Climate Equity Hits Home

The great tragic irony of climate change is that the worst suffering and biggest burden will fall upon the most innocent people. That is to say that those least responsible for the greenhouse gasses accumulating in our atmosphere are most vulnerable to the harmful effects of a warming planet. It is also to say that, if solutions aren’t approached prudently, the poor—the very people who have done the least to cause the problem—will pay a disproportionately high price as we transition towards a new low-carbon world.

For a long time, the climate equity discussion has been a global one: How can the world’s vulnerable poor be protected from the worst fates of climate change, and how can we make sure those most responsible for it shoulder a fair amount of the burden in finding solutions? Lately, however, the climate equity issue has surfaced close to home, as environmental justice and social equity have landed squarely in the domestic policy debate.

Last week, a coalition of some of Washington’s most influential organizations was announced, and they immediately set out to redefine climate equity within our borders. The new Climate Equity Alliance—which includes in its diverse ranks Oxfam America, the NAACP, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the SEIU, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops—is working to ensure that regulations to combat climate change don’t disproportionately hurt the poor, and that the benefits of a new energy economy are shared by all.