FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 22, 2022
WISCONSIN, ILLINOIS, and INDIANA, Feb. 22, 2022 — Environmental non-profit organizations Faith in Place, Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light and Wisconsin Interfaith Power & Light announced today that they are joining together and working together as one entity across Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.
Each organization is a state affiliate of Interfaith Power & Light, a national organization that empowers people of diverse faiths and spiritualities to take bold and just action on climate change.
This partnership will create Faith in Place—the Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin Affiliate of Interfaith Power & Light. With strongly aligned missions centered around climate justice and action, these three organizations are eager to join forces—strengthening and amplifying their individual efforts through regional partnership.
The Midwest is already experiencing the impacts of climate change with increased temperatures, heat waves and flooding. In 2019, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin were responsible for over 10 percent of total U.S. CO2 emissions—contributing to the country’s record of being the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses globally.
“Climate justice is an inescapable moral and religious imperative for our time,” said Dr. Peter Bakken, Director of Wisconsin Interfaith Power & Light. “For the sake of the most vulnerable people on our planet and for the whole community of life, we must act. This new partnership will powerfully demonstrate that people of faith in our region are rising to meet the challenge in their own homes and congregations and calling on our elected leaders to follow suit.”
“We are thrilled to partner with both Hoosier and Wisconsin Interfaith Power & Light to further expand our faithful advocacy for bold climate action across the Midwest,” said Rev. Brian Sauder, Executive Director of Faith in Place. “With the U.S. falling short of the emission cuts necessary to curb warming below the 1.5 degree limit of the Paris Agreement, it’s critical for states to quickly adopt climate policies to equitably transition to clean energy.”
As new members of Faith in Place’s outreach team, current staff of Wisconsin Interfaith Power & Light and Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light will continue their environmental advocacy, education and project-based community work in Indiana and Wisconsin—working with faith communities in each state to lead these initiatives.
The mission of Wisconsin Interfaith Power and Light shall be to inform, train, and activate people of all faiths and faith communities to take concrete steps in response to climate change through the promotion of energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy in order to protect Earth’s ecosystems, safeguard public health, and ensure just, sufficient and sustainable energy for all.
The WIP&L mission statement declares that we seek “just, sufficient and sustainable energy for all.” All means all.
In our nation, it is people of African descent who have consistently suffered the most from inequities in energy production and use, exposure to the impacts of climate change, and environmental injustices of all kinds.
Behind these specific connections between the struggle against racial inequities and the struggle for a stable climate, there are common root causes.
But most fundamentally, Black lives must matter for those of us in the interfaith climate movement because justice for those who have been oppressed by the dominant White majority in this country for 400 years is a moral imperative, period. We cannot be satisfied with sustaining a planet where systemic injustice and White supremacy remain intact.
Find the full statement here: WIP&L Anti-Racism Statement
