Building Our Efforts
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Elected Officials
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States
Empowering Leadership for the Environment, Public Health, and Climate Change
Our Mission: to create a safe, prosperous, and healthy planet, we empower bold leadership from elected officials and civic leaders to protect our environment, and fight climate change.
As current and former elected officials who care deeply about protecting our planet and people from the dangers of climate change, EOPA educates through value-based storytelling, training lawmakers, and connecting elected officials to inspire strong environmental policy. We have lawmakers who are veterans and other elected officials who represent frontline communities leading our efforts.
Imperative for Leadership
Climate change and environmental harm are grave threats to our health, economy, and security. Record droughts, heat waves, wildfires, coastal flooding, ocean acidification, and storms are costing lives and hundreds of billions of dollars in damages in our communities.
The federal government’s National Climate Assessment predicts economic losses will exceed the GDP of many states, and our military is responding to climate change as a key threat to national security.
According to the United Nations, we only have 11 and a half years left before extreme weather conditions become the norm and millions will die across the globe. Scarcity of resources and political instability will start conflicts. These wars will add to the starvation. We are at a tipping point.
We have to take action now. We need leadership.
With federal action stalled, state and local levels must lay groundwork for national climate policy. Yet very few state and local officials are
prioritizing climate change; not enough elected officials are aware of the crisis’s severity, imperative action to solve it, and how their
voices can turn the tide.
Since 2015, we have mobilized hundreds of state and local lawmakers from every state.
We started organizing our peer elected officials at the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009. EOPA was originally started with seven current and former state representatives, mayors, and elected officials from California, Maine, New York, and North Carolina.
We held a press conference and participated in the historic Paris Climate Change Accord, where we used a sign-on letter to demand ambitious action on climate change.
We’ve met with U.S. Senators and
Representatives on Capitol Hill to progress legislation that became law. We’ve met with White House officials. We’ve helped laws pass at the state level.
We have also trained lawmakers in 45 state capitals and at national elected officials conferences, and organized 3,000 of our peers to create and enact policy.
Collective Leadership
One way we educate elected officials, media, and the public is through value-based storytelling. Providing trainings to messaging solutions, we empower elected officials to create and advance strong policy solutions.
We connect and organize lawmakers to support policies that protect public health, the environment and grow clean energy jobs, while empowering courageous leadership on climate change.
Our Team
Co-Chair EOPA Leadership Council
New Mexico State Representative
U.S. Air Force veteran
EOPA Leadership Council
North Carolina Soil & Water Conservation Supervisor
EOPA Co-Founder & Legal Advisor
East Bay Municipal Utility District Director, California
Co-Founder and President
Former Maine State Representative
U.S. Marines veteran
Lt. U.S. Navy Reserves
