Oct 30, 2025

Dominique Browning

Co-founder and director, Moms Clean Air Force

Dominique Browning

Photo-Illustration by TIME (Courtesy Photo)

Dominique Browning is the director of the grassroots, non-profit environmental advocacy group Moms Clean Air Force, composed of U.S. parents fighting for a clean and healthy future for their children. The organization has previously organized an 18-month campaign in support of the clean energy and transportation investments that were included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which the group is now aiming to defend. In recent years, the organization pushed back against the build out of what they allege are greenwashed incineration facilities across the country, resulting this year in Alterra Energy canceling plans for a proposed plant in Pennsylvania. And the member parents aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty—this year, moms hit the streets with backpacks, drones, and vehicles equipped with methane sensors to scope out unplugged or abandoned oil and gas wells that pollute local communities. The organization has also advocated for more school districts to apply for electric school buses through the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program.

What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government, needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda?

Companies and governments at all levels must be investing their resources in building out renewable energy, both for their own use and for broad public use. For example, every big box store should have roofs covered with solar, and companies should electrify their fleets and install battery packs for energy storage. Of critical importance, CEOs of oil companies must step into the future and reimagine their business model, rebranding themselves as “energy” companies by enhancing, elevating, and promoting their renewable portfolios. If they need inspiration, tell them to think about their children.

What’s one sustainability effort you personally will try to adopt in the next year?

I am getting solar panels put on my house! Solar is the way to go, especially with residential electric bills surging more than 30% across the country, America’s rapidly aging power grid, and AI consuming massive amounts of energy and leaving a gargantuan negative environmental footprint. I want to do whatever I can to protect myself, my children’s health, and our planet’s future with my own personal investment in solar panels. And by the way, the fossil fuel industry has been getting billions in government subsidies for a hundred years. Clean energy like solar and wind deserves the same support, if not more.

What gives you hope about the future of the planet?

What gives me hope: millions of mothers across the country are shouting out and showing up every single day to fight for climate action and clean air protections. That’s what Moms Clean Air Force is all about—securing a safe and healthy planet for all children now and for future generations. The power of Moms gives me hope: our determination to act is our antidote to the paralysis of despair.

If you could stand up and talk to world leaders at the next COP, what would you say?

Climate disasters are happening more frequently, with more severity, than most people have imagined—except those scientists who have been warning us for years that this would be the cost of not cutting our emissions. Even many of them are surprised with the rapidity of the deterioration of our climate’s stability. Human civilization cannot thrive in chaotic climates. We must act with more urgency. I would also stress—because most people still don’t get this point—that our global climate crisis is being perpetuated by the plastics industry. Plastics and petrochemicals are the world’s fastest-growing industrial source of greenhouse gases—and a major source of other dangerous toxics that gravely harm our health. Taken together, these intersecting crises are a deadly mix for the health of our children, our entire families, and our homes on this planet.