WASHINGTON DC – Fashion brands including Nike, Levi Strauss (LS&Co), Gap, Target and the VF Corp-owned Timberland, Vans and North Face are amongst more than 1,000 signatories of a statement to the incoming Biden administration, reaffirming their commitment to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The now outgoing US President Donald Trump declared his intent to withdraw the US from the global agreement to take action to mitigate climate change back in 2017.
That sparked almost 4,000 companies across industry – as well as campaign groups and academic and financial institutions –to form the ‘We Are Still In’ coalition, in direct opposition to the country’s administration.
“In the time since, wildfires and other climate-fuelled disasters have impacted the lives and well-being of millions of Americans, threatened our nation’s supply chains, and put countless communities at risk. Covid-19 has concurrently created a national health and economic crisis,” the coalition said in its latest statement.
“Tackling the climate crisis is essential to help our nation recover from these crises by creating good paying jobs for millions of Americans, fostering US energy innovation, increasing our national security, and protecting the health and well-being of present and future generations. It will also provide us with our best opportunity to address systemic inequalities that have forced vulnerable communities, especially communities of colour, to bear the brunt of climate impacts and environmental and economic injustice.”
The signatories to the new statement, which includes governors, state legislators, colleges and universities, investors, cultural institutions, and health care organisations, is calling on the incoming administration and other federal policymakers to join them in taking immediate action.
The call to action includes:
- Drive economic growth across every sector of the economy through job-creating sustainable investment.
- Expand US leadership at home and abroad.
- Reimagine community partnership to advance just and equitable climate solutions and build resilience to climate change.
“We pledge to support these policies at the national and local level, and place climate considerations at the core of our own institutions: how we do business, how we invest, how we govern, how we educate, how we serve,” the coalition said.
“We urge the Biden-Harris Administration and Congress alike to adopt a similar whole-of-government approach to tackling this crisis, and look forward to working in close partnership and dialogue – public and private collaboration across all levers of power – to achieve our shared vision.”
