WASHINGTON (Nov 27, 2024) – In the wake of record-breaking climate disasters and a shifting political climate that has emboldened the fossil fuel industry, other big polluters and their toxic agenda, our communities are facing a new wave of attacks on hard-won environmental justice investments and protections that have improved health and quality of life for millions of Americans.
As coalition members of the Equitable & Just National Climate Platform (EJNCP), we will link arms to push back against Big Oil and other big polluters’ extremist agenda to maximize their profits at the expense of the American people’s health — and we will stay focused on advancing our vision of a just climate future, which transcends any one administration, and is grounded in our shared values of freedom and justice for all. This includes the freedom to breathe clean air; drink clean water; live free from harmful pollution, deadly chemical disasters and dangerous climate change effects; and have access to affordable, climate resilient and clean transportation, energy, and housing.
In the last four years, coalition members of the EJNCP along with other environmental justice advocates, successfully secured bold and equitable climate policies that build an inclusive, just, and pollution-free economy, including roughly $60 billion to advance environmental justice in the Inflation Reduction Act and more than $93 billion for pollution cleanup, clean and safe water, and revitalizing and reconnecting communities in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. We will fight to protect these critical investments, which our communities rely on to improve public health, lives, and livelihoods.
We will also make every effort to defend environmental protections that reduce carbon emissions and harmful local pollution, continue current progress on transitioning away from fossil fuels and support our grassroots partners to advance long-term solutions that reduce pollution and cumulative impacts in overburdened communities.
As the nation recovers from unprecedented climate disasters and devastating heat waves, there is bipartisan agreement that our communities need recovery, preparedness and resilience to extreme weather caused by climate change. We urge the new administration and Congress to ensure that urgently needed recovery and rebuilding assistance flows to communities impacted by Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
We have state, local, and regional policymakers and environmental justice champions who can step up and meet the moment wherever federal leaders falter. If the federal government retreats from environmental justice, climate and clean energy progress, leaders at the state, local, and regional level must step up to help protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our communities.
We invite our allies to develop bold, equitable, and just climate solutions and hold our government accountable to building our economy in ways that benefit all communities. It will take all of us to continue the work of advocating for environmental justice priorities and climate protections. Now more than ever we need to forge ahead in unity and strength.
With care and solidarity,
Coalition Members of the Equitable & Just National Climate Platform (EJNCP):
Center for American Progress (CAP)
Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy (CEED)
Center for the Urban Environment of the John S. Watson Institute for Urban Policy and Research
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ)
Earthjustice
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA)
Green Door Initiative
Harambee House – Citizens for Environmental Justice
League of Conservation Voters (LCV)
Los Jardines Institute
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance (NJEJA)
ReGenesis Institute
Sierra Club
Tishman Environmental and Design Center at The New School
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
WE ACT for Environmental Justice
The Equitable & Just National Climate Platform (EJNCP) was created in 2018 to address the historic exclusion of environmental justice (EJ) groups from national climate change policy discourse. Led by 18 coalition members representing EJ and national groups, the EJNCP includes over 300 signatory organizations united around a shared commitment to ending the environmental racism that has left economically disadvantaged communities, Indigenous communities, Black communities, and communities of color exposed to disproportionate levels of toxic pollution and bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. To learn more visit ajustclimate.org.
