Equitable and Just National Climate Forum’s Recommendations for the Design of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program
Earlier this month, the Center for Earth, Energy, and Democracy (CEED) together with other member organizations of the Equitable and Just National Climate Forum (EJNCF) took part in a Request for Information (RFI) process on the Inflation Reduction Act and Climate Justice Program.
The Equitable and Just National Climate Forum (EJNCF) strongly supports the creation of an Environmental Justice (EJ) Scorecard to evaluate federal government performance on achieving environmental justice. On January 2021, President Biden signed the Executive Order 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which directed the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to create a historic tool that would be the first government-wide assessment on environmental justice. The EJNCF submitted recommendations to the White House Council on designing the EJ Scorecard. A summary of those recommendations are below.
In response to the release of the beta version of the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool from the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform co-authors, a coalition of environmental justice and national environmental groups, released the following statement:
WASHINGTON (January 11, 2022) – The co-authors of the Equitable and Just National Climate platform thank Dr. Cecilia Martinez for her outstanding and tireless work at the Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ) to ensure that environmental justice (EJ) communities and EJ concerns are centered in federal policy making. Dr. Martinez’s dedication to our communities has not gone unnoticed. It will be critical that the Biden Administration continue to deliver on its promises to ensure that communities on the frontlines of environmental injustices are not left behind.
A new landmark report from the first White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) presents a comprehensive and consequential set of recommendations that should guide the implementation of the President Biden’s environmental justice commitments, the co-authors of the Equitable & Just National Climate Platform said today.
Today President Biden announced the members of a new White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council to support the implementation of his commitments to end historic environmental racism and injustices that continue to persist today. The president established the Advisory Council in Executive Order 14008 to work with the White House Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the new White House Environmental Interagency Council to make environmental justice a part of the emission, policies and programs of every agency.
In response the Biden-Harris administration announcing a series of initiatives that would create a White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and a White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council, launching a whole-of-government approach to cleaning up communities disproportionately affected by pollution, and directing agencies to ensure that 40% of climate investment benefits are targeted to communities of color and other disadvantaged communities, the co-authors of the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform released the following statements:
