FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1,300+ grassroots advocates attend virtual climate conference; 300+ lobby meetings take place this week

Dec. 12, 2024 – CCL’s Fall Virtual Conference, “Positioning for Progress,” took place last weekend and welcomed 1,333 unique attendees on Zoom from around the country. Many more grassroots climate advocates participated via watch parties with their local CCL chapter.

CCL Executive Director Rachel Kerestes started the conference with a message of confidence about CCL’s role heading into the new Congress and the new administration. “We are one of the few groups who can truly meet this moment,” she said. “We have the skills, the relationships, the reputation — and, most importantly, we have you, the volunteers — to do what needs to be done.”

Throughout the day, we also heard from: 

• Senator-elect John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, who founded the Conservative Climate Caucus. Senator-elect Curtis said CCL’s engagement with him “inspired [him] to want to do more” on the climate issue.

• Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, who chairs the bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus. Rep. Houlahan offered a unifying message, saying, “Climate change is not the responsibility of one party or another. It’s something we have to tackle together.”

• CCL Policy Fellow Danny Richter, who covered what CCL’s carbon pricing advocacy might look like next year. “There may still be an opportunity to pass a border carbon tariff in the 119th Congress,” he said, and CCL plans to engage in that effort in a big way.

The conference prepared attendees for more than 300 virtual lobby meetings with congressional offices, which are taking place this week. CCLers will ask Congress to pass the Energy Permitting Reform Act, to preserve the climate measures of the Inflation Reduction Act, and to pass the RISEE Act.

Social media posts are rolling in from meetings with lawmakers in California, Colorado, Ohio, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and more.

Recordings of all conference sessions are available on our 2024 Fall Conference playlist on YouTube.

CONTACT: Flannery Winchester, CCL Vice President of Communications, 615-337-3642, flannery@citizensclimate.org

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Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change. Learn more at citizensclimatelobby.org.

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