During President Sofía’s campaign, she committed to continuing and expanding the UUA’s comprehensive work on climate justice. In February of 2024, she convened the President’s UU Climate Justice Working Group to write the next chapter in this shared work. The group was established to identify where our faith calls us to lead, beyond narrowly defined “net zero” goals towards equitable decarbonization, community resilience, and a just transition from fossil fuels to a clean energy future.

The group was convened by Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt and Rachel Myslivy, UUA Climate Justice Strategist, with ongoing support from Carey McDonald, UUA Executive Vice President, and Mathew Jensen, UUA Senior Investment Officer. UU asked leaders to join this shared work based on their unique expertise, perspectives, and relationships to climate justice. Participants included:

• Rev. Amanda Weatherspoon
• Antoinette Scully
• Dr. Dan McKanan
• David Stewart
• Rev. Kelly Dignan
• Meleah Houseknecht
• Pamela Sparr
• Rev. Peggy Clarke
• Dr. Rashid Shaikh
• Zoë Johnston

Grounded in UU values and guided by systems thinking principles and participatory decision making, participants engaged in activities to broaden focus, explore multiple perspectives, and engage with ideas in a variety of ways. Through months of deeply relational work, the group was empowered to collaborate with intention and curiosity, and to share the responsibility of crafting shared goals and draft commitments.

Draft Commitments

The UU Climate Justice Working Group celebrates and builds upon the existing UUA commitments to Climate Justice, including:

• implementing a comprehensive plan to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from its investments through specific divestment, investment, and advocacy actions by 2045.
• Maintaining a full-time CJ strategist on national staff and a part-time Climate Justice Fellow
• Collaboratively organizing the first-ever UU Climate Justice Revival
• Revitalizing the Green Sanctuary process and materials,
• Supporting UUs with the Disaster Preparedness and Response Toolkit

The draft commitments fall into two categories: Culture and Resources.

Culture

We recommend that the UUA strategize and support a culture shift from historical environmentalism to intersectional Climate Justice aligned with our Four Essentials of Climate Justice: Congregational Transformation, Community Resilience, Justice, and Mitigation, including:

• Create opportunities to build radical, beloved community through faith formation, and spiritually grounded, intersectional, justice-centered climate actions.
• Cultivate physical, relational, and political resilience in our communities
• Commit to a new abolitionism that rejects extractive systems of harm and creates flourishing communities by following frontline leadership as a faith practice.
• Support UU Congregations to reach real zero by 2050

Resources

We recommend advancing real zero-aligned investment policies, resource strategies, and ongoing collaborations, including:

• Increase community investments to support those most harmed by injustice and allow congregations to invest directly in this incredible work.
• Provide greater transparency and reporting on all these efforts
• Support UUs to align our finances with our values
• Support congregations with education, energy-transition financing, and real zero-aligned investment options
• Continuously adapt to changing realities and collaboratively coordinate and engage congregations, corporations, and governments to advance climate justice through policy, protests, and practice.

Next Moves

Creating climate justice is the work of our faith broadly. As such, we encourage the UUA to support congregations, affiliated organizations, and UUA staff to turn these draft commitments into tangible plans and actions.

The Working Group will continue to bring our UU organizations and leaders together into collaboration with our UUA Staff and Board to strategize, sequence, and implement the best ways forward to turn these draft commitments into bold climate justice action that we can undertake together as a faith.

In the spirit of the UU Climate Justice Revival, we invite all UUs to reimagine together how we do this critical work with love at the center.