Organizing for Environmental Justice

The climate crisis is well underway. While climate change affects all people, its impacts are not evenly distributed. The experience of CPD Action affiliates, as well as other research, have shown that those most affected—referred to as “frontline communities”—are low-income communities and communities of color, who have often been segregated in areas that are more polluted and/or more at risk for natural disasters such as hurricanes, serious rain storms, coastal flooding, and wildfires. These communities are also often less equipped to prepare for and recover from these disasters because of historic disinvestment, poor infrastructure, and lack of resources. It is imperative that we reduce emissions to mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis and that we adequately adapt in preparation for future disasters. To ensure that these large-scale changes are equitable and sustainable, the powerful social change organizations rooted in frontline communities must play a central role in devising solutions to the crisis. Without a movement powerful enough to win bold, transformative interventions in the climate crisis, low-income communities and communities of color will continue bearing the brunt of the greatest man-made disaster the world has ever known.

In states across the country—including Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York—and at the national level in Washington, D.C., CPD and our network of affiliates are organizing around this critical issue, driving action at the scale and rate needed to address the crisis we face. 

Solutions to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis and build a new, more just economy in the process are within reach. What we need is a movement powerful enough to win them. Together with CPD affiliates and allies, we are building the power needed to face this enormous crisis.