Strategic Plan 2023-2024

Our plan to significantly accelerate action towards climate justice in the next two years
How we created this plan

In order to preserve a livable planet, a radical reduction of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions of at least 42% is required by 2030. From a justice perspective, this is even more imperative as frontline communities will suffer climate change impacts first and worst. Thus, MN350 makes both emission reduction targets and realizing justice guiding principles of our strategic plans.

MN350 and MN350 Action, which celebrated our 9-year anniversary in 2023, have grown immensely over the past several years. With the results of the 2022 elections, we knew it was time to reflect and build on our achievements and plot our path forward with insight from our community. While we cannot anticipate what may happen in the coming years, we know we must also be prepared for the unexpected by being strategic, smart, and nimble.

Our strategic planning process included contemplation, deep thought, reflection, and input from our board and staff.

 

Our Mission
MN350’s mission is to unite Minnesotans as part of a global movement to stop catastrophic climate change and the pollution damaging our communities, speed the transition to clean energy, and create a just and healthy future for all.

We are securing a safe climate through a just transition from an economy based on extraction and consumption to a sustainable and life-affirming economy. This means that benefits must flow first to marginalized communities that bear the worst effects of climate change. All voices — Black, Indigenous, and people of color; immigrant; white; rural and urban — must be heard in this transition. Using a full range of peaceful methods, we are building a powerful mass movement to end systems of oppression and realize our vision of climate justice.

MN350 and MN350 Action bring together Minnesotans as part of a global movement to stop catastrophic climate change and win a just and healthy future for all. 

Through our name and our actions, MN350 and MN350 Action address the urgency of our climate crisis caused by excessive burning of fossil fuels: We must reduce the planet’s CO2 in the atmosphere from over 400 ppm to a safe level – 350 ppm – to have a livable future. 

People know what is needed to reduce dangerous climate change: we must transition rapidly to a clean energy economy and leave most remaining fossil fuel (coal, gas and oil) in the ground. 

Governments and corporations will not take the necessary action to reduce the impact of climate change adequately if they are left to their own devices. The entrenched economic and political status quo, built on the continuing dependence on fossil fuels, is a barrier to progress.

To break through this barrier, we believe that an organized movement of people must build up pressure for change by galvanizing public support. We can make Minnesota a leader in the transition to a just and livable clean energy economy by engaging large numbers of Minnesotans in a bold and diverse mass movement for climate justice. 

MN350 and MN350 Action organize statewide in local communities, engaging people in accessible issue campaigns and empowering volunteers who can act on a shared vision of a just transition to a clean energy economy.  

MN350 and MN350 Action seek to build a movement that unleashes hope by encouraging volunteers to be empowered in our community-led efforts grounded in urgency and agency. We engage in the full range of peaceful tactics and strategies including community-building and educational events, lobbying and educating elected officials, democratic participation, holding corporations accountable, marches and mass mobilizations, and non-violent civil disobedience. 

We seek to act in solidarity with a broad range of allies and take leadership from the communities most directly impacted by climate chaos — low income people, people of color, immigrants, indigenous communities, and youth. 

Addressing the climate crisis is an opportunity to create a more just society, creating new jobs for those displaced from the fossil fuel economy and new opportunities for those who do not benefit from our current, unjust systems rooted in racism, gender inequity, and corporate greed. 

We must carefully acknowledge solutions found in the practices and knowledge of frontline communities, those already fighting and protecting to defend their livelihoods and the environment. Centering their voices, we must consider justice as the basis for urgent and lasting solutions to the climate crisis.

Our Core Value

We are committed to inclusivity; we strive to always learn and grow.

We seek to elevate and celebrate the diversity in our work and continue to center the many ways we are each impacted by climate change based on the identities we hold and the resources we have at our disposal.

MN350 Strategic Imperatives

The moment we are in requires us to significantly accelerate action towards climate justice in the next two years, and this will require us to rapidly scale up our movement. 

  • We will advocate for:
    • policies that protect our climate and support a just transition to a clean economy
    • resilient, regenerative, and inclusive food systems
    • robust transit infrastructure
    • the end of fossil fuel infrastructure
    • safe and sovereign Indigenous communities
  • We will expand our statewide capacity with two new local groups in Rochester and St. Cloud
  • We will increase diversity within our movement and deepen our commitment to climate justice
  • We will expand our volunteer base to be reflective of the communities hardest hit by climate change
  • We will strengthen donor relationships
  • We will expand our base of active online supporters
  • We will transition from volunteer-led to “community-led and volunteer-empowered”

We will increase adoption of electric school buses and medium- and heavy-duty trucks. We will work to redirect the school bus campaign to focus not just on the EPA program but to demand action be done on a statewide level. We will improve the material conditions of the transit system and improve the frequency of transit service particularly in underserved neighborhoods.

We will continue our work to reduce food waste by 200,000 pounds of food through our “Clean Plate Club” peer learning network, build partnerships with community groups aligned with plant rich diet goals, and advocate for regenerative agriculture. During the summer of 2023, we will work to expand our team’s membership base for the next phase of our food systems work.

Racial justice is integral to climate justice. We are combating the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and relatives in Minnesota’s Anishinaabe and Dakotah territories. We will work to build a world where no Minnesota woman, girl, or relative will be a victim of sex trafficking or violent crimes.

Through education and outreach, we will bring together people to develop a curriculum on anti-trafficking, partner with ally networks, and join a statewide alliance of changemakers.

We will inform neighbors and lawmakers about the epidemic and provide pathways to solutions. Through legislation, we will fight for the funding of programs and community resources to assist in education, preparation, healing, and justice. With love in our hearts and through rapid response, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with those directly impacted.

We will focus our work on the MN350 Treaties campaign “We Are All Treaty People,” a northern MN Treaty movement led by Native community leadership, with non-Native allies standing in solidarity as treaty partners. These Treaties are a shared history between non-Native Americans and Native people.

We will pass a robust Minneapolis Climate Action Plan, including a funding mechanism to make sure the benefits of the clean energy transition are available to all, including 100% carbon-free buildings, clean transportation, and green jobs. Our goal is to support Minneapolis to raise the two billion dollars needed to meet its 10-year climate and equity goals. We then plan to expand this work to Hennepin County and then to the state.

Our goal is to secure state-level policy changes that make tar sands pipelines less viable and ultimately obsolete. We are launching the ‘Shut Down the Mainline’ campaign website. We will support Line 5 resistance in Wisconsin and Michigan and support remaining Line 3 defendants who are defending against civil disobedience charges.

MN350 Action Strategic Imperatives

MN350 Action maintains a legislative focus. We will work to:

  • Build relationships with legislative members
  • Lead on bills and support priority bills where we don’t have lead capacity
  • Lead and/or conduct large scale solo events
  • Endorse and elect climate champions into the local and state government