Mapping the Path to Climate and Environmental Equity

In 2019, President Biden signed Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, launching a whole of government effort on two fronts: climate change and environmental justice. Importantly, the order included a goal of 40% of the overall benefits flow to most vulnerable communities in the areas of clean energy and energy efficiency; clean transit; affordable and sustainable housing; training and workforce development; the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution; and the development of critical clean water infrastructure.

With this notable goal, a necessary task was then to identify a mechanism by which communities would be included in Justice40. Toward this end the order also directed the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to create a geospatial Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) “highlighting” these communities and that such a tool be created in six months.

This fact is widely acknowledged across all sectors. As the World Economic Forum states, “without proactive measures to ensure economic equity – the transition to a carbon-neutral economy could exacerbate both between- and within-country inequalities.”

The report represents an opportunity to further catalyze important climate justice research in the U.S. It has a significantly high level of complexity, and equally as high potential for impact. The Bezos Earth Fund provided a grant to the National Academy of Sciences to support the examination of this state of the art of climate and environmental justice assessment. It is important, as it is the first time a cadre of scientists in a leading scientific organization specifically addressed this issue at a national level.

CEQ had extremely limited resources for CEJST development in the first year and as the Senior Director for Environmental Justice, my charge was to lay the inter-agency foundation for its development and launch the tool. We established a Working Group in the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council to ensure community engagement within the timeline. But importantly, we also viewed the first CEJST only as a phase one effort, acknowledging that a robust tool will require substantial research and continued engagement.

Fortunately, CEQ now has resources for data development and research. The Earth Fund’s support for this report we hope, will provide a methodological roadmap for CEQ, government agencies, and for other academic and philanthropic organizations as well.

We are at a critical moment, and we have made much progress on climate equity and justice in the last few years. The report represents another step forward, and a reminder that we should not retreat, but rather continue to build the climate justice agenda.