to school for the first time ever. There has never been a school bus in the village of Kivalina, a community of about four hundred people where a person can walk the entire length of the village in about 15 minutes. In fact, there’s never been a bus of any kind! For the village’s entire history, no one could have imagined Kivalina would ever need a school bus. But then the loss of sea ice and increased storm activity on the Chukchi Sea–both the result of climate change, increased coastal erosion, and the village began to be washed into the sea. Kivalina would have to relocate.

• What Happens When a Cascade of Crises Collide?, New York Times
• Climate Change from A to Z, New Yorker
• Climate Matters Winter Graphics, Climate Central
• World Can Still Meet Climate Targets With Action Now on Clean Energy, Bloomberg
• White House releases environmental justice screening tool, EE News