Today nonprofit NC WARN sharply criticized Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good for personally being a key driver of the global climate crisis for the past 12 years. The open letter also urges her to lead a full pivot among fossil fuel cronies as new science shows “We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster.”
Two new international studies conclude that the global community has failed to slow the climate crisis, largely due to fossil fuel corporations such as Duke Energy. “We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis. … Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled.”
Scientists also warn that the world’s carbon sinks are in great peril. Both studies reflect that the climate crisis is desperate but not entirely beyond hope. “We fear the danger of climate breakdown … but it is this very shock that drives us to action.”
The annual State of the Climate Report emphasizes that cutting super potent methane usage is the fastest way to slow global heating: “Drastically cutting methane emissions can slow the near-term rate of global warming, helping to avoid tipping points and extreme climate impacts … .”
Leading scientists have for several years openly urged Duke’s Good and NC Gov. Roy Cooper to stop expanding methane’s usage in power plants and pipelines.
NC WARN told Good she should use her enormous industry stature to reverse her personal legacy: “You are among the few individuals who just might help avert the worst … .” Duke ranks among the top climate polluters in the entire world.
Some 130 businesses and diverse nonprofits have already endorsed NC WARN’s new Sharing Solar proposal for North Carolina to phase out power from fossil fuels. It shows that the fastest, cheapest and fairest way to replace coal and fracked gas is to ramp up distributed generation paired with on-site battery storage and energy-saving programs.
NC WARN told the CEO she has personally presided over the 12 worst years of a top corporate climate polluter, a time during which she continues making the global climate crisis even worse. Suppressing local, affordable renewable power while expanding fracked methane gas paves the very “highway to climate hell” UN head António Guterres recently blamed on corporations such as Duke Energy.
The open letter sent today said “People are hurting yet corporations such as yours keep speeding us all toward the climate cliff.”
The Durham-based nonprofit challenged Good “to personally grasp this opportunity. Doing so, you could inspire or virtually force other fossil fuel CEOs to follow, thus to finally join global scientists and front-line communities vigorously pressing for a massive global pivot.”
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Now in its 36th year, NC WARN is building people power in the climate and energy justice movement to persuade or require Charlotte-based Duke Energy – one of the world’s largest climate polluters – to make a quick transition to renewable, affordable power generation and energy efficiency in order to avert climate tipping points and ongoing rate hikes.
