Adverse impacts of a warming climate are not felt equitably among people.

Disadvantaged communities are those more often housed in low-lying areas vulnerable to sea level rise and flooding, those without air conditioning struggling with high temperatures, those more at risk from air pollution. Our Climate Justice team is working to assure these disparities are considered in climate policy as it is developed.

Definition: Climate Justice and Environmental Justice both acknowledge that global warming affects communities differently, hitting hardest communities made most vulnerable due to geographical location, socioeconomic status, race, and national identity. While EJ focuses on preventing and repairing negative environmental effects in marginalized communities.

Climate Justice seeks to mitigate these disproportionate adverse impacts by focusing on dismantling the barriers that create inequities on a global scale (e.g. restructuring society, addressing income inequality, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, etc.). Climate Justice is focused on the future in an ecological sense and concerned with building resilience to prepare for the inevitable outcomes of climate change. Climate Justice recognizes the interdependence of all living systems on our planet.