The Energy Action Coalition unites a diversity of organizations in an alliance that supports and strengthens the clean energy movement among students and young people in the United States and Canada. The partners of Energy Action work together to leverage our collective power to create change for a clean, efficient, just and renewable energy future. The work of Energy Action focuses on four strategic areas: campuses, communities, corporate practices and politics.
Energy Action was formed in June 2004 after local and national networks came together for the first Fossil Fools Day to focus attention on our addiction to fossil fuels. The success of that action inspired the groups to create Energy Action as a way to increase coordination for national and international actions and to strengthen the growing climate movement. The coalition’s founding meeting was held in Washington, DC and included representatives from almost twenty groups. Attendees quickly reached a consensus on forming an American and Canadian coalition with unified messaging and coordinated actions. At that meeting, the newly formed coalition adopted a decision-making process that focuses on consensus, identified four strategic areas on which to concentrate its advocacy, and began planning for Energy Independence Day.
Energy Independence Day, held on October 14, 2004, became the largest youth climate action to date with over 280 local actions. On that day young people urged elected officials including presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry to develop a new political vision to move past fossil fuels and towards an energy revolution that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. On this day Energy Action released the Declaration of Independence from Dirty Energy. More than 27,000 signatures from young people were collected in support of the Declaration. The signatures were sent to members of Congress and governors. Read the Declaration here: http://www.energyaction.net/documents/declaration.pdf .
A second meeting was held in January 2005, which included Energy Action partners and more than 100 students from Canada and the U.S. The meeting included issue briefings, strategic planning and preparation for the next national day of action. At this meeting, Energy Action adopted three philosophies of environmental justice including the Principles of Environmental Justice, the People of Color Environmental Justice Principles of Working Together and the Bali Principles of Climate Justice. Those documents can be viewed here: http://www.energyaction.net/main/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=2&MMN_position=71:71 .
In March 2005 the third day of action coordinated by Energy Action included more than 400 screenings of the award-winning documentary "Oil on Ice". Young people across the U.S. and Canada wrote letters to their representatives and local newspapers opposing drilling in the National Artic Wildlife Refuge and the development of a gas pipeline in Canada.
The second Fossil Fools Day in April 2005 expanded to include more than 300 actions in Canada, the U.S., England, Nigeria and Panama.
Energy Action partners came together in a May 2005 meeting in New York City to lay out plans for the Campus Climate Challenge. The Challenge is a campaign to unite students to win 100% clean energy policies on their campuses. The Challenge launched on October 19, 2005 to commemorate Energy Independence Day with the release of "New Energy for Campuses" in partnership with the Apollo Alliance. For more information on the Campus Climate Challenge, visit www.climatechallenge.org .
In December 2005 Energy Action joined with young climate activists from across the globe at the United Nations Climate Negotiations in Montreal to demand that bold, just action be taken to end global warming. Energy Action activists participated in a march of more than 30,000 people. In Montreal, the idea for Energy Action’s blog, Its Getting Hot in Here was born. View Its Getting Hot in Here here: http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/ .
In January 2007, Energy Action, through the Campus Climate Challenge, organized the largest youth mobilization in the history of the youth climate change movement with Rising to the Climate Challenge. This week of action had events on nearly 600 campuses in 49 states and eight Canadian provinces and reached 50,000 students. For more information on the week of action, visit http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgtwqhfr_81tz68ks .
