Skip to main content

Climate Justice

Ensure climate policy advances environmental justice by directing benefits and investment to historically disadvantaged communities, reducing disproportionate harms, and strengthening community participation in decision-making.

Sub-topics

Filter by

21 resources

Example States and State Governments

Washington State’s Cap-and-Trade Legislation

In April 2021 legislation from Washington State establishes a cap-and-trade system that puts a price on carbon emissions. The bill creates a “cap-and-invest” program to gradually set tighter limits on...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Executive Order: CCS Energy Purchase Policies for State and Local Government

This Model Executive Order identifies overarching environmental goals and some of the benefits that would result from (i) state agencies purchasing a minimum amount of CCS energy for use in buildings,...
Example States and State Governments

New York’s Clean Climate Careers Initiative

The Clean Climate Careers Initiative was launched in 2017 with the goal of creating 40,000 new clean energy jobs by 2020. The Initiative includes an Environmental Justice and Just Transition Working G...
Resource Congress

The Inflation Reduction Act

New: The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Environmental Defense Fund are announcing the launch of an additional resource on the Inflation Reduction Act Tracker website: the IRA litigation case ...
Example Public Utilities

New York’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Make-Ready Program (2020)

In July 2020, the NY Public Service Commission approved a $700 million program funded by electric bills to help build more than 55,000 chargers by paying a portion of the transmission upgrades and sit...
MCLI Resource

LPDD and Social Equity

The LPDD team is committed to accounting for equity-related concerns in the decarbonization space. We have created several pathways that address specific equity-related concerns, and drafted model law...
Example States and State Governments

Maine’s LD1682

Maine’s LD1682 adds reducing GHG emissions to meet reduction goals and addressing and mitigating disproportionate energy burdens on environmental justice populations, frontline communities, and utilit...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Environmental Justice in the Renewable Energy Transition

Ourka’s 2012 report provides a comparison of variable state definitions of biomass at page 86.
Resource States and State Governments

Report: Rethinking Manure Biogas: Policy Considerations to Promote Equity and Protect the Climate and Environment

This August 2022 report from the Environmental Justice Clinic at the Vermont Law and Graduate School dives deep into the existing policies incentivizing manure biogas operations, the environmental jus...
Resource States and State Governments

Sierra Club Report, Building Electrification Action Plan for Climate Leaders

This 2019 action plan from the Sierra Club outlines the technical challenges and benefits of building electrification, particularly in California. It provides decision-makers and staff in state and lo...
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Grid Legislation

Massachusetts’ S.2967, An Act Promoting a Clean Energy Grid, Advancing Equity, and Protecting Ratepayers, reforms the siting and permitting of clean energy facilities, as well as the gas distribution ...
Example States and State Governments

Minnesota Fossil Phaseout by 2040 Legislation

In February, Minnesota’s Legislature approved a bill requiring utilities in the state to provide electricity from 100% carbon-free sources by 2040. The bill also calls for utilities to generate at lea...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Toward Tradeable Building Performance Standards

Toward Tradeable Building Performance Standards offers a qualified defense of emissions trading programs in general, and suggests that tradeable credits in Building Energy Performance Standard program...
Resource Foreign

Report, Blueprint for Europe’s Just Transition

This 2019 report lays out the principles and strategies for a Green New Deal for Europe. Its scope comprises three distinct institutions: A Green Public Works investment program. An Environmental Unio...
Resource States and State Governments

New York’s Proposed S. 8198 (2022)

This 2022 bill would ensure that state regulation and oversight of gas utilities provides for the equitable achievement of the climate justice and emission reduction mandates set forth in New York’s C...
Resource Congress

Proposed National Climate Bank Legislation of 2019-20

Senator Ed Markey introduced legislation calling for a National Climate Bank (S. 2057), a nonprofit institution independent of government, designed to reduce energy costs and leave consumers and busin...
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts’ Office of Energy Transformation and Advisory Board

In March, 2023, Massachusetts established the nation’s first office responsible for equitably accelerating the state’s gas-to-electric transition and readying the electric grid to meet the state’s cli...
Example States and State Governments

Oregon’s HB 2021 (2021)

In June 2021, the Oregon Legislature passed HB2021 to require that retail electricity providers reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sold to Oregon consumers 80% by 2030, 90% by 2035, ...
Resource Local Governments

TNC report, Accelerating Large-Scale Wind and Solar Energy in New York

The Nature Conservancy prepared a 2017 report, Accelerating Large-Scale Wind and Solar Energy in New York, which details recommendations for reforming the SEQRA process (NY’s NEPA), land use and plann...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: State Law to Divert Food Waste from Landfills

This model state legislation lays out a framework by which states can divert food waste from landfills to eligible processing facilities (including industrial-scale composters) or onsite composters. T...
MCLI Resource

LPDD Top Resources: Low Income and Disadvantaged Communities

For states and localities participating in EPA's CPRG Technical Assistance Forums, we’ve compiled a brief list of top resources related to Low-Income and Disadvantaged Communities. modelclimatelaws.or...