Interfaith Power and Light closes national office, pivots focus to state groups

Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

February 7, 2025

The "100 Leaders for 100% Clean Energy" rally on June 9, 2021, brought together leaders of various faith traditions in support of establishing a national clean energy standard as part of President Joe Biden's proposed $2 trillion infrastructure plan. (Courtesy of Interfaith Power & Light)

If you are engaged in faith and environment spaces (which you probably are if you're reading this newsletter), you've almost certainly heard of Interfaith Power and Light.

The national group, founded in 2000, has been a leader in galvanizing a faith voice around climate change and environmental justice for more than two decades. EarthBeat and NCR have reported on many of IPL's national and international efforts over the years:

mobilizing religious communities to adopt solar power;
supporting federal regulations and legislation around climate and clean air and water;
opposing fossil fuel projects and financing;
informing and registering voters;
hosting an annual Faith Climate Action Week;
honoring faith efforts around energy, conservation and carbon neutrality with its Cool Congregations program (All Saints Catholic Church, in Syracuse, New York, was among the 2024 honorees);
providing environmental voter guides;
lobbying Congress alongside other faith groups;
urging U.S. automakers to build affordable electric vehicles; and
attending United Nations summits on climate change and biodiversity.

With such a robust portfolio of activity, it was a shock to many — including their own board of directors — when on Jan. 17 they made the "difficult decision" to shutter the national office, due to a financial shortfall severe enough that staff could not be paid.

"It was sudden and painful," Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, a board member and chair of the National Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, told NCR environment correspondent Brian Roewe in his story this week

But leaders within the organization affirm that their faith and climate work will continue through its 40 state and regional affiliates, which are independent entities each with their own leadership, staff and fundraising, reports Roewe.

"The people doing the work of environmental justice have not gone and are not going anywhere," said Scherlinder Dobb. "Much of the advocacy work was already being led from the state affiliates working both on their share of the federal puzzle as well as individual state initiatives."

Katie Ruth, executive director of Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light, said, "There is already good work happening on the ground in a community that's not going anywhere. And as much as this network can, it will continue to be a place for folks who are looking to work at the intersection of faith and climate and environment."

What else is new on EarthBeat:

The Catholic response to the LA fires is care for neighbor and planet

by Matt Kappadakunnel

Pope Francis offers guidance on evaluating and responding to disaster through his encyclicals Laudato Si' and Fratelli Tutti. Care for our common home, in conjunction with care for our neighbor, is the necessary response to the Los Angeles fires.

Black Catholics are determined to stay, rebuild in community ravaged by wildfires

by Natalie Romano, OSV News

For decades, Altadena has been a diverse hamlet that boasted higher than average Black home ownership, thriving Black small businesses, and churches with ministries that specifically serve Black Catholics. But now, in the wake of such devastation, local leaders recognize Altadena faces a daunting challenge: retaining its identity in the face of a very real chasm between residents' desire to stay, and the financial ability to stay.

Zambian sisters teach smart agriculture to farmers facing scorching drought

by Derrick Silimina

In response to the effects of climate change, Sr. Juunza Mwangani, who is the project manager of the Sisters of the Holy Spirit, recognized opportunity among the people of southern Zambia, who are farmers by nature.

Their sacred land was a gift for their courage. Yet Maká people in Paraguay fight for its ownership

by María Teresa Hernández, Associated Press

Fray Bartolomé, as the Maká call it, was offered to them through a decree issued in 1944 by strongman Higinio Morínigo, then Paraguay's president. It was meant as a present, the Maká have said, to acknowledge their courage and the role they played during the Chaco War against Bolivia in the 1930s.

Faith and the final frontier: Jesuit astronomer releases guide to the cosmos

by Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, who has led the observatory since 2015, shares his journey of becoming a Jesuit astronomer, explains the compatibility of science and faith and guides readers on how to look at the heavens in a new book released Feb. 4 by Loyola Press.

What's happening in other climate news:

Exxon is quietly planning a new $8.6 billion plastics plant in Texas —Tik Root and Joseph Winters for Grist

Trump moves to shutter environmental offices across the government —Maxine Joselow and Amudalat Ajasa for the Washington Post

Our brains are filling with more and more microplastics, study shows —Shannon Osaka for the Washington Post

FDA must set limits on PFAS in food, lawsuit says —Shannon Kelleher for The New Lede

Republicans move to repeal lead limits imposed by Biden-era rules —Tom Perkins for the Guardian

How AI narrows our vision of climate solutions. . .and reinforces the status quo —Sarah DeWeerdt for Anthropocene

Whatever we hope can't be hoarded: A conversation on motherhood and environment —Jennifer Case, with Martha Park, Emily Raboteau, Christina Rivera and Elizabeth Rush for Terrain.org

Final Beat:

Catholic Relief Services, a relief group founded in 1943 by the U.S. bishops to serve World War II survivors in Europe, reaches more than 200 million people in 121 countries on five continents, according to its website.

Now, due to moves by the Trump administration — namely, spending freezes, stuff cuts and potential office closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development — CRS's work may be cut by as much as 50% this year, said CRS President and CEO Sean Callahan in a staffwide email sent Feb. 3.

USAID supplies about half of CRS's $1.5 billion budget for livesaving humanitarian aid programs around the globe, including services for water and sanitation, education, agriculture, health, microfinancing, climate change resilience, justice and peace-building, and emergency and disaster assistance.

Thanks for reading EarthBeat.

Stephanie Clary
Environment Editor
National Catholic Reporter
sclary@ncronline.org