The Problem: Climate Injustice
California sits at the forefront of climate action, yet climate injustice reveals a harsh truth: the people least responsible for the crisis—low-income communities, people of color, Indigenous groups, and working families—are the ones suffering the most. Environmental justice communities face extreme weather, energy affordability, toxic air, and resource scarcity, while fossil fuel corporations and other polluters continue to drive the destruction. Climate change is already one of the most urgent threats facing frontline communities in California and across the globe. And despite the state’s reputation as an international climate leader, too many of its policies still fail to meet the needs of the very residents who are hit first and hardest by both dirty fossil fuels and accelerating climate impacts. A just transition requires California to center these communities, repair historic harms, and create a climate future rooted in equity and accountability.
The Vision: What does a just climate future look like?
- Communities and workers lead decisions on local development, clean-energy infrastructure, and job creation.
- Safe, healthy workplaces and a full transition to zero-emission transportation and fossil-free energy systems.
- Frontline communities, labor, and environmental organizations working in partnership to shape solutions rooted in justice and shared priorities.
- Strong safety nets for workers and communities navigating climate impacts and the shift to a sustainable economy.
- Guaranteed pathways to high-road jobs and investment in expanding public services that sustain community well-being.
- Wealthy industries and fossil fuel corporations pay their fair share, ensuring polluters fund both the transition and the cleanup.
- Protection of public health through preventing new pollution and prioritizing renewable, community-driven climate solutions.
- Regulatory agencies advance equity and climate justice through transparent decisions, responsiveness to community needs, and firm polluter accountability.
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Communities and workers lead decisions on local development, clean-energy infrastructure, and job creation.
-
Safe, healthy workplaces and a full transition to zero-emission transportation and fossil-free energy systems.
-
Frontline communities, labor, and environmental organizations working in partnership to shape solutions rooted in justice and shared priorities.
-
Strong safety nets for workers and communities navigating climate impacts and the shift to a sustainable economy.
-
Guaranteed pathways to high-road jobs and investment in expanding public services that sustain community well-being.
-
Wealthy industries and fossil fuel corporations pay their fair share, ensuring polluters fund both the transition and the cleanup.
-
Protection of public health through preventing new pollution and prioritizing renewable, community-driven climate solutions.
-
Regulatory agencies advance equity and climate justice through transparent decisions, responsiveness to community needs, and firm polluter accountability.
Our Approach:
- We elevate strategic communications for environmental justice communities as central voices in California’s climate conversations, shifting the narrative so those most impacted lead the solutions.
- We work directly with state regulatory agencies, including the California Air Resources Board (CARB), to ensure environmental justice communities are meaningfully represented and equity is prioritized in regulatory decisionmaking.
- We advocate for strong state climate legislation, policies and investments that reduce toxic hotspots, accelerate a managed transition off fossil fuels, and ensure polluters fund the transition and cleanup.
- We build community organizing and leadership power so frontline residents can shape climate policies and influence agency and legislative decisions.
-
We elevate strategic communications for environmental justice communities as central voices in California’s climate conversations, shifting the narrative so those most impacted lead the solutions.
-
We work directly with state regulatory agencies, including the California Air Resources Board (CARB), to ensure environmental justice communities are meaningfully represented and equity is prioritized in regulatory decisionmaking.
-
We advocate for strong state climate legislation, policies and investments that reduce toxic hotspots, accelerate a managed transition off fossil fuels, and ensure polluters fund the transition and cleanup.
-
We build community organizing and leadership power so frontline residents can shape climate policies and influence agency and legislative decisions.
