From coast to coast, teams of young volunteers are organizing Clean Energy Forums. As part of Focus the Nation‘s campaign Community and the Road to Copenhagen, young organizers are engaging their communities for a day of climate dialogue and reaching out to their senators to join the conversations. Through this nationwide effort, we hope to distill the political will for a strong U.S. commitment at COP15, the U.N. climate conference that will take place in Copenhagen in December.
Out of each forum, Focus the Nation HQ will generate a Clean Energy Action List. We will take these to COP15 as evidence of the American people’s desire for clean energy solutions, and of the hard work of the U.S. climate movement this fall.
The campaign kicked off last Friday in Durango, Colo., in conjunction with a 350.org event. In Durango–a coal-, oil-, and gas-dependent town near the four corners of the United States–rural Southwest youth, like youth around the country, are demanding inclusion in the conversations about how their energy is generated. The Durango event featured a diverse panel including local politicians, representatives from the Navajo Nation, and forward-thinking business leaders.
Now the campaign is going national with Clean Energy Forums in November:
- Friday, Nov. 6 — New York City
- Saturday, Nov. 7 — Santa Cruz, Calif.
- Thursday, Nov. 12 — Jonesboro, Ark.
- Thursday, Nov. 12 — Southfield, Mich.
- Saturday, Nov. 14 — Tallahassee, Fla.
If you’d like to get involved, sign up on Focus Local and find your region’s team to join in the organizing fun.
We still need organizers for events in the key states of Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia. Focus the Nation is offering organizing stipends and funds for event budgets (when was the last time you turned down some cash?), so recommend a talented organizer or sign up yourself to help. You don’t even have to wait to hear from a Focus the Nation staffer — you can start organizing today using the Organizing Guide and Clean Energy Forum Module.
Consider the Clean Energy Forum to be the final ingredient for this fall of climate action. First, there was the creative outburst for 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action on Oct. 24. Then the training and excitement from Energy Action Coalition’s regional Power Shift summits. Sprinkle in pranks from the Yes Men on the Chamber of Commerce for its anti-climate stance. And you can top it all off with high-level civic engagement and dialogue by organizing your very own Clean Energy Forum.
You don’t want to miss this opportunity to help the lay the road to Copenhagen!
