On Monday, Sunrise Hub at UNC collected signatures in front of Wilson Library for their Green New Deal, which proposes an end to reliance on fossil fuels at the University, comprehensive climate education and a reinvestment in students, staff and North Carolina communities.
The chapter is a part of Sunrise Movement, a national organization working to stop climate change with hubs at universities across the country.
Sunrise Hub member Victoria Plant said the UNC chapter hopes that their resolution for a Green New Deal will be introduced to the UNC Undergraduate Senate early next year. Passing a resolution through the Undergraduate Senate would call on the UNC Board of Trustees or the UNC System Board of Governors to declare a climate emergency and enact a Green New Deal, she said.
“If the [Undergraduate] Senate does not support our Green New Deal and we can’t compromise on anything, I think it will show that the [Undergraduate] Senate is not representative of interest here at Carolina, and we need better representation,” Plant said.
One of the main points of contention the proposal names is the Cogeneration Facility on Cameron Avenue that burns coal to create steam which heats buildings on UNC’s campus.
The Green New Deal asks the University to close the coal plant immediately.
“There are many other ways to create heat,” Drew Phaneuf, co-founder and leader of Sunrise Hub at UNC, said. “That's what the entire study of green energy does, is build other ways to make this heat that doesn't pump poison into the air.”
Deciding not to phase out the coal plant is an example of “institutional inertia” and poor leadership from the University, he said.
In 2010, former UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp promised an elimination of coal use from the cogeneration facility by 2020 — but the facility still continues to burn coal.
