National Climate Assessment

Nation’s Leading Climate Report Focuses New Attention on Environmental Justice

/ Peter Bardaglio / Leave a comment

As climate change has accelerated in the United States, it’s become clear that its consequences are not experienced equally in the U.S. The specifics of these disproportionate impacts are the focus of a groundbreaking federal report issued last month by some of the nation’s leading climate scientists, public health experts, and economists.

The release marks the first time a National Climate Assessment, mandated by Congress under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, has treated environmental justice as an important consideration in its findings. Why the new attention? As the Fifth National Climate Assessment puts it, “An equitable and sustainable U.S. response to climate change has the potential to reduce climate impacts while improving well-being, strengthening resilience, benefiting the economy, and, in part, redressing legacies of racism and injustice.”

Hurricane Harvey in 2017 had a disproportinate impact on poor African American neighborhoods in Houston.

The report outlines in detail how lower-income families and communities of color have historically experienced the worst environmental damage while benefiting the least from regulation, adaptation efforts, and recovery funding. It examines how marginalized groups, among other things, have a greater likelihood of living in a flood zone, lacking access to parks and other green spaces, and having fewer resources to recover from extreme weather events such as hurricanes, flash floods, and wildfires.

“Climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally,” observes Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist of The Nature Conservancy and one of the report’s authors. “This new assessment provides a more comprehensive understanding of how climate impacts disproportionately affect those who have done the least to cause the problem. These impacts exacerbate social inequities, including racial and gender-based disparities; and they emphasize how climate solutions must also be solutions for justice and equity.”

According to Inside Climate News, previous assessments “approached the inequitable outcomes of the climate crisis as an afterthought,” making scattered references to “social justice,” “climate justice” or “environmental justice.” In contrast, the Fifth National Climate Assessment threads discussions of social, economic, and health inequities throughout the entire report.

In a key chapter on “Social Systems and Justice,” the study argues that the necessary elements of a just transition are: 1) recognizing lower-income families and communities of color have borne disparate burdens and social injustices and thus may have different needs; 2) ensuring people affected by the outcomes of decision-making are included in those processes; and 3) distributing resources and opportunities so that no single group or set of individuals receives disproportionate benefits or burdens.

The report, which comes out roughly every four years, compiles the latest peer-reviewed studies and other relevant research on climate change and weaves them into a comprehensive document for U.S. policymakers. The National Climate Assessment is widely considered to be the nation’s most authoritative document on how global warming is affecting the country, so the new attention to environmental justice, while overdue, is welcome and deserves broad public attention.

A Turning Point in the Climate Protection Fight?

/ Peter Bardaglio / Leave a comment

The news about accelerating climate change continues to be grim. The most recent National Climate Assessment, issued in early May, underscored the extensive damage that climate change is already inflicting on various regions in the United States. John Holdren, the White House science advisor, called the report “the loudest and clearest alarm bell to date signalling the need to take urgent action to combat the threats to Americans from climate change.”

The news is not all bad, however. Three recent events since the report’s release raise the possibility that this time the alarm might actually be registering. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled on June 2 its long-awaited plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan would, if approved, direct states to develop a range of programs to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 emissions levels by 2030.

The Dave Johnston coal-fired power plant in Wyoming.

The new rules mark the first time any U.S. president has moved to regulate carbon pollution from power plants, the largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions. Although arguably establishing goals that are too little and a deadline too late to prevent runaway climate change, the Obama administration sent a clear signal that it was finally willing to expend some significant political capital on the fight for climate protection.

Providing further hope that the proposed carbon regulations might mark a turning point, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 23 largely upheld the authority of the EPA to implement the proposed regulations, making it much more likely that the agency could fend off challenges from industry and conservative opponents.

The very next day a bipartisan group of senior political and business leaders, including three former secretaries of the Treasury, endorsed putting a price on carbon, warning that enormous deposits of oil and coal will have to be left in the ground to avoid reaching dangerous levels of global warming. In their report, “Risky Business,” the group outlined the economic impact of climate change, highlighting how climate change was becoming a serious financial issue for corporations.

In a New York Times op-ed launching the campaign for a carbon tax, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson contended that “we’re staring down a climate bubble that poses enormous risks to both our environment and economy.” Paulson, who served in the administration of George W. Bush, compared the mounting climate crisis to the financial crisis of 2008 and the collapse of the economy that followed.

Maybe, just maybe, the dam of political stalemate is beginning to break and the U.S. will finally adopt a coherent and effective climate and energy policy. You can be sure, however, that witout systematic and sustained pressure from the grass roots the necessary changes will never take place. That means that it’s up to us. But it’s certainly nice to see some of our political and business leaders finally lining up on our side.