Our Accomplishments
Our Accomplishments
Behind our accomplishments are 200,000+ grassroots volunteers: organized, persistent and ready to roll đź’Ą
We're helping Congress feel the heat for climate action. 🔥
America has made some big climate commitments on the world stage. We’ve promised to cut our carbon pollution 50% by 2030. CCL is holding Congress accountable to that promise.Â
Our volunteers meet regularly with their members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, to ask them to take action on climate change and support specific solutions that will make a meaningful difference.
During the 118th Congress (2023-2024), our volunteers were responsible for:
216,288calls and messages to Congress
2,548meetings with Congress
3,903local media hits about climate action
Our strategic outreach and direct lobbying is helping move important climate legislation through Congress right now.
The Fix Our Forests Act is a bipartisan bill intended to improve forest health, increase resilience to wildfires, boost forest restoration projects, and more.Â
The bill was first introduced late in the 118th Congress (2023-2024) as H.R.8790. Though CCL didn’t activate our grassroots network around the bill at the time, our Government Affairs staff expressed CCL’s support of the Fix Our Forests Act to congressional offices on Capitol Hill. The bill passed the House with a bipartisan vote of 268 to 151 but did not see further movement in the 118th Congress.
The Fix Our Forests Act was reintroduced in the current Congress on Jan. 16, 2025 as H.R.471, and CCL was named as a supporting organization in the sponsors’ announcement. Our Government Affairs staff once again began outreach to congressional offices, urging them to support the legislation. It was quickly brought to a floor vote on Jan. 21, 2025. The bill passed the House again, this time with a bipartisan vote of 279 to 141 — even more support than last Congress.
With the bill now in the Senate, Citizens’ Climate is educating our volunteer base about the bill and activating them to build more support from their senators.
We’re continuing to advocate in our communities and with Congress to advance climate policies — and our track record of success speaks for itself.
Getting The Job Done 🙌
CCL notches up a new climate win every chance we get. No matter the makeup of Congress or the political dynamics of the day, our track record shows we’re effective at getting climate bills across the finish line — and nearly all are bipartisan. Take a look at what our efforts have helped advance:
The Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act, or the ADVANCE Act, is a bill to streamline the permitting process for new nuclear projects. The House version of the legislation, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act, passed the House on Feb. 28, 2024 and then sent over to the Senate. CCL’s conservative volunteers advocated for the bill in 47 citizen lobby meetings held in March 2024, as part of a larger push for bipartisan clean energy permitting reform. The text of the ADVANCE Act was later added to the Fire Grants and Safety Act (S.870), which passed the Senate on June 18, 2024 with a 88-2 vote. President Biden signed it into law on July 9, 2024.
The Growing Climate Solutions Act strengthened and improved access to voluntary carbon credits for farmers, ranchers, and private forest owners. CCL signed onto its supporter list when the bill was introduced in June 2021. That same month, 300+ constituent-led lobby meetings led to the recruitment of over 40 new co-sponsors. In the week before the Senate vote, CCL made 10,500 constituent contacts to the Senate and published at least 15 op-eds. The bill passed the Senate on a vote of 92-8. When this bill stalled in the House committee, our government affairs and grassroots network continued to build momentum for it in the House via media, calls, and constituent-led lobby meetings. Finally, the bill was included in the 2022 Omnibus package.
The Inflation Reduction Act was a broad budget package that included measures on federal deficit reduction, prescription drug prices, and clean energy investments.
The path to this landmark legislation was a long, circuitous one, but CCL’s grassroots efforts helped keep climate in the forefront of the national discussion the entire time. In the year leading up to the legislation’s passage, CCL volunteers advocated hard for the inclusion of a carbon fee and dividend, which was seriously considered — the New York Times ran a story titled “Democrats Consider Adding Carbon Tax to Budget Bill.” CCL volunteers also pushed generally for lawmakers to commit to keeping climate measures in this sweeping package.Â
In 2022, CCL volunteers held 920 meetings with congressional offices, generated over 225,000 letters and calls to members of Congress, wrote 2,117 letters to the editor, and published 676 op-eds urging Congress to go big on climate in the legislation. (Further down on this page, you’ll find a deep dive into our mobilization efforts!)
Ultimately, Democratic senators reached an agreement on a final package that included historic levels of investment in climate measures, as well as a fee on methane emissions — a win for the climate overall and for CCL’s pollution pricing arguments.
The Hope for Homes Act cuts costs for homeowners while investing in clean energy jobs and technology. We supported this bipartisan bill with several hundred constituent-led lobby meetings in June 2021, which passed the House in 2021. Key provisions were later included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
The infrastructure package was not specifically a climate bill — its primary goal was not to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — but it did include some climate provisions in the areas of alternative vehicles, public transit, research and innovation, and energy infrastructure.
To help get the package across the finish line, CCL’s Government Affairs staff members directly lobbied congressional offices in support of the legislation. CCL staff met with offices to convey CCL’s stance that there were valuable climate provisions in the bill and to express CCL’s support for its passage. CCL staff also sent several official communications to all congressional offices, indicating CCL’s support of the bill and urging offices to vote in favor when it came to the floor.
The bill passed the House with 228 votes in November 2021, after having passed the Senate with 69 votes earlier in the year. It was signed into law on Nov. 15, 2021.
The SCALE Act was created to help develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure as a way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions while creating regional economic opportunities and jobs. CCL contributed to coalition letters that laid out desired climate measures, mobilized constituents in Republican-led districts to support this legislation, and grew the co-sponsorship list over two years. This bill was a supporting ask during 350 constituent lobby meetings of June 2021. It was included in the bipartisan infrastructure law passed by both chambers of Congress in November 2021, and signed into law on Nov. 15, 2021.Â
The USE IT Act boosts carbon capture technologies with $85 million of funding and a permitting task force. CCL volunteers had lobbied on this legislation since June of 2019, and it gained cosponsors after each of our lobbying pushes. Just before heading home for the 2020 holidays, the U.S. House and Senate passed a massive omnibus package. The package was one of “the most significant energy legislation in more than a dozen years,” according to Politico.
The Better Energy Storage and Technology (BEST) Act authorized $300 million for research and development of grid-scale energy storage systems, and authorized demonstration projects for these new energy storage technologies. This technology is essential for the deployment of wind and solar energy. In July of 2020, CCL volunteers helped add at least 24 new cosponsors onto the Better Energy Storage and Technology (BEST) Act in just one week. The BEST Act was ultimately included in the omnibus package passed by the House and Senate at the end of 2020.
The Climate Ready Fisheries Act required a report to be prepared outlining efforts to adapt our nation’s fisheries to the impacts of climate change. CCL helped recruit 10 new-co-sponsors after our 2020 June lobby day, and it was included in the 2020 omnibus package.
The Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More (RECLAIM) Act (H.R. 2156) would have fast-tracked $1 billion in funding to clean up abandoned coal mines and create thousands of jobs in the process. CCL volunteers supported this legislation as a secondary request in lobby meetings from June 2019-July 2020. It accumulated 65 co-sponsors, including 14 Republicans in that time. As part of a broad coalition, CCL brought this request to the Hill at the June 2020 lobby day, and it was included in the Democratic House version of the Infrastructure bill shortly thereafter. It was not taken up in the Senate.
CCL is a trusted partner in Congress
Progress Beyond Policy
We’re proud of how we’re moving the needle on climate policy in Congress. But our work doesn’t stop there! We’re constantly growing our grassroots network and educating our communities. Here’s a peek at some recent accomplishments that go beyond the climate bills.
A nationwide wave of climate advocates
Each summer, CCL volunteers come from every state in the country to meet with Congress on Capitol Hill. At our 2024 event, 991 volunteers held 442 citizen lobby meetings with congressional offices. Included in that group were 195 students and 219 people of color or political conservatives.
25,000 climate conversations
In April 2024, we launched a new outreach campaign based on the communication expertise of Potential Energy Coalition and Science Moms. Volunteers held more than 25,000 conversations about climate change — and counting!
Electrification education
In August 2024, we set out to educate our communities about cutting edge clean tech upgrades for their homes. From heat pumps and induction stoves to solar panels and electric vehicles, we’re spreading the word and helping folks save money along the way.
In 2022, we lobbied for the biggest climate bill in U.S. history 🇺🇸
We had our biggest win yet when Congress took a huge step forward on climate change by passing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law in 2022.
The Inflation Reduction Act was a result of the budget reconciliation process in Congress, where only a simple majority of the Senate needed to vote “yes” to pass a series of budget-related policies. CCLers began pushing for big climate policies in 2021 when Congress began this process. The persistent work of CCLers over 18 months paved the way for the official Inflation Reduction Act bill, formally introduced in July 2022.
The Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest climate bill in American history. It combines investments, fees and tax credits to increase the speed at which America adopts clean energy and electric vehicles, providing major wins for the climate, Americans, and cities and towns across the country. These policies are the result of months of compromises among lawmakers.
If any volunteers can claim a hand in the passage of this bill, it’s CCLers. From August 2021 to August 2022, our volunteers:
Made 168,000 calls and emailsto Congress and President Biden
Reached 4.5 million peoplein targeted states through text and phone banking
Published 1,300 letters to the editor & op-edsin local media across the country
Thanks in large part to these efforts, America is set to cut its carbon emissions 40% by 2030. The Inflation Reduction Act doesn’t get all the way to the official goal of 50% reduction by 2030, but it gets the ball within striking distance 🎯
In the years since the IRA’s passage, CCL volunteers have advocated for clean energy permitting reform to ensure that America can build and connect enough clean energy to fully realize the potential emissions reductions from the IRA. CCL volunteers are also hard at work educating their communities about the clean energy rebates and tax credits available to Americans, encouraging folks in their communities to take advantage of these programs and speed the transition to a clean energy economy.
