PA IPL supports our members as they build relationships with their elected officials, ask important questions, and advocate for policies and legislation that will increase energy efficiency and reduce our contribution to climate change —on the local, state, and national level. Our unique message is to focus attention on the moral charges and implications of climate change.

PA IPL holds a monthly Policy Update Call on the 4th Thursday of the month 12:30-1:30. These calls help members build and maintain a base of knowledge about work on climate and emissions issues in our federal, state, and sometimes local governments —and suggest ways to engage our public officials and others on the moral aspects of these issues.

- Call summaries are posted about a week after the call. Past summaries (beginning with January 2016) are available here. Sign up to be on the policy call reminder list.
  NOTE: since January 2018, we have included “discussion hooks” —a couple of articles relevant to the season, or to items in the news — that are also related to climate change or clean energy. Many people find them helpful for all sorts of conversations, from the dinner table, to conversations with fellow congregants, co-workers, or neighbors. Sign up to get the summaries, whether or not you are able to make the call times.

- Read the PA IPL Resolution on Fossil Fuel Infrastructure.
- This piece of federal testimony from PA IPL contains helpful language that supports carbon standards and climate pollution limits.
- Download PA IPL’s supports Town Hall Toolkit, or Beyond the Town Hall Toolkit .
- Read IPL issue briefers on policies we touched on during our annual May visit to PA legislators’ offices on Capitol Hill. This year we met with both Senators’ offices, and 13 of 18 Representatives (The cyclists, Alison, and Cricket were busy.)
- We keep a few fact sheets created by other organizations that may provide a jumping off point for your letter to the editor or conversation with your elected official — many of them are about immediate harms caused by lower atmosphere pollutants (or co-pollutants) that are also climate pollutants (like the health impacts of nearby methane releases).

We would like to offer an Interfaith Moral Climate Advocacy workshop in your neck of Penn’s woods! Our next workshop is being held in partnership with the Community Engagement Team at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on October 13, in Philadelphia. As always, this workshop uses climate justice as a topical frame for the advocacy skills, learning, and practice. Because of the partnership, this workshop will include a number of participants who are first led into advocacy conversations by other justice concerns. It also includes a zero waste lunch!
Scroll on below the line for some quotes from past participants.

PA IPL supports our members on the local, state, and national level as they advocate for policies and legislation that will increase energy efficiency and reduce our contribution to climate change. Our unique message is to focus attention on the moral charges and implications of climate change.

Interfaith Moral Advocacy Workshop participant quotes
(Identities shared as given)

“The Interfaith Climate Advocacy Workshop will surprise you. It offers so much more than alarming climate crisis details. It offers real tools to use to influence our legislators to act now on our behalf to change climate policies. One leaves this workshop feeling able to engage with the most resistant of policy makers.”
Mimi, Quaker, Bethlehem, PA

“The Advocacy Training was an energizing day that gave me the tools I need to be an active participant in our democracy as a person of faith concerned about the impacts of climate change. Though we came from many traditions, the interfaith community can witness that it is united in its call to care for God’s world. I take heart knowing that God is calling so many of us to raise our voices on behalf of creation and the world’s most vulnerable.”
Lutheran clergyperson

“This workshop was a great amalgamation of Faith Beliefs working together on a moral issue of great urgency in our world. For me It provided a renewed hope and encouragement to continue faith-rooted advocacy.”
Marie, Catholic Religious Sister, Philadelphia

If you have ever been afraid to speak to your legislator, come to this workshop. You were feel empowered and energized to meet your rep as a fellow human being who may even be moved by your witness to take steps in the right direction. You’ll discover how to make the moral argument compelling as you build a long term relationship with that political leader.
Participant who had previously done advocacy on climate change, but without focusing on moral arguments.

“It was a meaningful day that offered a good balance of content, learning, and practice. Faith leaders and activists have the best possibility of using their voices to highlight the moral issues related to climate justice and we need opportunities to come together to share, learn and practice. Thank you!”
Marcia Berry, Baha’i Faith
relative beginner in visiting public leaders for these issues

“The PA IPL workshop on the morality of climate change gave me a totally different perspective on advocacy. It isn’t a one time fact-filled session, but a time lapsed relationship built on trust.”
Nancy, Quaker

NEXT WORKSHOPS: Our next workshop is being held in partnership with the Community Engagement Team at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on October 13, in Philadelphia. As always, this workshop uses climate justice as a topical frame for the advocacy skills, learning, and practice. Because of the partnership, this workshop will include a number of participants who are first led into advocacy conversations by other justice concerns. It also includes a zero waste lunch!