Over 800 volunteers from Citizens’ Climate Lobby attended the July 2025 Summer Conference, participating in more than 400 lobby meetings on Lobby Day. We had a 28-member contingent from Wisconsin, with 10 young people fully or partially funded through CCL Wisconsin’s new scholarship program. See our state’s photo album here. We thank everyone who donated, especially Larry Hands and Karen Kendrick-Hands, who funded the large Two-for-One Match donation!
Asked how the experience changed her, Emelyn Beaster, leader of the Lawrence University CCL chapter stated, “By lobbying Congress, and being right on site in DC, I gained a lot of hope for the impact of the voice of the community in climate work. This lobby day came at a time where it’s been really easy to lose that hope or feel burnt out in climate work, but the conference reminded me that together, a community like CCL can become this really influential collective voice of action.”
We hope to bring as many or more volunteers of all ages together in Washington, DC, for the 2026 Conference and Lobby Day. Meanwhile, we continue our efforts from home by taking actions suggested by CCL National and by supporting the outreach and development work of our local chapters.
Our climate advocacy continues to be very important, especially in these difficult times. As climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe puts it, “The science is clear: every fraction of a degree of warming we prevent reduces suffering and saves lives. We already have the technology, the knowledge, and the ability to transition to a clean energy future, cut emissions, and build resilient communities. The biggest thing we’re missing is the collective will to act—and that’s something each of us can help create.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher, but so too are the opportunities. By choosing action, we not only protect what we love; we are also building a safer, healthier, and more equitable future. The power to turn awareness into momentum, and momentum into change, is in our hands.”
CCL Wisconsin’s Younger Members Panel and Fundraiser a Big Success!
Ever wonder what young people think about climate change and how they feel about advocating for climate solutions?
On April 6, 2024, Citizens’ Climate Lobby of Wisconsin held a Younger Members Panel discussion on Zoom, where college students, Emelyn Beaster and Rylee Polanka, of the new CCL Lawrence University chapter and high school students, Nina Zhu and Madeleine Bohn, of the CCL Madison chapter shared their answers to these questions and much more.
Following is a nine-minute highlight clip and the full length video recording of this inspiring event, which also was a first-of-a-kind fundraiser for CCL Wisconsin to kick off our new scholarship fund. This fund will help send young people and others who would not otherwise be able to attend CCL’s Summer Conference and Lobby Day in Washington, DC. If you’d like to donate or help us raise money, please see this blogpost.
Contact cclwisco@gmail.com with any questions.
Here is a nine-minute highlight clip:
And here’s the full video:
CCL Wisconsin Younger Members Panel Sunday, April 6, 6-7 pm CST
Register here for your Zoom link:
https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/meeting/register/DtiTwst1RrKKu62BM9cQIg.
Join CCL Wisconsin as two high school-aged members of the Madison CCL chapter’s Youth Action Team and two college-aged members from the new Lawrence University CCL campus chapter in Appleton share how they became concerned about climate change and what it is like to be a youth or young adult climate advocate. Their voices are influential in lobby meetings, as they courageously take part in discussions on federal climate policy-making, promoting clean energy and slowing global warming. There will also be time for Q&A.
This event will be a fundraiser to help our WI youth and young adult volunteers and other CCLers who may need financial assistance to get to Washington, DC, to participate in Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s Summer Conference and Lobby Day on July 20-22, 2025. Any donations can be made at: cclwi.org/donate or by emailing cclwisco@gmail.com for more information.
Your support of our state’s CCL youth and young adult climate advocates is truly appreciated! Please also feel free to share this link with your family, friends and other networks: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/meeting/register/DtiTwst1RrKKu62BM9cQIg#/registration.
IRA Rebates Update from Focus on Energy – Event Recording & Other Resources
On Wednesday, January 29, 2025, CCL Wisconsin virtually hosted Brady Steigauf, Focus on Energy’s Community Liaison Manager, for a very educational presentation about the IRA rebates and other incentives for residents of Wisconsin for clean energy and efficiency. You can watch the recorded presentation here and view the presentation slides here.
We learned how Wisconsinites can benefit from the IRA rebates, as well as state and federal (and sometimes local utility) incentives, to save money and reduce our carbon pollution. Following are some additional important and useful found tools on Focus on Energy’s website:
- https://focusonenergy.com/get-started is the best place to “Get Started” when you have home projects in mind and are curious what incentives exist locally to make energy improvements more affordable.
- “How do businesses or nonprofits know where to start?” They’re a little more complex. Other than looking at their website for custom offerings for each business type, Focus on Energy’s Energy Advisors are regionally/locally based and provide one-on-one help. A map of the Business (nonprofits also use the same) Energy Advisors can be found here: https://focusonenergy.com/energy-advisor-map?program=businessCustomers
- Wisconsin’s IRA Home energy rebates
- IRA questions can be sent to this email address: iraher@focusonenergy.com.
We are grateful to Brady for sharing this excellent information and to Focus on Energy for managing the many energy-saving the rebates for Wisconsin!
Special Event: “Focus on Energy’s Update on IRA Home Energy Rebates” Wednesday, Jan. 29, 7 pm
Citizens’ Climate Lobby Wisconsin is excited to host Focus on Energy’s community liaison manager, Brady Steigauf. Come learn about IRA Home Energy Rebates & Focus on Energy incentives for beneficial electrification. Wisconsin is the first state in the country to launch the IRA Home Energy Rebate programs, thanks to our statewide Focus on Energy program. These rebate programs help make whole-home efficiency and/or electrification more affordable.
Find out how Wisconsinites can participate and benefit from state and federal (and sometimes local utility) incentives, including federal tax credits, to save money and reduce our carbon pollution.
Register here: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/meeting/register/1iGKb7dqSEKxHiLLE6Uplw.”
Script training: Our new approach to phone banking and climate conversations! Thursday September 12th 6:00 to 7:30 pm CDT
Our next round of phone banking is going to lead with exploring people’s urgency around climate action before pivoting to their voting plans. Please join us on Thursday September 12th from 6-7:30 pm central for our script training. We’ll get a little practice with a technique called Deep Canvassing as well as a good look at the new script we’ll use. We think this script training will be useful not just for phone banking to our voter list, but also for talking with the people around you! Everyone is welcome, whether phone banking is your cup of tea or not.
Watch a short role play to get a taste of our new approach to conversations!
At this training our consultant, Brandyn Keating, will review the script which is designed to focus on exploring voters’ climate concerns as a motivation for voting in the general election. We’ll also have the opportunity to practice and get our questions answered. We encourage you to attend live if you can, however the recording of this more in-depth training with Brandyn will be available on our cclwi.org website afterwards.
No registration is necessary. Join the Zoom Meeting on September 12th at
https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/89276812829?pwd=P7Qws0na8ojKgiVhGU30fpxC66qkkT.1 Meeting ID: 892 7681 2829 Passcode: 123
Resources for you:
Following this training we’ll begin our phone banking every Thursday night. We’ll be calling Wisconsin voters who care about the environment but don’t vote regularly. We want to reach as many people as possible before the November 5th election, so we hope you’ll give it a try. Every phone bank starts with training for people new to it and includes support on Zoom. We need you!!
Courageous Voter Conversations Team Check-in, Thursday June 20 – 6:45 CDT
Note: the June 6th check-in has been cancelled because it’s so close to the national conference. Join our next support check-in meeting on Zoom Thursday June 20th from 6 to 6:45 Central. We are holding these every other Thursday (except July 4th). The dates are May 9, May 23, June 6, June 20, July 11, July 25, and Aug 8. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PRE-REGISTER FOR THIS MEETING! To get the Zoom link, go to cclwi.org/calendar-for-CCL-Wisconsin and click on the event on the June 20th calendar page.
These meetings are for everyone who is or intends to be holding conversations with people in their personal networks who are environmental supporters but don’t vote regularly. Paticipants have loved them!
We know that conversations with the people around us are important, and yet it also can be hard to do. We are all learners in this undertaking so the Zoom check-in lets us share what we are learning, practice our techniques, set personal goals and cheer each other on! If you missed the training, you can watch the videos and learn more at the check-ins. [Note: We are not recording the check-in meetings]
Conversations with people in our social networks make a difference because:
- We can reach people that aren’t registered, aren’t on campaign lists, or don’t respond to phone calls from unknown callers.
- We can take more time to listen and respond to them, and talk more than once.
- We learn communication skills that are useful throughout our advocacy work and lives.
- We start or deepen relationships in our community
You can get more information on our team page on our cclwi.org website.
Register for Wisconsin Night at CCL national’s phone banking, Wednesday, May 29th, 6 – 7:30 pm
Join co-hosts Jun Gesteland and Madeleine Para when they host our fourth Wisconsin Night phone banking session on 5/29 at 6 pm CT! No experience is required–they will train you. In the session, we will join other phone bankers from across the country to take part in a campaign for another state that has an upcoming election. At the end, we will have a brief team meeting to share our thoughts. These sessions will prepare us for when we run our own Wisconsin-focused phone banking sessions during the primary and presidential elections.
If Wednesday nights don’t work for you, you can sign up for other phone banking sessions on the Environmental Voter Project’s (EVP’s) website. If you have questions or would like to join our phone banking team, please contact jun.gesteland@gmail.com.
Courageous Voter Conversations Team Check-in, Thursday May 23rd 6 – 6:45 CDT
Join our support check-in meeting on Zoom Thursday May 23rd from 6 to 6:45 Central. We are holding these every other Thursday (except July 4th). The dates are May 9, May 23, June 6, June 20, July 11, July 25, and Aug 8. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PRE-REGISTER FOR THIS MEETING! To get the Zoom link, go to cclwi.org/calendar-for-CCL-Wisconsin and click on the event on the May 23rd calendar page.
These meetings are for everyone who is or intends to be holding conversations with people in their personal networks who are environmental supporters but don’t vote regularly.
We know that conversations with the people around us are important, and yet it also can be hard to do. We are all learners in this undertaking so the Zoom check-in lets us share what we are learning, practice our techniques, set personal goals and cheer each other on! If you missed the training, you can watch the videos and learn more at the check-ins. [Note: We are not recording the check-in meetings]
Conversations with people in our social networks make a difference because:
- We can reach people that aren’t registered, aren’t on campaign lists, or don’t respond to phone calls from unknown callers.
- We can take more time to listen and respond to them, and talk more than once.
- We learn communication skills that are useful throughout our advocacy work and lives.
- We start or deepen relationships in our community
You can get more information on our team page on our cclwi.org website.
New Wisconsin CCL At-Large Chapter Launches May 20th!
Wisconsin has chapters all across the state, and we’re proud of that! And yet we also know that there are people who are too far from a local chapter to feel connected or be involved with one. The new At-Large Chapter will provide a home base for climate-concerned people anywhere in the state and help them find their best way to take action.
If that sounds like you or someone you know, here’s how it will work:
- Meet once a month on Zoom for an hour.
- Get help to plan out your own actions that you can take during the month that fit your time/resources.
- Connect with other people around the state who feel like you about climate change, and help each other get into action.
- Spend an optional fifteen minutes after the meeting ends actually taking your next steps. It’s called co-working on Zoom, and it’s terrific!
- Learn how to integrate your climate actions into your life.
The chapter will be led by Madeleine Para, CCL president emeritus. Here’s what she has to say about why she is excited to do this:
“Now that I’m retired from the staff I get to do the things that are most fun for me. And what is most fun for me is being with people who want to make a difference on one of our biggest challenges, and helping us all find a path forward. So that’s why I offered to launch and lead a CCL chapter for all the people in our state who don’t have a local chapter near at hand and don’t have the energy to start one. In the Zoom era we can come together from everywhere in the state!”
Our first meeting will be Monday May 20th at 6pm.
If you are interested in joining this chapter, please fill out this very short form.
Citizens' Climate Lobby Wisconsin 