Why Support AARP
Climate Action?
As older Americans facing climate change, we need AARP more than ever to protect our “health, financial security, and livable communities.”
As parents and grandparents, we want AARP to use our collective clout to secure a livable future for the young people we love.
to join 4,268 members who have already signed
(and 776 future members!)
The Opportunity ↓
Why Support AARP Climate Action?
As older Americans facing climate change, we need AARP more than ever to protect our “health, financial security, and livable communities.”
As parents and grandparents, we want AARP to use our collective clout to secure a livable future for the young people we love.
to join 4,268 members who have already signed
(and 776 future members!)
What if AARP joined the climate fight?
The opportunity.
Did you know that AARP helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which invests more to address the climate crisis than at any time in our history? (Ok…AARP was actually fighting for the important prescription drug and health provisions of the bill, but without its help nothing would have passed.)
Now with the IRA we have a chance to achieve a projected 40% reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by the year 2030. However, achieving even this modest goal (we’re already on track for a 30% reduction) is by no means assured.
The problem.
It all depends on whether and (how fast) homeowners, landlords, businesses, and power companies take advantage of the financial incentives provided in the IRA to make the switch to lower cost clean energy. We are also going to need to implement important additional government policies to meet our 2030 commitment to the Paris Agreement to reduce carbon emissions by half.
This is where AARP comes in.
It’s the one organization whose resources, size, and reputation can help assure the promised benefits of the IRA.
AARP would bring a fresh, non-politicized, and trusted voice to the climate cause exactly when we need it. Its core mission— to protect the health, financial security, and livable communities of seniors and their families—is perfectly designed to address the climate threat. And what better way to do that than by assuring that the IRA achieves its carbon emissions reduction goals (and, by the way, billions of dollars in consumer savings along the way!).
Energy savings IS climate action!
We’re all going to need help navigating the confusing energy conversion marketplace that the IRA is creating—for heat pumps, backup storage batteries, solar, geothermal, EV’s, electric appliances and other cost saving technologies. So, what if AARP mounted a consumer campaign to help us?
A focus on consumer cost savings can help de-politicize the effort to achieve nation-wide clean energy conversion and mobilize broader support to replace our current economic reliance on burning costly fossil fuels responsible for a large share of pollution and global warming.
Where AARP excels.
Helping its 38 million members make smarter consumer decisions to save money and protect themselves is also AARP’s “bread and butter.” And with the largest circulation magazine in the country and overwhelming online reach, AARP has the infrastructure in place to reach well beyond the “usual environmental suspects.”
In fact, an AARP campaign could have an even bigger impact on carbon emissions than currently projected, because not many people know that some of the IRA’s financial incentives are not “capped” in the law! Therefore, with the scale of an AARP national campaign to take advantage of these incentives and related consumer energy cost savings, reductions of polluting emissions could be as much as double what is now being projected.
Where AARP excels.
Helping its 38 million members make smarter consumer decisions to save money and protect themselves is also AARP’s “bread and butter.” And with the largest circulation magazine in the country and overwhelming online reach, AARP has the infrastructure in place to reach well beyond the “usual environmental suspects.”
In fact, an AARP campaign could have an even bigger impact on carbon emissions than currently projected, because not many people know that some of the IRA’s financial incentives are not “capped” in the law! Therefore, with the scale of an AARP national campaign to take advantage of these incentives and related consumer energy cost savings, reductions of polluting emissions could be as much as double what is now being projected.
Advocacy is important too.
In addition, with a quietly effective lobby respected on both sides of the aisle, and with extensive experience in working with state utility commissions, AARP is uniquely positioned to work at both the federal and state levels to help pass “permitting reforms” needed to make sure the electrical grid is capable of handling the increase in demand for clean electrical power that the IRA will create. Such reforms are essential for the success of the law.
AARP could be the gamechanger in the climate fight.
We have already seen progress: an unprecedented cover story, “Climate Change and You,” in AARP’s 2021 June Bulletin in which AARP unequivocally states that climate change is real, it is happening now, and it is disproportionately impacting older Americans.
An even more powerful recent AARP podcast on the heat crisis in California makes it clear that the burning of fossil fuels are to blame, and that government action is needed to solve the problem.
AARP insiders tell us that with thousands more signatures on our Climate Petition to AARP, we could help expand the organization’s educational work on climate significantly and reshape its advocacy agenda to actively address the crisis.
You can help by signing the petition.
As members, our voices count. If you are of a “certain age,” you may already be a member.
So, please urge AARP’s leadership to make climate action a priority. We want our generation not only to support the young people drawing attention to the climate crisis, but to be part of the movement taking the steps needed to solve it.
You can read the petition here and add your name. If you are not a member, consider making a pledge to join when AARP joins the climate fight. (There is also no minimum age requirement!)
As AARP members, we all want to live out our lives in safety and prosperity. We also want to leave a livable world to our children and grandchildren.
Now is the time for all generations to act together.
Join our effort: