Stand powers on for Climate Week NYC 2025

Our team of strategists, researchers, and policy and issue experts will be hosting and collaborating on numerous events over the next week as part of Climate Week NYC.

• Our Climate Finance program is collaborating with partners to host a star-studded panel that discusses the impact and momentum behind the Retire Big Oil campaign through which 500+ actors and SAG-AFTRA members are calling on the $4 billion SAG-Producers Pension Plan to divest from fossil fuels.
• Our Transportation campaign is collaborating with partners to host an event that outlines strategies for creating a circular, low-emission freight system which minimizes environmental burdens while maximizing resource efficiency.
• Our Big Tech campaign is collaborating with partners on a panel discussion on what large tech companies can and should be doing to address the problems they are creating with their data centers and AI products.
• Our Amazon Rainforest campaign is collaborating on an event that brings together Indigenous leaders and partners to discuss their proposals for protecting territories, including ensuring full, effective participation and direct access to climate finance, as well as declaring the Amazonia an exclusion zone for extractive activities.

Together, these events will chart a roadmap toward a climate-safe, equitable future, where environmental and climate justice policies uphold the dignity of people everywhere — at the scale our world requires.

Raising our voices against fossil-fuel subsidies and for a climate-safe future for Canada

When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney released a list of “nation-building projects” late last week as part of the implementation of the “One Canadian Economy Act” (Bill C-5), our team of experts and advocates were quick to lean into the moment and offer timely analysis of the implications of what’s being proposed.

Affirming the good and calling out the irresponsible and dangerous, Stand team members were quoted in a variety of outlets outlining what’s at stake.

“I just look at it and say, ‘Why are we choosing to prioritize this sort of project when there’s so many better projects in front of us?’ As the world transitions to green energy, we’re going to get left behind.” — Stand Senior Campaigns Director Liz McDowell quoted in CBC News article, “Canadian LNG may not make economic sense, experts warn, as Carney pushes terminal expansion”

“It’s not in our national interest to increase our carbon emissions when we’ve had devastating fires year after year. They’re exactly the opposite of what we should be doing.” — Stand Climate Finance Director Richard Brooks quoted in National Observer article, “LNG carbon bomb tops Carney’s list of major projects”

Any national project must roll out transparently with consent of all impacted Indigenous Peoples, while promoting a climate-safe future for everyone. We will challenge anything less. Approval of these fossil fuel projects is not the end of the story – it’s the start of us all holding power to account.

Open letter from 111 groups calls for green building as Build Canada Homes program launches

Late last month, our SAFE Cities campaign led on the creation and publication of an open letter from 111 businesses, tradespeople, and climate organizations, who joined together to demand that the Canadian Federal government commit to using exclusively modern clean heating technologies, rather than polluting oil or gas furnaces, in its new Build Canada Homes program. The letter received media coverage including in The Hill Times and The Energy Mix.

The Canadian Federal Government has a unique opportunity to take action that addresses both the housing crisis and the climate crisis simultaneously. We’re calling on leaders to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in a way that is consistent with the country’s climate goals, while keeping housing affordable and comfortable for residents and helping the building industry progress towards a low-carbon future.

Stay tuned as our team increases our advocacy efforts this fall as we call on Toronto city councillors to ensure buildings in the city are healthier for tenants, while protecting occupants from the extreme cold and heat.

Road to COP30: ACTO conference makes progress toward increased Indigenous participation and representation

Stand’s tropical forests team recently took part in dialogue spaces convened by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), Amazonian Indigenous Peoples, and civil society organizations in Bogotá, Colombia, surrounding the 5th Summit of Presidents of the Amazon. The Aug. 22 summit brought together authorities of the eight member countries of ACTO – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela – and served as a strategic platform to align regional priorities in the build up to the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP30) happening later this year.

Our team welcomed the summit’s creation of the Amazonian Indigenous Peoples Mechanism, but denounced the absence of strong commitments to phase out fossil fuels. We continue to witness with concern the opening of new oil and gas exploration fronts in several countries across the region, which threatens Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ rights, as well as global climate goals. The responsibility and the opportunity for action now fall largely on Brazil, and we must continue to build collective pressure to ensure that COP30 in November delivers concrete advances toward the progressive phase-out of fossil fuels.

Alongside Amazonian Indigenous Peoples and partner civil society organizations, Stand is amplifying the call for the creation of exclusion zones for extractive activities — starting with the Amazon, one of the most biodiverse places in the world.