Climate Justice – Providence and Paris

Keynote Speaker: Dr. J. Timmons Roberts

Hope Artiste Village, Pawtucket, RI

Direct from Paris, the Environment Council of Rhode Island's (ECRI) 2016 Annual Meeting featured the Rhode Island delegation on Climate Justice who attended COP21 in November 2015. Dr. J. Timmons Roberts, Ittelson Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at Brown University, co-author of "Power in a Warming World” and advisor to the world's poorest nations during the COP21 climate negotiations, spoke and was joined at the podium by student activists from the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island (EJLRI). Policy on climate change and its impacts must be developed across socio-economic, ethnic, and racial artifices to effectively modify outcomes. This was the focus for a discussion following the presentation.

ECRI, our member organizations (like the EJLRI), and the coalitions we work with are at the forefront of the struggle to stop the devastating effects of Climate Change here in Rhode Island. In the big picture it is not just emissions, but also the efforts to protect forests and forest communities, to prepare coastal communities for sea level rise, and to make sure the people who have produced the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions do not carry the heaviest burden of climate change.

 * Download a copy of the 2016 Annual Meeting Program (pdf file, 5.3 MB).

Professor Roberts and Seena Chann, representing the next generation at the EJLRI, delivered an important message which can be seen in the video clips below.

Dr. J. Timmons Roberts delivering the Keynote Address (Part One) at ECRI's 2016 Annual Meeting.

Dr. J. Timmons Roberts delivering the Keynote Address (Part Two) at ECRI's 2016 Annual Meeting.

More About Dr. J. Timmons Roberts

As the co-author and editor of twelve books and edited volumes, and of over eighty articles and book chapters, Dr. Timmons’ current research focuses on climate change and economic development: his core focus is on how inequality affects our ability
to address this complex global problem.

He has worked with ECRI and teams of students and experts on three legislative efforts to address climate change:

• The Climate Risk Reduction Act of 2010 which created The RI Climate Change Commission.
• The Resilient Rhode Island Act of 2014, the first comprehensive climate legislation in the state.
• Currently, he’s been working on Carbon Pricing legislation with the EnergizeRI coalition.

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Seena Chann, student activist from the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island, speaking at ECRI's 2016 Annual Meeting. (Apologies for missing the first minute of her presentation!)

About Seena Chann

For several years, Seena Chann has been participating in the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island’s Community Environmental College becoming a youth organizer two years ago.

Seena was diagnosed with asthma and eczema, which limits her from enjoying life outdoors, and no one really knew why.

After attending local and national environmental justice workshops, and especially after taking part in the “It Takes Roots” delegation to the climate talks in Paris, she was finally able to connect the missing dots between her Health and her Environment.

Seena understood why her conditions were so bad by looking around her community and seeing all the inequalities. As someone who identifies as a Cambodian-American youth, she has become very passionate about organizing and helping her community, especially while growing up with refugee parents from the Khmer Rouge and an immigrant grandmother from Cambodia.

Currently, her activism is centered around the issues of environmental justice, racism, immigration and youth advocacy. Seena’s long-term goal is to continue her activism by organizing in Cambodia to get justice for her community.