Energy is essential. Specifically, energy that is renewable, reliable, affordable, and universally accessible. We affirm that water, health, human dignity, and the ability to engage in meaningful work are all interconnected with energy in modern life. We urgently need energy justice that empowers self-sufficiency for communities and relies on non-extractive energy sources. Oil, gas, coal, and other forms of extractive energy have caused unmitigated harm to our communities around the world. As society relies more on technology, energy is essential and is still not equitably provided to many communities, exacerbating poverty and inequality. There are so many sources of clean energy that doesn’t harm, pollute or kill—energy that can be generated by the planet, not extracted from it. Fossil fuels have created this climate crisis. The time to stop our reliance on them is now. We must individually and collectively do our part to end our reliance on and change our consumption of fossil fuels, before it’s too late.
The Black Hive @M4BL Demands:
- A schedule for cessation of coal, oil, and gas aligned with the Treaty for Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation and its global registry
- A U.S. national ban on all new domestic oil and gas drilling; those enforcing this ban must be accountable to Black communities for loss and damage, domestically and globally
- Governmental divestment from the mining, fossil-fuel, and fuel-agribusiness industries, which are responsible for fomenting climate change
- An end to government funding for false solutions, such as carbon capture storage, blue and gray hydrogen, nuclear, wood pellets, solid waste, geoengineering, construction, and demolition debris—these energy sources are harmful to Black communities and must be excluded from the world’s energy transition
- Total ban on new fracked gas—we must decouple energy production from extractive wholesale and retail industry practice
- Total ban on new oil or gas pipelines, no new export terminals, and the end to excuses for not moving society to sustainable, safe energy sources when they already exist.
- Proportional funding and finance for justly sourced, non-polluting, sustainable, non-hazardous renewable energy that is cooperatively and community-owned
- Equitable support for Black nonprofit businesses that research, develop, and distribute clean energy
- Equitable restructuring of utility regulation and removal of utility monopolies in favor of public-owned utilities and decentralized systems to provide sustainable, affordable energy access for all
- Federally backed incentives to community control of local energy resources that are decentralized, collectively governed, climate-resilient, and modern
- Payments by the U.S., as promised to the Global South in Paris Climate Accords and other global agreements aligned with outstanding commitments and in acknowledgment of the continuing harm of U.S. energy consumption
- Proportional investment in Black-led innovation, resources for CEJ funding through community-led nonprofit organizations, community-based financial institutions, certified community development financial institutions, low-income credit unions, minority depository institutions (MDIs), and depository institutions for the rapid deployment of low- and zero-emission products, technologies, and activities—energy must be affordable and available to all
- Support for Black community energy-justice solutions in the U.S. and the Global Black Diaspora, in the form of direct grants rather than loans or colonial aid—funding must solely support renewable solutions such as wind, solar, and geothermal
- An end to U.S. imperialism—the U.S. military is the largest polluter in the world and must withdraw its nearly 600 military bases, which produce unchecked pollution and unconstitutional violence in Black communities around the Global Black Diaspora; it must also withdraw from its colonial holdings, such as Guam and Puerto Rico; further, it must take responsibility for full life-cycle pollution cleanup and remediation, and provide comprehensive healthcare compensation for affected populations
