DNC climate council kicks off public action

A new Democratic National Committee (DNC) climate council will help the party shape its 2020 environmental platform. 

The DNC Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis will kick off a listening tour, its first public action, this weekend in New Hampshire, founder and Chairwoman Michelle Regalado Deatrick told The Hill. 

“Our idea is to push the DNC and the Democratic Party to move as hard and fast and with all necessary urgency for really bold, ambitious climate crisis and environmental policies, and we’ll start with the 2020 Democratic Party platform,” she said in an interview.

The council was created after the DNC passed a resolution establishing it at a meeting in August.

Deatrick, a surrogate of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said that the council will work with “whoever the nominee is” and push for that nominee “to address the climate issue with the urgency that’s absolutely necessary.”

The group will soon announce members of its policy committee which will draft recommendations for the 2020 Democratic Party platform, she said.  

In the past, the Democratic party has faced internal disagreements as well as criticism from environmental activists about how the party regards the importance of climate change. In August of 2019, there was much discussion within the DNC about whether to host a climate debate, with advocates including Deatrick arguing that the issue warranted its own forum. 

The party voted against such a debate last year. However, Deatrick said she thinks a debate is still necessary, but that the attention the discourse around a climate debate garnered was what allowed for the council to form. 

“The urgency around having a climate debate created a space in which it was possible to get the resolution for this passed and … eventually gain the support of DNC leadership,” she said.