CSS has been involved in building the North America climate justice movement for a number of years, recently through our role as a founding member of the Climate Justice Alliance’s Our Power Campaign. In December of last year the world’s eyes were on the United Nation’s COP-21 Climate Talks in Paris where the countries of the world negotiated the first ever truly global climate treaty. Starting April 22 with an official signing ceremony at the United Nations HQ in New York, countries will have the next year to sign the treaty and agree to its (non-binding) provisions. But how effective is this agreement really? Will it establish a transition away from our fossil fuel dependence and help restablize the climate?

The It Takes Roots delegation––which united representatives of frontline, fossil fuel impacted communities involved with three major alliances: Grassroots Global Justice, the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Climate Justice Alliance––was in Paris pushing for the agreement to address the systemic roots of the climate crisis. Now they have released a critical report and call to action We are Mother Earth’s Redline alerting the world that the Paris Agreement is a “dangerous distraction” whose critical failings threaten all of us. The report exposes an Agreement full of false promises including non-existent technologies and destructive policies that protect the profits of Big Polluters at the expense of people and planet. The good news is that as the fossil fuel industry and their backers in government deliver hype and half-measures, frontline communities are busy building a global climate justice movement. Communities who have been on the frontlines of the fossil fuel problem for generations are now the frontlines of the solution: leading the fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground and transform the economy with innovative, community-led solutions.

Download the report or take a look at what's inside.

We are Mother Earth's red line