World Resources Institute. 2022. Cumulative Burden of Disadvantaged Communities. Available at: https://www.wri.org/technical-perspectives/6-takeaways-ceq-climate-and-economic-justice-screening-tool
In January of 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14008 establishing the Justice40 Initiative. The goal of this program is to allocate 40 percent of benefits from certain federal investments to disadvantaged, marginalized communities that have been overburdened by the climate crisis. One example of this investment can be seen in the $2 billion earmarked from Inflation Reduction Act funds to support new community-driven projects.
To determine which communities will receive funding, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) developed the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, which produces community-scale metrics related to climate change, energy, health, legacy pollution, and workforce development.
A critical data point missing from the CEJST is race and ethnicity. Black and Latino communities have been disproportionately impacted by climate change for years. According to one study, Black and Latino communities respectively face 56 percent and 63 percent more pollution than is released due to their consumption. This compares to white communities, which experience 17 percent less pollution than they cause through consumption.
This decision has been questioned because race is often considered a key determining factor of who lives with the consequences of environmental harm. Emory University School of Law Professor Dorothy A. Brown has voiced a dissenting view of the CEJST, saying, “In 2022, if you want to help Black people, you’re going to get sued. So either you’re with the effort to help Black people or you’re not. But you can’t be timid about it.”
The data on race and ethnicity were deliberately kept out of CEJST due to legal concerns stemming from the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Affirmative Action. This omission will make it more difficult to ensure areas most affected by climate change are protected. However, multiple solutions have been proposed. In 2022, the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council provided a list of suggested improvements including adding indicators of structural racism (i.e. redlining, and segregation, etc.) to the CEJST and consulting with Native American and tribal groups to determine how Justice40 can best serve their people.. Further, one study by professors from multiple universities including the University of Washington, and UC Berkeley, suggests that using location-based approaches can reduce racial/ethnic exposure gaps.
Because the Justice40 Initiative was implemented so recently, there are few studies evaluating its efficacy. However, the Biden-Harris Administration has created an Environmental Justice Scorecard to evaluate the federal government’s progress on tackling environmental inequities. To date, all federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense among others, have only been scored on the Phase One scorecard, which assesses the advancement of Justice40, implementation and enforcement of environmental and civil rights laws, and solidification of the goal of environmental justice throughout the federal government. In the coming years it will be crucial that the Justice40 initiative proves that can enact real change and adjust, if needed, to address the roots of environmental justice.
