CCL Updates From Around the World

This training highlights what is going on internationally around the world in ​CCL’s​ network as of 2021, what other countries are doing in terms of carbon pricing and citizen engagement, and how CCL is engaging in international civil society meetings.

What are some of the best resources for tracking international carbon pricing and climate policies?

• Citizens' Climate International's Website
• The World Bank's Carbon Pricing Dashboard 
• Viewers can view data and download graphs from the Dashboard’s Map and Data page, including the latest information on carbon price levels, GHG emissions coverage from:
  • 46 national jurisdictions and 31 subnational jurisdictions which are putting a price on carbon.
  • 58 carbon pricing initiatives which are implemented or scheduled for implementation.
• Did you know that 96 countries have carbon pricing in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with their commitments to the UN?
• Collaboration with ICAP: The World Bank is now collaborating with the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) to provide the latest data on carbon pricing initiatives across the globe. Learn more about ICAP on the Dashboard’s “About” page.
• Interested in emerging initiatives? The updated Dashboard features information on emissions trading systems under consideration including initiatives in Chile, Colombia, Japan, Oregon, Turkey, Taiwan, Ukraine, Virginia, and Vietnam.
• Climate Change Performance Index
• Carbon Pricing Leadership Council Resource Library
• Climate Watch Data
• Guide to Communicating About Carbon Pricing
• Climate Action Tracker 
  • Tracks 32 countries covering around 80% of global emissions and calculates emissions gaps and global warming consequences.

What is the process for starting an international CCL chapter?

If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a new prospective international leader:

• After joining CCL, email Cathy Orlando, CCL’s International Outreach Manager.
• Cathy will set up a one-on-one phone call to walk through the details and connect you with nearby regional calls
• The next steps will be getting started on holding local meetings and developing with your local team a plan for the year to build your group.
• Given that the international program faces considerable staffing constraints, it’s really important for all excited volunteers to know that CCL International is looking for ready-made CCLers at this point who are passionate about carbon fee and dividend policies and engaged in their communities at the grassroots level.

CCL International Chapters & Websites

Have you ever wondered what the international chapters of CCL are up to? As of March 2020, there are now a total of 12,220 international registered supporters in 55 nations and 105 active international chapters in 33 countries

Following the successful passage of carbon fee and dividend in Canada, other countries are considering the policy, referring to it as the Canadian Model Ireland is currently negotiating a carbon pricing policy and is considering carbon fee and dividend, as is the Netherlands. With the spread of Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement, other countries have begun talking about this model. The Mexican President spoke at a Fridays for Future rally about this policy, while Panama’s youth leaders went to a presidential open forum to discuss carbon fee and dividend. Colombian CCL members have been regularly lobbying their government, and new ways of training volunteers are being formulated, with Guinea’s leaders becoming the first group trained in French, and Zimbabwean leaders, unable to utilize traditional training due to poor Internet connectivity, have pioneered international CCL training over WhatsApp. National CCL conferences have been held in Australia, Sweden, Nigeria, Canada, Germany, and the UK, and the fruits of these volunteers’ labors are becoming increasingly evident.

• Expandable List of all CCL Chapters
• CCL Australia Website
• CCL Canada Website
• CCL Germany Website
• CCL Panama Website
• CCL The Netherlands Website
• CCL United Kingdom Website

Latin America Updates

• CCL Regional Coordinators: Tami Kellogg and Isatis Cintron
• New CCL Colombia: chapter lead by Laura Morales
• CCL Bogotá held their first meeting at Piloto University
• Follow CCL Espanol Website (Clima Vivible) and Twitter Handle @CCLEspanol

Africa Updates

Nigerian CCL volunteers and International Outreach Manager Cathy Orlando

Nigeria has created five chapters in a matter of months, becoming the fifth most activated country globally. These volunteers are mobilizing at a critical moment, as the country’s Environment Minister has noted that Nigeria is looking into carbon pricing but still needs support from civil society to push legislation through their newly elected Parliament.

Globally, climate change has been elevated to the forefront of many country’s agendas, thanks in part to 17-year-old Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future school strikes, which mobilized 1.7 million strikers throughout the world on March 15, 2019. G7 talks in Paris included discussion of carbon pricing and border carbon adjustments. Thanks to efforts throughout the world, CCL volunteers are helping move the needle on carbon pricing even beyond the U.S.

• CCL Regional Coordinator: David Michael Terungwa
• Nigeria: Previously in Lagos lobbying efforts with parliament with 2018 hosting the Africa Continental Conference
• CCL Cameroon: a member of parliament requested additional information about carbon fee and dividend policies and CCL’s team, lead by Alexander Gwanvalla is in the process of grant writing to support their work
• CCL Madagascar: new chapter led by Juana Colombe Rabemaraina
• Follow CCL Africa on Facebook and read 2018 CCL Blog Article on CCL Africa

“I have come to believe that if citizens come together in their communities and societies and demand change they will get change. It may not be perfect but they will get change.”  - David Michael Terungwa, CCL Africa  Regional Coordinator reflecting on his first lobbying experiences in 2016 

Pacific Updates

Prompted by Australian CCL members (the country has 93 chapters!), their Parliament created the equivalent of the Climate Solutions Caucus. Additionally, professors from the University of New South Wales recently conducted a study on carbon fee and dividend, yielding similar results to the REMI study.

CCL Regional Coordinator: Jodie Green 

• CCL Chair of Australia’s Board: Rod Mitchell (founding national coordinator)
• In 2018 Australia conducted a series of Regional Conferences from Perth to Canberra, where they met with more than 30 members of Parliament.

Asia Updates

• Country Spotlight: India with CCL India Coordinator Raj Phukan.
• CCL Blog: Building from the ground up in a global pandemic: Introducing CCL Japan and India 
• CCL India is taking a holistic view of the climate crisis linking to water and biodiversity. Working toward carbon pricing with India-specific material they are educating politicians and the public about carbon fee and dividend.
• CCL Tiruchirappalli (Active Chapter)

CCL Europe Updates

CCL Regional Coordinator: James Collis

In spring of 2019 members of CCL Europe launched a European citizens’ initiative focused on carbon fee and dividend. A citizens’ initiative is a way for EU citizens to come together on issues they care about and try to influence EU policy-making.

This particular initiative is called the European Citizens’ Climate Initiative. It is essentially a petition for the European Commission to consider carbon fee and dividend as a policy for addressing climate change. The citizens supporting the petition are CCL members from different EU countries. The petition runs until May 2020, and if it gains 1 million signatures, it will be guaranteed a formal presentation and response from the European Commission.

The initiative offers a way for CCL volunteers in Europe to pull on all five levers of political will, but primarily, it is a fantastic grassroots outreach tool and a grasstops engagement opportunity.

Grassroots connections bring a spike in signatures

93% of Europeans see climate change as a serious problem, and 79% see it as a very serious problem, broadly agreeing that the EU should be climate neutral by 2050. Many of those concerned Europeans are involved with Fridays for Future, and some CCLers are too, which offers one avenue of grassroots connection. In Germany, CCLer Benedikt Nickel reports, “Being active both for Fridays For Future and CCL, I have already given several trainings for FFF people in order to share the knowledge of CCL with young activists who want to get in touch with their delegates.”

Another opportunity is to conduct outreach at events like the historic global climate strikes on Friday, Sept. 20. In order to communicate quickly and effectively with the general public, CCL teams in Belgium and Denmark produced two short videos (version 1, version 2) about carbon fee and dividend. They translated these videos into the main EU languages and CCL volunteers promoted them in various cities around Europe on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019.

That day, CCLers in various cities across Europe also handed out leaflets and talked to strikers promoting carbon fee and dividend. For some people, the videos and simple, clear messages were enough. Others offered the full range of follow-up questions about taxes, China, corruption, and so on. (For tips on how to handle any type of climate conversation, visit CCL Community.) 

The weekend after the strikes, we saw the biggest spike in signatures for the initiative since its launch: 3,500 in one day. The countries that accounted for the biggest signature volumes were those with established CCL chapters out supporting the initiative. Some of these are very new, and others have a more developed national focus. However, there were signatures in all 28 countries, many of which have no CCL presence at all! So the message is spreading either directly or indirectly from our collective efforts.

Building support among the grasstops

In addition to gaining signatures for the initiative, CCLers have been building support with NGOs across Europe. This has varied from active joint lobbying in Denmark with the largest NGO, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening, to statements of support from pan-European NGOs such as Green Budget Europe, We Don’t Have Time, and Saving Our Planet.

“Putting a price on carbon is an essential tool to get countries implement their commitments under the Paris Agreement,” said Wendel Trio, Director at Climate Action Network – Europe. “The EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme is an example of carbon pricing, but obviously much more needs to be done, and the carbon fee proposal is a strong support to increase action.” 

In total, 16 NGOs have stated support for the initiative so far, and we are still working on further support.

What happens next?

We will continue working with influential supporters among the climate NGO community, several of which have experience and are willing to help within the EU corridors of power. We are also continuing to welcome new volunteers as a direct result of the visibility from the initiative, who similarly want to make a difference in building the political will to solve the problem. We’re gearing up for more promotion during the next global Fridays For Future strike on November 29. If you have family and friends in Europe, you can share this post with them and/or ask them to sign and share the initiative. 

Still, the whole project is ambitious and the end result remains uncertain, which is pretty much what CCLers sign up for when volunteering to promote climate policy solutions. We’re caught between knowing the status quo isn’t working and putting effort into the best chance to fix it—we give it the best shot we can. Irrespective of the eventual success of this particular project, it’s making a positive difference to the overall objective: building political will for a livable world.

• For more information the rest of CCL Europe’s work visit their website and read Baerbel’s blog post.

Canada Updates

Because Canada is a diverse country with economic needs that vary by province, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wanted to ensure that a carbon pricing scheme would not harm Canada’s vulnerable communities. In October 2018, Canada unveiled a carbon fee and dividend plan that expanded previous efforts to include all provinces. To learn more about the citizen actions that created political will for this policy, check out this short clip:

From 2010-2018, CCL volunteers went to Parliament 13 times, held almost 700 lobbying sessions, and achieved 3,000 media hits in a 100% volunteer driven effort. Senator Grant Mitchell, the second most lobbied Parliament-member in the nation, applauded volunteers’ efforts, stating: “You are one of the most successful lobbying groups I have worked with because you are about to get what you lobbied for.” 

CCL Canada Director: Cathy Orlando

Carbon Pricing Timeline

October 2015-Prime Minister Trudeau and the Liberals formed government

December 2015-Canada took the lead in Paris and the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition

October 2016- Canada announced the Pan-Canadian Framework on Climate Change (for more information on this topic, see the Canada's Emerging Framework training.

January 2018-The Canadian government announced Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. 

April 2019:  Carbon Fees  Begin

October 2019:  National election, ⅔  voted for parties with carbon pricing. Note Trudeau has a minority gov’t.

“You are one of the most successful lobbying groups I have worked with because you are about to get what you lobbied for.” -Sen. Grant Mitchell, October 15, 2018

COP 25 Updates

• CCL was granted 12 Delegate badges per week as observers. We spend a lot of time listening and the conference provided networking, education and team building.
• We recruited a country leader from Bulgaria, we continued to relationship build with the Nigerian government’s delegation and we lobbied the Mexican government’s delegation.
• Isatis Cintron helped lead the production of the Live From COP 25 video series every day on Facebook Live with a variety of voices, mostly youth (under 35) and from around the world. 
• Learn More: Engage4Climate.org/COP25

What is Resilience Intel?

Resilience Intel is a collaborative effort that CCL’s Global Strategies Director Joe Robertson is working on to help build the world’s first true Climate-Smart Finance Aggregator. It will 1) track, 2) grade, 3) aggregate, and 4) provide roadmaps for upgrading climate-smart finance and spending, in any sector, anywhere.

It will help to reveal the “carbon delta” (the difference in value between carbon-heavy and carbon-free investments) and aims to meet the challenge put to the world’s financial decision-makers by Christiana Figueres, who led the UN Climate Change agency when the Paris Agreement was secured. Her challenge was to achieve a global financial sector where no dollar of investment generates climate damage anywhere. 

Intro & Agenda
(from beginning)

About Citizens’ Climate International
(2:58)

International Progress on Carbon Pricing
(10:58)

Stories From Around the World
(25:30)

• Cathy Orlando

Download the Google Slides presentation.

Intro & Agenda
(from beginning)

About Citizens’ Climate International
(2:58)

International Progress on Carbon Pricing
(10:58)

Stories From Around the World
(25:30)

• Cathy Orlando

• Click to download
• Find the episode on CCL’s iTunes channel.