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RELEASE: WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities Awarded to ‘Todos al Parque,’ by the Mayor’s Office of the City of Barranquilla, Colombia

casey.skeens@wri.org — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 21:10:36 +0000

RELEASE: WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities Awarded to ‘Todos al Parque,’ by the Mayor’s Office of the City of Barranquilla, Colombia casey.skeens@wri.org Wed, 02/01/2023 - 16:10

The grand prize-winning green space project demonstrates an effective strategy for developing urban economies, empowering marginalized groups and building trust in public institutions.

NEW YORK, NY (February 1, 2023) – World Resources Institute presented the $250,000-grand prize for the 2021-2022 WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities to Todos al Parque (“Everyone to the Park”), a long-standing parks and public greenspaces project by the Mayor’s Office of the City of Barranquilla, Colombia. Thanks to the initiative, 93% of Barranquilla residents now live within an 8-minute walk of an urban green space.

An independent jury of urban leaders selected Todos al Parque from among 5 finalists carefully chosen from 260 applications representing 155 cities in 65 countries. Embodying the Prize cycle theme of “Thriving Together in Turbulent Times,” Todos al Parque shows how public investment can achieve a more socially and spatially equitable distribution of public green spaces.

“While Todos al Parque may have started as a parks project, it has revitalized the entire city’s landscape and improved the well-being of every person in Barranquilla, starting with those who needed it most,” said Ani Dasgupta, President and CEO of World Resources Institute. “Todos al Parque’s success is a timely reminder that inclusive and green spaces are essential to building urban resilience, from boosting local employment and public health to bringing communities closer together—on top of climate and biodiversity benefits. This public spaces-driven city revitalization strategy is something every city can learn from.”

Since its inception in 2011, Todos al Parque has created nearly 1.5 million square meters of green areas. Within 100 meters of these parks, thefts have declined and local economies have flourished. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the parks system hosted testing and vaccinations sites, food markets and activities such as outdoor fitness classes with more than 39,000 participants.

“This award belongs to all Barranquilleros who have co-created and backed this project for over a decade and continue to inspire transformative change across our city. Todos al Parque transformed communities and lives because we built them together,” Jamie Pumarejo, Mayor of the City of Barranquilla.

Business leader, philanthropist and Prize Jury Chairman Stephen M. Ross presented the $250,000 grand prize to Barranquilla Mayor Jaime Pumarejo at the Ford Foundation for Social Justice in New York. Four additional finalist projects, from Iloilo City, The Philippines; Odisha, India; Paris, France; and Peshawar, Pakistan, won $25,000 each.

“Cities hold the key to green transformation,” said Ross, Chairman and Founder of Related Companies. “Recognizing what is working and encouraging others to do the same is fundamental to real and positive urban renewal. All of the Prize finalists demonstrate the leadership and ingenuity necessary to lead the world to a brighter future beyond the pandemic, even as we face climate change and other urgent crises.”

Recognizing the confluence of challenges facing cities today — from COVID-19 recovery to climate change and growing urban inequality — WRI sought diverse responses to disruption and crises for the 2021-22 Prize cycle. To determine the winner, each of the finalists demonstrated an innovative approach, impact on residents’ lives and scalability to other cities.

In Iloilo City, the Homeless People’s Federation Philippines and the city government addressed an acute flood risk and housing crisis by working directly with communities to ensure they were not uprooted their jobs and support systems during relocation to safer sites.

During India’s COVID-19 lockdown, the Department of Housing and Urban Development of the Government of Odisha State pioneered an innovative mass employment scheme for migrants, informal workers and the urban poor that created climate-sensitive infrastructure in more than 100 cities. It has now been replicated by other Indian states at a massive scale.

In Paris, the mayor’s offices and Chaire ETI sparked a global movement to tackle car dominance, climate change and urban inequality by bringing the “15-minute city” to life. Now, more and more urban residents across the world have access to services and amenities at their doorsteps.

And in Peshawar, TransPeshawar is putting vulnerable people at the center of the city’s new public transit system, unlocking life-changing opportunities for women and children by increasing access to jobs, education and healthcare for all.

“All of the finalists are exceptionally creative and dedicated in their approach to improving people’s lives: rethinking priorities, innovating processes, building new coalitions and putting the most vulnerable first,” said Anne Maassen, Global Lead for the WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities. “They not only responded to crises, but they made their cities better able to withstand future shocks. Their work will have long-lasting legacies.”

Todos al Parque joins two previous grand prize winners. The 2020-2021 grand prize was awarded to Sustainable Food Production for a Resilient Rosario, a far-reaching urban agriculture program from the municipality of Rosario, Argentina. In 2019, the inaugural grand prize was awarded to School Area Road Safety and Improvements (SARSAI), a program by the non-profit Amend, for its highly impactful and replicable approach to creating safer journeys to school for children in Dar es Salaam and other African cities.

In addition to cash awards, the 2021-2022 finalists received 3D sand-printed trophies, which were sustainably created by designer Lucio Traficante, a native of Rosario, Argentina. His dynamic and intricate design, “The Mobius Strip,” symbolizes the infinite relationship and complex connections between cities and nature.

About World Resources Institute

World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research organization with offices in Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States, and regional offices for Africa and Europe. Our 1,700 staff work with partners to develop practical solutions that improve people’s lives and ensure nature can thrive. Learn more: WRI.org and on Twitter @WorldResources.

About WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities

WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities is World Resources Institute’s program dedicated to shaping a future where cities work better for everyone. It enables more connected, compact and coordinated cities. The Center expands the transport and urban development expertise of the EMBARQ network to catalyze innovative solutions in other sectors, including air quality, water, buildings, land use and energy. It combines the research excellence of WRI with two decades of on-the-ground impact through a network of more than 400 experts working from Brazil, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Turkey and the United States to make cities around the world better places to live. More information at www.wrirosscities.org or on Twitter @WRIRossCities.

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What’s After Coal? Accelerating China’s Overseas Investment in Renewables

ciara.regan@wri.org — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 21:13:58 +0000

What’s After Coal? Accelerating China’s Overseas Investment in Renewables ciara.regan@wri.org Tue, 01/31/2023 - 16:13

China is one of the world’s major sources of infrastructure finance in developing countries. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the country’s massive scheme for financing infrastructure, is active in well over 100 countries. China has emerged as one of the most significant financiers of, and investors in, global power infrastructure, with $52 billion invested in coal power generation in the past two decades in BRI countries.

On September 21st, 2021, in a major departure from its practice of backing significant coal investments overseas, China pledged it would stop building new coal power plants and support low-carbon and clean energy. A year later, evidence shows that China has indeed followed through and ceased grid-connected coal-fired power project finance. Now China has the opportunity to marshal its substantial resources and capabilities to accelerate decarbonization.

However, China’s pivot from coal didn’t decisively end overseas finance for fossil fuels. Experts worry about an unsustainable increase in China’s overseas gas investment as discussions to convert several invested coal pipeline projects to gas emerge, which would lock in risky gas supplies and polluting infrastructure for decades.

The world can ill afford more fossil fuel investment, and the fact is, economics suggest that renewables would be a better investment for China. With countries eager for sustainable investment facing a global energy crisis, China is well positioned to promote green power sources on a large scale.

China Has Limited Opportunities in Natural Gas

Limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) — the limit scientists say is necessary for averting dangerous climate impacts — requires that global gas production, along with coal and oil, must decline significantly each year until 2050. In the past, China has not been a major player in the gas market, and it is unlikely to be one in the future. Compared to OECD countries like Japan and the United States, and major multilateral development banks (MDBs), China does not have a comparative advantage in overseas gas power generation investments.

As the chart below shows, from 2001 to 2022, Japan, the United States and France accounted for almost 60% of international gas power generation investments from top 10 countries, with Japan dominating the market. China ranks just 13^th, with just $6.8 billion in investment — less than one-tenth Japan’s amount.

A Boston University briefing finds that MDBs also have invested heavily in gas power plants (eight banks contributed $17 billion from 2008-2021), with the European Investment Bank leading the pack (though it has pledged to avoid future investments in fossil fuels). In comparison, China’s much smaller-scale gas investment overseas is focused on gas chemicals activities rather than power generation (only $3 billion).

The top investor countries share some common attributes that China lacks. They cultivate and retain their comparative advantages thanks to mature gas markets at home, where experience in extraction, equipment manufacturing and engineering can be developed and then exported or used for a technical, knowledge-based edge in investing. In Japan, for instance, gas financing provides a means to support its already-substantial equipment and service exports, with significant backing from its development finance institutions (DFIs). In fact, 39% of Japan’s DFI investments were deployed in gas power between 2000 and 2018.

By contrast, China has neither a mature domestic gas market nor a strong industry that aims to export technical services. Gas accounted for only 3.3% of power generated in China in 2020, compared to 38% in both Japan and the U.S.

China’s Renewable Energy Advantage

When it comes to renewables, the picture is a mirror image. China is in a good position to build on its strong domestic market and its existing comparative advantage in renewable energy finance.

China’s comparative advantage starts with its extensive experience in renewable supply chains. China dominates the global markets for renewable manufacturing, accounting for 72% of global solar manufacturing and 50% of global wind turbines. That scale translates into lower prices; China boasts cheaper-than-world-average wind and solar equipment, as well as an efficient and low-cost equipment supply chain. China has also established its competitiveness in the international market as an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contractor and equipment supplier in renewables.

Demand conditions are favorable, too. Countries China already works with through the BRI are increasingly interested in renewable energy, and many have their own ambitious net-zero emissions goals. Rising clean energy investment needs from emerging economies eager to decarbonize their grids will continue to be an important pull factor. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 will require $573 billion in renewable energy investments in emerging markets from 2026 to 2030 (about 86% of total investments), with fossil fuel investment needs at only $25 billion.

Data from WRI’s China Overseas Finance Inventory 2.0 also shows encouraging signs of wind and solar investment growth compared to gas investment over the past decade. And while current investments in wind and solar are relatively small compared to hydropower, they have much stronger potential for growth compared to hydropower, which increasingly draws social and environmental concerns.

Significant Challenges Remain for Increasing China’s Investments in Renewables

Still some challenges remain. Overall, the market for overseas solar and wind energy finance is tough for global investors to navigate. From country to country, there is significant unevenness in regulatory frameworks and policy conditions. The global economic downturn may play a role, too, as increasing shipping costs, soaring commodity prices and declining electricity demand change the investment calculus.

For Chinese state-owned enterprises in particular, some countries may be off-limits for regulatory or national security reasons concerning foreign investment. And increasing geopolitical tensions also play a role in some regions. Moreover, China’s dual circulation policy, created in 2020, also pulls the financial focus to its domestic market.

Like other international investors, Chinese ones also face financing risks in renewable projects. To mitigate the risks, financial institutions often ask investors or host country governments to provide guarantees. However, there is lack of sovereign guarantees provided for renewable projects, and Chinese corporates are unable to take on further liabilities by using their assets as collateral.

Sinosure, primary source of export guarantees from China, also has limited capacity on taking up more insurance for renewable projects, as it has used much of its quota for mid- and long- term insurance. All these factors make renewable projects less bankable.

How China Can Deliver As a Solar and Wind Champion

In Jiangxi, China, workers in a solar panel factory lift a new panel from the production line. China is responsible for 72% of global solar manufacturing, dominating the market. Photo by humphery/Shutterstock

The conditions are favorable for China to prefer renewables over fossils in its next generation of foreign investment. However, decisive steps remain to be taken. To build on its comparative advantage in renewables, China should work with BRI countries to better understand and encourage renewable energy demand. It can also encourage innovation — not just in renewable technologies, but in financial tools that make renewables more widely bankable.

Indeed, investors should be able to find synergy in combining new financial products with local and international collaboration. The result will be an accelerated rollout of renewables in emerging markets with surging energy demands — a global win-win.

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Ziyi Ma

Yu Ma

5 Ocean Moments to Watch in 2023

ciara.regan@wri.org — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 16:30:29 +0000

5 Ocean Moments to Watch in 2023 ciara.regan@wri.org Tue, 01/31/2023 - 11:30

A healthy ocean is critical to solving global issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity. However, the health of the ocean has steadily declined in recent decades.

To understand the big moments for 2023, it’s important to look at the commitments made in 2022, which the international conservation community called the “Super Year for the Ocean.”

Was 2022 a 'Super Year for the Ocean'?

Last year, there were multiple high-level opportunities for decision-makers to take significant, meaningful action and raise the collective ambition in pursuit of a healthy and sustainable ocean, but did 2022 live up to its “Super Year” name?

It began with the passage of a resolution by the UN Environment Assembly 5 to produce the world’s first international legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution. Later, the World Trade Organization’s agreement on harmful fisheries subsidies was met after 21 years of negotiations.

These moments were followed by the UN Ocean Conference, where $1 billion was promised from philanthropic organizations to help protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.

And later at COP15, countries adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, with the ”30 by 30” commitment to protect at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030, aiming to ultimately put humanity on course for “living in harmony with nature by 2050.”

Despite this global progress toward a more sustainable world, the ocean and the benefits it provides remain at risk. Analysis shows the hottest temperatures ever recorded in the ocean in 2022, creating a serious cause for concern.

The 2022 commitments will not enact change in the water without meaningful implementation and action to back them up. Moreover, the “super year” is perhaps an unhelpful label when the window of opportunity to tackle the existential threats to our planet is closing. This year is therefore another critical year where commitments made must translate into ambitious tangible action. Ensuring the ocean’s health must now become a continuous aspect of life on earth.

This year, there will be five major moments that can help make progress in restoring and maintaining ocean health:

1) Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty Negotiations (Feb. 20 – March 3, New York)

There is currently no overarching treaty to protect global ocean biodiversity in marine areas not included in national jurisdictions, known as the high seas. The high seas comprise over 95% of the ocean by volume and provide invaluable ecological, economic, social, cultural, scientific and food-security benefits to humanity.

The existing legal frameworks are also insufficient to prevent biodiversity loss.

After negotiators for the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions (BBNJ) Treaty failed to reach an agreement in August 2022, talks will resume in February to create a legally binding treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity within the high seas.

With so much at stake, the final round of negotiations will be a vital moment. Even with the success of COP15, most of the ocean is not within national jurisdiction, so an international treaty is critical for safeguarding marine biodiversity.

2) A Focus on Marine Tourism and Pollution at Our Ocean Conference (March 2-3, Panama)

The eighth annual Our Ocean Conference is an important international event that enables collaborative dialogue between heads of state, the private sector, civil society and academic institutions to advance action for a healthy and productive ocean. The conference is built around voluntary, measurable, impactful commitments to protect the ocean.

A scuba diver explores a reef in Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands. Marine and coastal tourism makes up half of the tourism sector, despite its negative impacts on ecosystems. Photo by Karl Callwood/Unsplash

Since the first conference in 2014, over 70 countries have announced more than 1,800 commitments worth more than $108 billion. This year the host, Panama, has proposed the key focus areas include sustainable marine and coastal tourism, marine plastic pollution and the ecological connectivity of the ocean.

Recent reports show marine and coastal tourism represents at least 50% of total global tourism equalling $4.6 trillion or 5.2% of the global gross domestic product (GDP). However, tourism is not without its negative impacts, contributing 8% of global emissions pre-Covid and putting pressure on local environments. Marine and coastal tourism heavily relies on ocean ecosystems to draw in tourists and so transitioning to a more sustainable tourism model is crucial to ocean health and industry longevity.

The topic of marine plastic pollution is an equally important focus as it has infiltrated every aspect of the ocean from microscopic tissues of plankton to the depths of the Mariana trench (the world’s deepest ocean trench in the Pacific).

Ocean ecosystems and the organisms within them are interrelated with changes in one affecting another. This ecological connectivity can impact local economies through changes such as fish population decline and coral reef degradation which can influence trades such as food production and tourism. Because of this ecological and economic connectivity, more holistic management methods are needed to ensure the longevity of both.

Addressing these focus areas through commitments from private and public sectors in addition to unlocking finance to enact necessary changes in these areas would have considerable implications on ocean health.

3) Advancement of Deep-Sea Mining Regulations

The deep sea — generally defined as the depth where light begins to dwindle, typically around 200 meters (656 feet) — is home to unique species and plays a critical role in life systems that keep our planet healthy. However, as demand has risen for minerals and metals found on the seabed, countries have announced plans to map these areas and begin mining for materials including silver, gold, copper, manganese, cobalt and zinc.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA), the UN body overseeing the controversial deep-sea mining industry, was given two years to finalize governing regulations after the island nation of Nauru triggered the “two-year rule” by announcing their plans to begin mining. If plans are approved, commercial seabed mining could begin as early as July 2023.

Already, the ISA has issued mining exploration contracts that cover 1 million square kilometers. This remains a controversial issue, with some countries calling for a moratorium or a precautionary pause put in place to minimize the environmental impact and some pushing for regulations to be established as soon as possible. This pause would also allow time to gather evidence and fill knowledge gaps relating to potential socio-economic and ecological impacts of mining activities in the deep sea.

4) Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights

The Ocean Race has launched a campaign for a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights to give the ocean legal rights within a multilateral governance system. The campaign will collect signatures across the world during 2023 to be presented at the UN General Assembly in September. Monaco, Cabo Verde and Panama have already voiced their support.

Spain’s Mar Menor is Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon. A new Spanish law will grant the entire body of water personhood, the first of its kind in Europe. Photo by Sarnia/Shutterstock

Many Indigenous and coastal communities have embraced nature’s rights for centuries, and the concept is gaining traction. Countries including Ecuador, New Zealand, Colombia, Australia, the U.S., Bangladesh and India have all recently included legislation in their own nations on nature’s rights. Furthermore, Spain approved a law that will grant the Mar Menor (Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon) and its entire basin legal personhood, making it the first ecosystem in Europe to have its own rights recognized.

For the ocean to have its rights recognized, it would legally have the same protection as people and corporations; having the legal rights to exist, thrive and regenerate. This could open new pathways for litigation in protecting and preserving essential ecosystems and the benefits they provide to communities.

5) Recognition of the Ocean as a Fundamental Climate Component

UN climate negotiations in 2022 (COP27) strengthened the mandate for the UNFCCC Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue — an annual stepping-stone towards greater and more comprehensive climate change dialogue that began last June.

It is hoped that the second dialogue and COP28 in Dubai will continue to highlight the ocean as a fundamental component of the climate system. More than that, these discussions must seek to integrate ocean-based climate actions into countries’ climate goals, as research shows that ocean-based climate solutions can deliver up to 21% of the annual greenhouse gas emission cuts needed in 2050 to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F). Given this potential, it is essential that the ocean is recognized as a key part of decision-making at COP28.

However, among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted by the United Nations in 2012 to end poverty and protect the planet, the ocean SDG remains the most underfunded. Therefore, a critical outcome of COP28 would be a commitment from both state and private sectors to make sufficient funding available for ocean-based climate solutions, ensuring they are adequately implemented to unlock their maximum potential for people, nature and planet.

For more updates and insights on these top moments for the ocean, follow @WRIOcean on Twitter.

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RELEASE: WRI Welcomes Dr. Pamela Matson to Global Board of Directors

casey.skeens@wri.org — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 19:21:45 +0000

RELEASE: WRI Welcomes Dr. Pamela Matson to Global Board of Directors casey.skeens@wri.org Mon, 01/30/2023 - 14:21

WASHINGTON (January 30, 2023) — World Resources Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Pamela Matson, Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies Emerita in Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability, will be joining WRI’s Global Board of Directors for a three-year term.

“Pamela is a global leader on sustainability with a critical understanding of nature-society systems and interdisciplinary solutions,” said Ani Dasgupta, President and CEO, WRI. “The breadth and depth of her knowledge and experience will be an enormous resource for WRI as we look to implement true systems transformations that meet the scale of the challenges facing the world.”

Dr. Matson is a Professor of Environmental Studies and Dean Emerita at Stanford, where she led Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy and Environment for 15 years and launched several interdisciplinary graduate programs and departments focused on sustainability. She is a MacArthur Foundation Award recipient and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

She was a lead author of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was awarded the Nobel Prize and is an Einstein Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, among many other awards and recognitions. In addition, until recently, Dr. Matson was a member of the WWF International Board and served as Chair and Co-Chair of the WWF U.S. Board of Trustees.

“Pam knows the science, understands the urgency of action to address climate change and biodiversity for people here in the U.S. and in other countries and knows what it takes for proactive global NGOs to make a difference,” said Dr. Susan Tierney, Vice Chair, WRI Global Board of Directors. “WRI is extraordinarily fortunate that Pam will join our efforts for sustainable and equitable progress to improve people’s lives across the world.”

Dr. Matson’s research has addressed a range of environment and sustainability issues, including sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, sustainability of complex social-environmental systems (including agricultural systems), vulnerability and resilience to climate change, and knowledge-action linkages that can contribute to sustainability transformations at scale.

“WRI has been a leader in tackling climate change and environmental issues, with tangible, real-world outcomes for people and communities,” said Dr. Pamela Matson.

“I am honored and excited to join WRI’s Board to help further its mission of addressing the world’s most urgent challenges and find solutions that lift up people and nature together.”

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Restoring a Degraded Ethiopian Watershed for Water and Livelihood Security

shannon.paton@wri.org — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 18:03:50 +0000

Restoring a Degraded Ethiopian Watershed for Water and Livelihood Security shannon.paton@… Fri, 01/27/2023 - 13:03

Gedif Tadele, 53, is a farmer in Cheboch village near Merawi town, the capital of North Mecha district in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. Gedif depends on his produce for a living and to sustain his family. But the structure of the land is changing, and soil is becoming increasingly infertile. Degraded land — land that has lost some degree of its natural productivity due to human activities — is threatening his livelihood.

“The landscape of this area has changed a lot,” Gedif said. “When I was a child, this place was meadow [suitable for farming]; there was no deterioration. Now, the land is eroded and the soil is being washed away when it rains.”

Gedif Tadele, 53, a resident of Cheboch village. Credit: WaterAid/Frehiwot Gebrewold.

More than 85% of Ethiopia’s land is now degraded. This is particularly pronounced in the country’s highlands where most farming takes place. Land degradation and associated soil loss can exacerbate food and water insecurity, poverty and biodiversity loss, and affect socio-economic development and the livelihoods of millions.

Why Are Ethiopia’s Landscapes Changing?

Several factors contribute to the degradation of landscapes and ecosystems in Ethiopia.

Inadequate land and resource management — seen through widespread deforestation, overgrazing, cultivation on steep slopes and unsuitable farming practices — is common. Climate change is also worsening aridification in many parts of Ethiopia, leading to increasingly drier conditions and aggravating rainfall variability and intensity, which drives further soil loss. In Amhara, land degradation is expanding, threatening agricultural productivity, water supplies and livelihoods.

“[My] parents tell us that the land was not like this before,” said Yezina Alemneh, 25, a young farmer and mother from the village. “Most of it was farmland before. But now, it is impossible to plough and plant crops on the land as it is not leveled. Every time it rains, so much soil is washed away that it is making the land sink.”

Yezina Alemneh, 25, of Cheboch village. Credit: WaterAid/Frehiwot Gebrewold

Meanwhile, erosion from poor land and water management strips away valuable topsoil and prevents rainwater from being absorbed into the land, making it harder to grow food while also limiting groundwater recharge and decreasing water availability and quality for households and irrigation.

The cumulative effect limits a community’s ability to be food secure and adapt to a changing climate.

Promoting Healthy Landscapes and Watersheds

Promoting healthy watersheds and restoring degraded land can mitigate the effects of erosion and natural resource loss while boosting agricultural productivity.

WRI is undertaking a three-year project (2022-2024) to help reduce water stress, increase climate resilience, and enhance sustainable and resilient water supplies in Ethiopia. The geographic focus is the Tana Subbasin and the woredas (districts) of North Mecha, Farta and Dera in Amhara Region, which overlap with the Subbasin. Partners include the Millennium Water Alliance, Abbay Basin Administration Office and WaterAid. The project aims to improve the governance of water resources, basin planning processes, and land and watershed health by strengthening water and climate-related data systems, analytical and management capacities, and collaboration and learning across sectoral actors and offices.

The project is organized around four key objectives and components: (1) provide support for better data and analysis to enhance decision-making, (2) improve governance and capacity to better manage water resources, (3) implement watershed management to improve water flow and quality and (4) a cross-cutting commitment to elevate lessons nationally and internationally.

While WRI is leading overall project management and implementation, WaterAid joined the project consortium to take on the project’s third component. WaterAid Ethiopia works with non-governmental or civil society organizations and communities to tackle the impacts of climate change and improve water availability and sanitation practices, aiming to change people’s lives.

Taken after Ethiopia’s rainy season, this view of the degraded Minzir 01 watershed, located in the North Mecha district of Amhara Region, shows evident signs of gully formation and low stream flow. Degraded landscapes can reduce soil fertility, water availability and quality. Photo credit: WaterAid/Frehiwot Gebrewold

The third component, led in close collaboration with WRI and consortium partners, centers on activities in one micro-watershed of the project area to rehabilitate the landscape and restore degraded soil. Minzir 01, a micro-watershed of about 500 hectares, was selected by the consortium as the intervention landscape. The component rests on efforts at watershed, kebele (village) and community levels, primarily through the promotion and adoption of more sustainable natural resource use practices, including through revegetation, reforestation and soil and water conservation. In parallel, the project promotes water safety planning to better preserve water supplies and quality, with strong participation of communities and district level officials.

Gedif is the deputy leader of the new watershed management committee that was recently established to help manage the rehabilitation of Minzir 01 and mobilize local communities in the conservation work.

To improve livelihood opportunities and reduce dependence on natural resources from the landscape, the project organized a first provision of seedlings in mid-2022 to households residing in the watershed, along with training on proper planting and management. Initial seedlings included avocado, coffee, gesho, lemon and mango, aimed at boosting and diversifying household income while revitalizing the landscape. Community members also planted additional non-invasive fruit and commercial trees to restore degraded soils.

Seedlings of different kinds were distributed to households for landscape rehabilitation and livelihood improvement. Photo credit: WaterAid/Mulatu Adane

In parallel, WaterAid has provided support to the development of a water safety plan for the water supply scheme present in the watershed. Water safety planning, introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a participatory process that aims to identify and then address potential threats to a water system through its full cycle, from source to ultimate endpoint and user. WaterAid Ethiopia is working with the local water user association, the watershed management committee, elderly leaders from surrounding kebeles and officials at the kebele- and district-levels who work in water, agriculture, forestry, environment and health.

WaterAid assists the community in developing a water safety plan for the water supply scheme in the Minzir 01 watershed. Photo credit: WaterAid/Mulatu Adane

Ambaye Ewnetu, 27, a farmer and resident of Cheboch, recently took on the role of finance coordinator for the Minzir 01 watershed committee.

“People with a big plot of land grow teff in this area,” he said. “But now, it is becoming very difficult for people to grow teff. Even some of the houses are now at risk because if the degradation continues like this, their lands may be destroyed and washed away by running water.”

Ambaye Ewnetu, 27-year-old farmer and resident of Cheboch village. Credit: WaterAid/Frehiwot Gebrewold

More activities on landscape rehabilitation and promoting water safety will take place in 2023.

Water and Land Are Life

There are strong links between food and water security and watershed health. Protecting source waters, restoring degraded land and promoting climate-resilient water supply systems are vital to maintaining or improving soil productivity and the flow of water to people. Landscape restoration coupled with community-based sustainable watershed management can increase availability of water supplies and enhance water quality for household and productive uses.

The project approach can be scaled to other nearby landscapes and watersheds, and eventually, the goal is to expand this work to other districts and watersheds in the Tana Subbasin.

Only by revitalizing degraded landscapes and promoting sound land and water management can rural communities see improved opportunities, reduced vulnerability to food and water insecurity, and resilience to climate change.

*Frehiwot Gebrewold is a Voices from the Field Communications Specialist, WaterAid Ethiopia

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Muluneh Tarekegn

Francesca Battistelli

Frehiwot Gebrewold*

Electric School Buses Can Fight – or Further— Inequity in the US

sarah.parsons@wri.org — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 15:10:00 +0000

Electric School Buses Can Fight – or Further— Inequity in the US sarah.parsons@… Fri, 01/27/2023 - 10:10

More than 20 million students in the United States ride school buses every year. This equals approximately 7 billion trips per year, making school buses one of the most widely used forms of public transport in the United States. 

But those trips aren’t always safe ones.

Most students — especially those from low-income and communities of color — ride diesel-powered buses that regularly expose them to toxic fumes linked to asthma, cancer and other illnesses. And while electric school buses offer a solution, they can actually deepen inequities if programs aren’t designed and deployed properly.

The Disproportionate Burden of Polluting School Buses in Vulnerable Communities

Over 90% of the U.S. school bus fleet is powered by diesel, which is problematic for children’s health. Toxic diesel exhaust is linked to serious physical risks including asthma, cancer and other respiratory illnesses.  Higher levels of traffic-related air pollutants are also associated with lower short-term attention levels for primary school students. And studies show that school bus air pollution affects academic performance by causing illnesses, absences and cognitive impairment observable in test scores. 

Some communities are disproportionately impacted by dirty school bus engines. For example, several studies show that students with disabilities, those living in rural communities, those from low-income families and Black students are more likely to travel long distances on a school bus, leading to greater exposure to harmful pollutants. School bus depots are often a significant source of neighborhood pollution, disproportionately affecting school bus employees and the surrounding communities. In some cases, like in New York City, these depots are predominantly located in “environmental justice communities” already facing high pollution levels.

Because historic racial segregation has resulted in Latino, Asian American and Black communities living closer to roads, highways and other pollution sources than white communities, school bus exhaust disproportionately harms these residents and is compounded by greater air pollution exposure from other on-road sources. Together, this extra pollution creates added health challenges for communities already overburdened by poor air quality and other socio-economic impacts.

Electric School Buses Can Be a Solution — or Could Deepen Inequities

Electric school buses are an increasingly popular solution to dirty diesel buses, with more than 12,000 committed across 38 U.S. states as of June 2022 (including an order for 10,000 repowered buses from a dealer in the Midwest, where diesel engines will be switched out for electric ones).

Unlike diesel buses, electric school buses produce no toxic exhaust, so they’re much better for children’s health. They can also lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduce school operating expenses, create green manufacturing jobs, and support a more resilient grid powered by greater amounts of renewable energy. But without careful planning, transitioning to electric school buses might not meet the needs of historically underserved communities — and indeed, could perpetuate ingrained systems of inequity.

Based on analysis of the WRI Dataset of Electric School Bus Adoption, which catalogues the location, socio-economic and racial makeup of school districts using electric school buses (or that have secured funding or a purchase agreement to do so), 80% of electric school buses in the United States are in school districts that serve communities of color. While this is good news, the analysis also shows that wealthier communities are still procuring more buses than districts serving low-income households.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program rebate competition, which recently allocated over $1 billion to 389 school districts to help purchase more than 2,400 buses, may change these trends. But even with all the significant recent investment, the total number of committed electric buses remains only a tiny fraction of the roughly 480,000 school buses used throughout the United States.

Communities of color and low-income communities historically have often been the last to benefit from development and transport innovations given the ongoing impacts of structural racism and discrimination in the United States, including redlining, exclusionary zoning and other discriminatory housing policies. These communities are also frequently left out of decision-making on issues like community development policies or school transport options. This legacy is reflected in the way school boundaries and school budgets are defined and reinforce long‐standing structural barriers that perpetuate inequities in education, school bus transport, access and mobility.

For example, since school districts are typically funded by local taxes, lower-income districts have less access to resources than wealthier districts. Even though the cost over the lifetime of electric school bus use can be similar to diesel buses due to fuel and maintenance savings as well as public funding support, the large upfront costs of procuring electric school buses is substantial. Because of this, income inequality could impact low-income districts’ ability to initially afford electric school buses.

Low-income school districts often face higher borrowing costs and smaller tax bases for raising funds on their own. In fact, studies have shown that a lack of resources may impact the ability of lower-income districts to apply to school bus funding programs because of limited awareness or staff resources.

Without policy interventions, the transition from diesel to electric vehicles could also result in job losses, job relocation or reduced wages in manufacturing because many electric bus parts like batteries and electric motors are largely made by non-U.S. suppliers. Currently, Black Americans represent a somewhat higher portion of workers in the automotive manufacturing sector when compared with the labor market as a whole. This shift could particularly affect these Black workers, who have also faced discriminatory hiring practices and limited access to unionized, well-paying jobs.

Even the nature of the energy grid is unequal. As the distribution grid was developed over the past century, existing social inequities were embedded within it. For example, the racialized effects of housing policy may have resulted in older, lower capacity infrastructure in low-income communities and communities of color. Many people living in disadvantaged communities are renters who are dependent on landlords for energy efficiency improvements or electric vehicle hookups.

A recent study of California grid infrastructure, for example, found that communities of color are less likely to be served by grid infrastructure that can accommodate new distributed energy resources like solar power and electric vehicle charging. In one study, less than 20% of households making $25,000 a year or less had access to a parking space with electric charging capability close to their home, compared to almost 80% for households making $100,000 or more. This unequal access means these communities may require supplemental investment for electric school buses and other renewable energy investments, increasing the burden of shifting to electric vehicles.

And further afield, the batteries needed to power electric school buses can indirectly harm human rights. For example, poor mining practices to extract lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and graphite, the critical mineral inputs for batteries, can damage human health and the environment. Further, the disposal of old diesel buses could reinforce trends of shipping polluting diesel vehicles from wealthy nations to poorer countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, displacing the impacts of diesel pollution and waste to other vulnerable communities.

A school bus drives on a Chicago highway. Diesel-powered school buses produce toxic exhaust linked to asthma, cancer and respiratory illnesses. Photo by benedek/iStock

How to Ensure a Just Transition to Electric School Buses?

A timely, targeted and well-managed transition can go a long way to ensuring that all communities can access electric school buses and enjoy their benefits. Many actors — school districts, transportation providers, utilities, policymakers, investors and school bus manufacturers and operators — have role to play.

Putting equity first in electric school bus deployment means:

Embedding equity in program design: Fairness, trust, transparency and inclusion can guide decision-making while addressing historical and structural injustices. For example, in addition to implementation of state and city-level strategies to incorporate equity into transport decisions, school districts have considered how to incorporate equity into school bus scheduling challenges. This ensures that any changes to school start times or the number of buses needed to transport kids as a result of transitioning to electric buses won’t hinder students’ abilities to get to school on time or perform well academically.
Involving stakeholders in decision-making: School districts and electric bus advocacy groups must ensure that community members impacted by electric school buses are included in decision-making, paying special attention to how impact may vary based on people’s race, ethnicity, gender, geographic location, ability, income or first language. Underserved communities and other marginalized groups must have a voice in program design, and school districts should facilitate their engagement through resources and technical assistance as needed. It may take time to develop trusting relationships with key stakeholders typically excluded from decision-making.

For example, in Maryland, the Climate Change Action Plan Focus Work Group, made up of students, community organizations, a local union president and others, included in their proposal to the Prince George's County Public Schools Board of Education (PGCPS) a recommendation to electrify all buses by 2040, which was then adopted. Together, the school district and Work Group are now focusing on ensuring the entire PGCPS community are active participants in executing the plans.
Strengthening partnerships with local organizations: “Big greens” like WRI may not have the on-the-ground experience or relationships to really understand the local impacts of electric school buses. Strong partnerships with local community groups are key for connecting and consulting with different stakeholders and developing trusting and productive collaborations.

For example, CHISPA’s Clean Buses For Healthy Niños, a branch of the League of Conservation Voters, has been organizing successfully for electric school buses since early 2017. They started the Alliance for ESBs with other NGOs to help residents from communities most harmed by air pollution to advocate for electric school buses. So far, the alliance has helped shape policy and funding opportunities and demonstrated local demand for electric school buses in 34 states, working with state leaders and school administrators to direct resources where they are most needed.
Prioritizing underserved school districts by providing funding and technical assistance: School districts that serve low-income families and communities of color overburdened by pollution should be the first to benefit from the electric school bus transition. Targeted funding and technical assistance programs can use existing data to identify and prioritize these locations.

The EPA’s Clean Bus Program, for example, prioritized first-round applications from school districts or other transport providers serving Tribal Schools, rural and low-income areas. Several states are creating new funding streams and furthering equity by prioritizing support for underserved communities, including in California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.
Addressing supply chain impacts across the electric school bus lifecycle: Electric school bus initiatives can work with manufacturers and policy makers to foster responsible bus procurement. This can include improving mining practices for battery parts, incorporating battery recycling into bus programs, or repowering existing diesel buses with new electric drive trains to limit disposal challenges.

For example, some companies are investigating secondary uses for old electric vehicle batteries, such as clean alternatives to generators or connecting to the grid to expand capacity or store power generated during off-peak hours. Missouri’s Knox County School District, for example, worked with students to repurpose its old diesel bus into a coffee shop instead of sending it to the junkyard. The project helped meet disposal requirements that came with the funding for an electric school bus.
Supporting workers: Diesel bus drivers and maintenance workers can’t be left behind by the electric school bus transition. Programs can partner with training institutions and community colleges to upskill school bus technicians, manufacturing workers and electrical workers. California, for example has developed its Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible, and Local Zero-Emission Vehicle Workforce Pilot project, which provides funding for zero-emission vehicle workforce training in the state’s most underserved communities.

Additionally, manufacturing more electric school buses in the United States as opposed to overseas could create good, green jobs while developing the domestic supply chain for medium- and heavy-duty EVs. That’s one reason Jobs to Move America, a policy center working to transform public spending and corporate behavior, has started an electric school bus campaign
Employing innovative finance and funding mechanisms: Utilities and financial institutions can be partners to ensure equitable investments in charging infrastructure, batteries or buses while providing robust consumer protections. Advocates in Michigan have supported the establishment of the nation’s first inclusive utility investment program for transportation electrification in partnership with the utility DTE Energy. Already, Michigan Commissioners are calling to expand the pilot to include electric school buses. This program can serve as a template for other utilities looking to invest in electrification in an equitable way.

Other innovative financial solutions through green banks, which are designed to accelerate the transition to clean energy and address climate change, and community development financial institutions can also play a central role in supporting equitable electric school bus adoption. This momentum will only accelerate thanks to the new Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund authorized within the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, designed to provide competitive grants to mobilize financing and leverage private capital for clean energy and climate-friendly projects that benefit low-income and disadvantaged communities.

Finance for technology innovation can also help. For example, the federal government’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Electric Drive Vehicle Battery Recycling and Second Life Applications will help create new battery end-of-life technologies and markets.
Exploring Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) resilience and revenue opportunities: Electric school buses can be equipped with V2X or bidirectional charging capability, allowing them to serve as “mobile power units.” With proper planning, electric school buses could provide more than just transportation to vulnerable areas, such as serving as an emergency source of power during grid outages and improving charging infrastructure.

Providing vehicle-to-grid (V2G) power could also help pay for electric buses, a win-win for schools and utilities. Although the technology is still developing, one company in California is working with the Ramona Unified School District in San Diego County to pair V2G technology in its electric school buses with the utility's Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP), which is designed to prevent power outages and ensure service reliability. The school district can receive $2 per kWh for electricity provided to the grid, which equates to a potential savings of up to $7,200 per bus per year.

Electric school buses as part of a West Virginia pilot program. As of June 2022, 38 U.S. states have collectively committed to more than 12,000 electric school buses. Photo by Chiarascura/Shutterstock

Building Momentum for Equitable Electric School Buses

With expanded funding opportunities and more school districts taking advantage, the pace of the electric school bus transition is rapid with no signs of slowing. But a just and equitable transition requires sustained and careful attention. Electric school bus commitments and plans are just the beginning. These strategies must now move beyond highlighting the benefits of electric buses to creating accountable, concrete plans for putting equity visions into action.

WRI’s Electric School Bus (ESB) Initiative hopes to build momentum toward equitably electrifying the entire U.S. fleet of school buses by 2030. Our equity-first approach, outlined in the Equity Framework to Guide the Electric School Bus Initiative, fosters a participatory and inclusive electric school bus transition — one we hope will contribute to correcting inequities across the transportation system and broader society.

Our children and communities deserve no less.

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To Shift Away from Oil and Gas, Developing Countries Need a ‘Just Transition’ to Protect Workers and Communities

ciara.regan@wri.org — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 17:08:22 +0000

To Shift Away from Oil and Gas, Developing Countries Need a ‘Just Transition’ to Protect Workers and Communities ciara.regan@wri.org Thu, 01/26/2023 - 12:08

The phrase “major oil and gas producer” may conjure images of oil and gas wells in Texas or Saudi Arabia. However, about half of the world’s oil and gas is produced by middle-income developing countries, which the World Bank defines as those with annual per capita gross national income between $1,036 and $12,535. These nations are economically dependent on the highly volatile prices of oil and gas but have fewer resources than rich countries to deal with the global transition away from fossil fuels that will help prevent the most dangerous impacts of climate change.

Based on current combined climate pledges the world is on track for 2.5 degrees C (4.5 degrees F) global warming by 2100, and demand for oil and gas has yet to fall. However, as part of an effort to achieve net zero emissions and meet the 1.5C (2.7 degrees F) temperature goal, the International Energy Agency’s 2022 World Energy Outlook estimates that oil demand could decrease over the next three decades from 95 million barrels per day to less than 25 million barrels a day. During the same period, natural gas demand is estimated to drop from 4,200 billion to 1,200 billion cubic meters. At the same time insistence from vulnerable countries and others to cut dependence on fossil fuels to avoid catastrophic global warming continues.

The transition away from oil and gas to meet global climate goals can offer important environmental, social and economic benefits but also presents significant challenges for many countries. Such challenges include how to diversify economies and reduce reliance on oil and gas revenue which could support public services, programs, and public sector employment. They also include how to support those employed directly and indirectly by the industry. Accordingly, the key questions are: How can the costs borne by impacted workers and communities and declines in government revenues in middle-income oil- and gas-producing countries be mitigated? And what policies can enable a “just transition” away from oil and gas?

Pursuing a just transition is crucial to ensure that during this shift, harm to workers and communities dependent on the fossil fuel industry are minimized while the benefits of climate policies are maximized. New research from WRI tackles these questions and identifies key considerations for policymakers as they jump-start this process.

Expanding Just Transition Conversations Beyond Coal

Middle-income countries — responsible for 48% of the world’s oil production and 52% of its gas production — may find it particularly difficult to navigate an energy transition requiring the phase down of oil and gas production. The economies of many such countries are often not adequately diversified, and the oil and gas sector accounts for a significant share of exports and government revenue.

A just transition away from oil and gas will require financial resources from both domestic and international sources. The Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETP) that have recently been undertaken with South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam, and funding commitments from G7 and other countries could be a model for financing some just transition initiatives. However, the first such funding initiative, in South Africa, is not yet sufficient to fully finance the transition there, and concerns persist about the limitations of the JETP model, especially about how much funding the ‘just’ element of the transition will receive.

While these initiatives have focused on reducing coal use, less attention has so far been given to just transition in the oil and gas sector. So far, despite the need to meet global climate commitments that is well documented in scientific research and policy discussions, only a few countries such as Costa Rica, Denmark, France and Sweden have made firm commitments to move away from the oil and gas industry.

Richer countries undoubtedly should be expected to go first and fastest in phasing down oil and gas production. At the same time, middle-income oil- and gas-producing countries should not delay planning a just transition away from these industries. Not only will oil and gas markets continue to be volatile —currently because of the war in Ukraine and resulting geopolitical shifts —but as worries about climate change increase and clean energy technology advances, demand for oil and gas is expected to decline in the coming decades. The sooner countries begin the transition away from fossil fuels in a manner that considers the lives and livelihoods of those impacted in the shift, the sooner they can build more reliable and less volatile sources of income on which to base their economies.

Open coal mining pits in South Africa, like this one, are growing obsolete. As part of the country’s Just Transition Energy Partnership, several countries agreed to channel funds to support an equitable transition away from coal power in South Africa. Photo by Sunshine Seeds/Shutterstock

Challenges Posed by the Transition Away from Oil and Gas

A failure to proactively manage this transition will bring significant risks to countries and local governments, communities and workers. Specifically, our paper on just transitions in the oil and gas sector highlights some of the biggest risks that declining fossil fuel revenues could bring to middle-income oil- and gas-producing countries:

Limiting a government’s ability to provide public services such as education, health care and physical infrastructure. Most middle-income countries are already spending too little on social programs and failing to benefit the poorest in society or reduce inequality. Reduced revenues from the oil and gas industry could force governments to make further cuts. In response to the 2014 oil price crash, for example, Angola rolled back infrastructure spending plans, including for a $5-billion electricity access program, and Mexico slashed public spending by $8.5 billion.
Reducing the revenue available for subnational governments, impacting their ability to provide services to local communities. Subnational governments in many middle-income countries receive most of their funds as transfers from their national governments and then often use these funds to invest in the long-term economic and social development of their communities. Reduced oil and gas revenues will potentially affect their ability to deliver services and pursue economic development.

Shrinking public sector employment, which represents a large proportion of formal employment in many middle-income countries. Argentina and Mexico’s public sectors employ roughly 17% and 12% of the formal workforce. Across most of Africa, the share of government spending devoted to government employee compensation ranges between 30% and 50%. Declining oil and gas revenues could negatively impact the ability of governments to pay wages and jeopardize the sustainability of public sector employment. Due to the pandemic and oil price shocks, Nigeria’s Kaduna state government implemented 25% and 50% pay cuts for public servants and political appointees respectively in 2020.
Triggering abrupt, inequitable cuts in fossil fuel subsidies that could harm the most vulnerable and lowest-income consumers. Fossil fuel subsidies are significantly influenced by the price of oil, with governments cutting back on subsidies whenever there is drop in the price. Let’s be clear: fossil fuel subsidies are costly, inefficient, and harmful for the planet and often disproportionately favor the better off; they should be reformed and eliminated whenever possible. However, their abrupt removal can negatively impact vulnerable populations who may suddenly be unable to afford fuel.

Without adequate support, the long-term shift away from oil and gas will also contribute to job displacement and insecurity for workers directly and indirectly supported by the industry, and for their communities. Although data gaps make it difficult to determine how many workers in middle-income countries will be impacted by the energy transition, our analysis reveals:

Oil and gas production creates relatively few direct jobs, but many more indirect ones. For instance, in Nigeria, the oil and gas industry directly employed an estimated 18,700 workers in 2020, and Mexico’s PEMEX, the state-owned oil company, employed 125,735 workers in 2020. However, when indirect jobs (in the supply chain of the oil and gas industry) and induced jobs (in other goods and services purchased by those employed in the industry) are considered, the total employment impact can be much greater, especially in nearby communities.
Many oil and gas workers are contract workers with lower wages, precarious working conditions and little or no union representation. In a recent survey of the oil and gas industry workforce, 33% identified themselves as contractors, while 41% identified themselves as permanent staff and 26% said they were unemployed. If the oil and gas industry increasingly relies on contract workers, strategies will be needed to include their voices in just transition discussions.
Workers who are unionized may receive more attention and support in navigating the transition, but unionization rates in the oil and gas industry vary by region and job type. Countries with more mature oil and gas industries, such as Mexico and Nigeria, tend to have higher levels of unionization than emerging producers, but even within countries with more mature oil and gas industries, there can be variation in which workers are represented by unions. In Mexico, for instance, PEMEX employees are unionized but employees for international oil companies operating in Mexico are primarily non-unionized contract workers.
Compensation in the oil and gas industry tends to be higher than jobs requiring comparable skills and education. As the oil and gas industry shrinks in the coming decades, relatively well-paying jobs in middle-income countries will be lost, impacting local economies. It will be important to determine what substitute industries in erstwhile oil and gas regions are attractive to former workers in terms of wages, job security and other job quality factors.
Women are rarely directly employed in this sector, but many are indirectly supported by the industry. Women often make up a large share of workers in the industry’s induced jobs, such as public service or retail jobs in education or food service, where they could be significantly impacted by the wider economic effects of the industry’s decline. As a result, discussions around just transition and economic diversification should focus on strategies that can benefit women, such as improving working conditions in women-dominated sectors, restructuring local employment opportunities that will lead to more gender equity, and ensuring a fairer distribution of care work within family and society.

A team of offshore oil and gas workers on a seismic boat on the Gulf of Mexico. When both indirect and induced oil and gas industry jobs are considered, the total employment impact of the energy transition can be significant. Photo by jbutcher/Shutterstock

Key Considerations for Policymakers to Enable a Just Transition

A just transition may take decades to bear fruit, so it is prudent for policymakers in oil- and gas-producing middle-income countries to start planning and taking these actions now.

Pursue economic diversification. Middle-income oil- and gas-dependent countries can benefit by diversifying their economies to include new sectors such as manufacturing and agricultural processing. Growing the clean energy industry can also offer significant economic and employment opportunities, though it will be essential to understand whether this can be pursued in the same local areas in which fossil fuels are declining. Environmental remediation and efforts to reduce methane emissions, by capping orphan wells for example, can also offer near-term job opportunities to workers and communities.
Develop proactive, long-term, and place-based planning. Policymakers will first need to understand the scale and scope of who will be most affected by addressing data gaps related to demographics, wages and skills of oil and gas workers, as well as the economics of regions and communities likely to be impacted by the transition. Second, the transition will require an inclusive planning process with all relevant stakeholders, particularly to address the specific context of the oil and gas sector — including the large impacts on local communities via indirect and induced employment and the large presence of contract workers. Support for workers will be necessary and could include support for early retirement or for skills development and training for new positions. In Nigeria, the Nigerian Labor Congress, one of the largest trade unions in Africa, and the Environmental Rights Action-Friends of the Earth Nigeria have formed an alliance to educate the government and employers about the need for a just transition for workers in the petroleum and agriculture sectors.
Create robust funding mechanisms to finance the transition. Dedicated domestic sources of funding — which can come from earmarking taxes on fossil fuels, reforming subsidies and reallocating their benefits, and requiring the oil and gas industry to cover the cost of support for workers’ and communities’ transition and/or environmental remediation of polluted lands — can provide the certainty and predictability to support just transition efforts. Governments can take steps today to improve the subnational financial management of revenues and help plan ahead. During good economic times, national governments must encourage subnational governments to invest oil and gas revenues in building human, social and physical capital to support a region’s economic diversification Ecuador and Indonesia, for example, a portion of revenues or taxes from natural resource extraction are used to fund areas such as education and environmental restoration. Policymakers should also consider strengthening the social safety net so that vulnerable workers and communities are able to weather periods of economic downturns.
Leverage international support to help these countries move away from fossil fuels. While middle-income countries may at times be able to draw on their own domestic resources to finance just transition policies, it will be essential for richer countries and international finance institutions to provide financing and technical assistance. Multilateral development banks can also play an important role. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Just Transition Initiative could serve as a model, and the $2 billion Accelerating Coal Transition initiative launched by the Climate Investment Funds has a similar mission. These kinds of initiatives— currently focused on moving away from coal — could be expanded to the oil and gas sector.

Toward a Cleaner and Better Future

While a decline in the oil and gas production sector will not happen overnight, it is clear that the sector faces a challenging future — and middle-income countries with significant dependence on oil and gas revenues and undiversified economies are likely to bear the brunt of this challenge. It may be tempting to put off this planning, especially at moments when oil and gas prices are temporarily high. But the more that is done today — to build more diverse economies, to design support for workers and communities, and to develop broader sources of revenue — the less wrenching and costly and the more responsive to a country’s critical needs the transition will be.

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4 Environment and Development Stories to Watch in 2023

shannon.paton@wri.org — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 16:38:29 +0000

4 Environment and Development Stories to Watch in 2023 shannon.paton@… Thu, 01/26/2023 - 11:38

What will 2023 hold for the environment and development?

The end of 2022 certainly left us in an interesting — and concerning — place. The world’s three-year-old pandemic proved it was far from over, sickening millions and affecting economies. Global inflation hit 9% in 2022, its highest level since 2008. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine displaced millions of people and sent ripple effects throughout food and energy systems. And the impacts of climate change — from deadly floods in Pakistan to withering heat in India to drought in Africa — acted as a threat multiplier.

The poor felt the effects most acutely. Up to 95 million people were pushed into poverty in 2022 alone.

It wasn’t all bad news: Renewable energy capacity jumped 8% last year, while all countries signed onto a landmark UN biodiversity agreement to conserve 30% of the world’s land and water by 2030.

But given recent setbacks, will the world’s signs of progress grow into the systemic shifts it needs to stabilize the climate, safeguard ecosystems and improve everyone’s quality of life?

WRI President & CEO Ani Dasgupta sought to answer this question and more at WRI’s annual Stories to Watch event. Dasgupta laid out four issues to watch in 2023 that will send powerful signals about the world’s future trajectory:

1) The Energy Crisis: How Will the Conflict in Europe Impact the Global Transition to Clean Energy?

Russia weaponized energy with its invasion of Ukraine, cutting off the natural gas pipeline responsible for 40% of the E.U.’s gas supply and triggering a 41.5% increase in power prices in October 2022. Europe responded by securing more Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) imports and expanding coal and nuclear.

The question now is: Will increased investment in fossil fuels derail the world’s clean energy transition and lock in dangerously high levels of global temperature rise? Or will it spur a larger shift toward safer, cleaner, less volatile renewables?

Some experts think it could be the latter based on early signals. In 2022, the E.U. increased its renewable energy targets from 40% to 45% of total capacity by 2030 through the REPowerEU Plan. Leaders recently went further by increasing the bloc’s emissions-reduction target from 55% to 57% by 2030. And polls show that 83% of people in the E.U. think Russia’s invasion of Ukraine makes it more important to invest in renewable energy.

Outside Europe, countries like India and China continue to invest in renewables even as they seek more LNG and other fossil fuels, putting this issue at a crossroads this year.

2) Tropical Forests: Will New Leadership Help Them Rebound?

The Amazon rainforest provides so much more than trees. Spanning nine countries, the vast ecosystem supports the livelihoods of 47 million people, houses 10% of the world’s biodiversity and stores up to 140 billion tons of greenhouse gases.

And yet the Amazon and the ecosystem services it provides are under threat. Roughly 18% of it has been deforested; scientists say that losing 20-25% of the Amazon’s trees will trigger its collapse, turning swaths of forest into savannah and transforming it from a carbon sink to a carbon source.

The Amazon’s fate depends largely on what happens in Brazil, which was responsible for 40% of the world’s tropical primary forest loss in 2021. At the end of 2022, the Amazon found new hope with the re-election of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The question now is: Will his return to power put the Amazon’s fate on a more positive path, as well as trigger stronger forest protections internationally?

Lula has already made strides by appointing pro-environment ministers, reinstating anti-deforestation measures scrapped under President Jair Bolsonaro, revoking mining permits in protected areas, and reopening the Amazon Fund, which provides finance in exchange for forest protection. But his pro-forest agenda faces political opposition.

What to watch: Will Lula’s conservation agenda take hold —especially in enforcing existing laws in a country where 98% of deforestation is illegal? And will zero-deforestation incentives catch on globally, such as through supply chain regulations, carbon markets, finance for forest protection, and, importantly, reduced deforestation in the world’s other two key tropical forest ecosystems in Indonesia and Africa’s Congo Basin?

3) Financing the Low-carbon Transition: Will Reforms in 2023 Unlock Funding for Developing Nations?

A low-carbon transition that’s good for nature and people will require $5.2 trillion of climate finance by 2030. In 2020, total climate finance totaled only $600 billion.

All countries are experiencing this investment gap, but it’s most acute in developing nations due to increasingly squeezed public resources and perceived risks from the private sector. And while this isn’t a new problem, there is momentum around a new solution: the Bridgetown Initiative.

Launched in 2022 and spearheaded by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the comprehensive plan would completely overhaul the global financial system to direct low-carbon investments and finance where they’re needed most. The plan includes multilateral development bank (MDB) reforms, debt restructuring, funding for adaptation and loss & damage, and more. While ambitious, the proposal earned praise from such figures as French President Emmanuel Macron, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and more.

The story to watch this year is whether these proposed reforms actually start happening and earn support from the MDBs, major-emitting nations and the private sector. Potential moments for momentum include the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in April 2023; the G7 and G20 meetings in May and July, respectively; the Heads of State Summit in India in October; and the next UN climate summit (COP28) in November.

4) US Climate Action: Will the Country Accelerate Progress for a Just Economic Transition?

Last year was momentous for U.S. climate legislation, with the country enacting the CHIPS and Science Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Together, these policies will provide $79 billion annually in low-carbon, climate-friendly investments, with a promise through the Justice40 Initiative to direct at least 40% of climate investment benefits to historically underserved communities.

Importantly, these laws aren’t just about fighting climate change: They’ll improve quality of life while righting injustices. For example, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act together could create up to 3.1 million additional net jobs by 2030. American families who take advantage of all the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy incentives could receive up to $10,000 in tax credits and rebates.

The question now is: Will these groundbreaking laws jumpstart a just low-carbon transition in the United States — one that allows the country to meet its emissions-reduction goals while bringing economic benefits to all people?

Important signs of momentum to watch for include:

Accelerated renewable energy deployment, including expedited permitting processes from Congress and at U.S. agencies;
Implementation in states, including state-level “just transition” plans to support fossil fuel and other workers in the shift to a low-carbon economy;
Businesses and consumers taking advantage of the legislations’ myriad clean energy incentives, such as subsidies for heat pumps, electric vehicles, solar panels and more;
Follow-through on equity, such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) promise to bring clean school buses to every community, and the publishing of a Justice40 scorecard to track progress against the administration’s equity commitments; and
A domino effect where other countries around the world adopt similarly ambitious climate-friendly just transition policies.

Together, these stories will help shape the future of the world. For more information on how they could play out, check out the full Stories to Watch presentation.

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Paris’ Vision for a ‘15-Minute City’ Sparks a Global Movement

ciara.regan@wri.org — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 20:46:43 +0000

Paris’ Vision for a ‘15-Minute City’ Sparks a Global Movement ciara.regan@wri.org Wed, 01/25/2023 - 15:46

Until just a few years ago, the right riverbank of the Seine in Paris was an urban highway used by over 40,000 vehicles every day. Despite being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the road was either heavily gridlocked during rush hour or was a corridor for cars traveling at high speeds. It contributed to the city’s high rates of air pollution, which regularly exceeded EU limits and contributed to thousands of deaths each year in the city.

In 2016, the road was converted into a car-free linear park, used by commuters during the week as well as residents and visitors for leisure activities on the weekends. The move was part of a larger attempt to improve air pollution and livability in the French capital — later referred to as a “15-Minute City” program — which spanned a wide range of public investments across transportation, sustainability and new programs to strengthen neighborhood-level governance.

Once a busy urban highway, the right bank of the Siene River has been transformed into a tranquil urban park for pedestrians and cyclists. Photo by WRI.

Besides cleaning the air, residents like Corinne Ansel, a 57-year-old mom of four, saw their quality of life improve in other ways.

“When the bike lanes on the banks of the Seine opened, I started doing all my commuting on foot or by bike, even on days when I telework,” she said. “What a pleasure it is to cycle in the middle of Paris, along the Canal Saint Martin and the Seine, on safe cycle paths.”

WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities

Paris’ “15-Minute City” is a finalist for the 2021-2022 WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities demonstrating how a strong vision for urban life transformed one city and influenced cities others around the world.

Switching to cycling for her commute also cut her travel time in half.

What started as a program to reclaim road space from private vehicles has since grown into citywide agenda for remodeling the city into a place where residents can more easily access local jobs, retail, health and cultural services within a short distance of their homes.

Challenging the Dominance of Private Cars

Despite a reputation for historical charm, Paris experienced a decades-long automotive boom in the 1960s and 1970s that congested and polluted the city. During this period, the previously car-free riverbanks of the Seine were converted into car-dominated avenues and urban highways.

In 2001, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë initiated a string of social and environmental reforms and investments, including the world’s first major bikeshare program and the city’s first climate plan. His deputy mayor, Anne Hidalgo, was subsequently elected mayor in 2014. Following a series of discrete initiatives targeting private and polluting vehicles, increasing social housing and quality of life, Hidalgo articulated her ambitious 2020 reelection policy agenda around making Paris a 15-Minute City.

Drawing on well-known urbanist ideas, the 15-Minute City was coined by Carlos Moreno, a professor from the Paris Sorbonne Business School. It is inspired by the idea of “chrono-urbanism” — thinking about cities in terms of time, proximity and daily and seasonal rhythms. Its key ambition is to “repair” car-centric cities by moving toward a model of mixed-use neighborhoods where residents are within 15 minutes to essential services using non-polluting forms of transportation, such as walking, biking or public transport.

Stronger, More Participatory Neighborhood

With the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, Mayor Hidalgo’s office seized the moment to take the first step in creating a 15-Minute City and expand an ambitious set of temporary bike lanes and street closures to provide more space for social distancing. Today, the city has over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of cycling routes, including separate bike lanes, painted paths and converted bus lanes that are now open to cyclists.

Paris has invested in building out cycling infrastructure, including creating over 1,000 kilometers of cycling routes. A 2021-2026 plan will invest 250 million euros ($273 million) into cycling infrastructure and amenities. Photo by WRI.

Paris has also focused on transforming educational establishments into local community hubs to build healthier neighborhoods. As a flagship initiative, the city government opened school yards and nurseries after hours and on weekends, to provide residents with recreational public spaces. This has been complimented by a program of pedestrianized “school streets” to encourage safe non-motorized travel to schools.

Matthieu Cornet, a resident of Paris’ diverse 18^th district and a father of three, explained that he enjoys key amenities, including shops, green and recreational spaces, a swimming pool and public services, close to his family’s home. “It is through the 15-Minute City project that we appreciate this proximity with services around us. It’s a huge advantage when you live in the city.”

Resident-focused urban development is driving changes in how the city is governed, too. New measures devolve aspects of city policymaking to the city’s boroughs and their mayors. The city has created opportunities in every district for residents to participate in neighborhood-scale planning for greening, beautification, street furniture and micro-mobility improvements. In 2021, it also made available a “participatory budget” of 75 million euros ($82 million) that residents can allocate to crowdsourced projects and vote on.

Sparking a Global Movement

Hidalgo is no stranger to disruption. She steered Paris during the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting, the November 2015 Paris attacks and the 2019 Notre-Dame de Paris fire. Her quest to realize the 15-Minute City in Paris in the wake of a pandemic that traumatized many cities, caught the attention of mayors and urban leaders worldwide as an exemplar for post-pandemic urban recovery. The concept has been adopted in various forms by cities around the world, including Melbourne, Ottawa and Shanghai.

Moreno, the concept’s originator, argued that its resonance derives from creating a simple shared language and compelling vision for city life between residents, citizens, politicians, urban planners, real estate developers, retailers and others.

Carlos Moreno, a professor at the Paris Sorbonne Business School, coined the concept of the 15-Minute City. Photo by WRI.

He reflected that the now-global concept no longer belongs to him or Paris specifically.

“Today we have hundreds and hundreds [of] cities in all continents embracing, at the same time, this idea,” he said. “It has become a shared idea of the common good based on shorter-distanced cities ... a trajectory for changing radically our urban lifestyle.”

The 2021-2022 WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities celebrates projects and initiatives showing how to live and thrive in turbulent times. From five finalists, one grand prize winner will be announced Feb. 1, 2023.

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2 Years of Justice40: Integrating Environmental Justice into US Climate Policy

alicia.cypress@wri.org — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 21:00:13 +0000

2 Years of Justice40: Integrating Environmental Justice into US Climate Policy alicia.cypress… Tue, 01/24/2023 - 16:00

Shortly after entering office, President Joe Biden set a climate goal of achieving a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions in the United States no later than 2050. In doing so, he aims to direct 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate investments to disadvantaged communities. This is known as the Justice40 Initiative. Now, two years later, has there been any substantive progress?

The ambitious initiative prioritizes an “environmental justice” agenda by the Biden administration that’s focused on “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.”

The Justice40 Initiative recognizes that while the climate and energy goals can’t be accomplished without the contribution and participation of all communities, the climate crisis does not impact all communities equally. Historically marginalized, low-income, Indigenous and communities of color live with more climate burden as a result of systematic racism. Frontline communities and environmental justice advocates have worked for decades to elevate how their neighborhoods bore the brunt of bad policy decisions resulting in health, education, economic and environmental inequities. The Environmental Protection Agency has documented the disproportionate pollution burden on their communities despite contributing the least to the climate crisis.

For example, large scale transitions in U.S. history — from the industrial revolution to the Interstate Highway System — have come at great expense to vulnerable, underserved and disadvantaged communities who suffered harmful health and economic impacts from increased pollution. Many of those communities still see these effects, and some have been exacerbated further by climate change.

On average, Black and Latino communities experience 56% and 63% higher pollution than they generate, respectively, while White Americans experience 17% less pollution than they generate, according to a report from the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

Justice40 not only aims to address historical inequities and injustices, but also encourages economic opportunity for these communities. Specific investments covered by the initiative include climate change, clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, and the development of critical clean water and wastewater infrastructure.

Two years into its implementation we look at this ambitious and comprehensive plan that aims to transform underserved communities.

Establishing a Leadership Foundation

The Biden administration has noted progress on its environmental justice agenda, including the Justice40 Initiative, calling it “a critical part of the administration’s whole-of-government approach to advancing environmental justice.” Executive Order 14008, which launched the initiative, included several provisions that established an approach that transforms federal agency operations and cross-agency coordination. It also requires agencies to work in consultation with local and state governments, environmental justice scholars, and community experts to deliver the goal of the initiative.

That included setting up a triumvirate leadership structure, which includes environmental justice officials at the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council (IAC), which has been restructured by the Biden administration, and the newly formed White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC). The IAC is composed of designated Environmental Justice Officers from 20 federal agencies and departments. It is charged with developing and executing the federal environmental justice strategy and creating and implementing a federal scorecard to track performance and ensure transparency.

WHEJAC brings together an esteemed group of environmental justice leaders, elders, researchers, and experts with lived experience from frontline communities across the country. Since its formation in March of 2021, WHEJAC has held virtual and hybrid public meetings to gather and report feedback to the CEQ and the White House that highlights cross-cutting agency recommendations on public engagement, grants and funding, proposed infrastructure projects, accountability, and incentive structures, as well as specific guidance for individual agencies.

Progress from the Justice40 Initiative

In the last two years, several provisions that are outlined in the Justice40 Initiative have been completed. The vast majority of the work is in the infrastructure and framework to ensure environmental justice programs are properly identified and supported.

A significant accomplishment is the number of agency programs announced that comply with the Justice40 Initiative. To date, 16 agencies have identified over 400 programs that will provide climate investments to frontline communities. This includes programs and investments contained in landmark legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The latest announcement by EPA will send $100 million to states, local governments and community organizations to encourage partnerships and collaborations on projects that address local public health and environmental issues.

The Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool was created with input from the WHEJAC and extensive public comment. It’s a publicly accessible web-based set of interactive maps, and data that can identify over 27,000 communities, including Federally Recognized Tribes and Alaska Native Villages, that meet criteria for being considered as disadvantaged under the Justice40 interim definition. The first version of the tool was delivered a few months late, but it’s designed to be updated as new data becomes available.

To initiate action across agencies, CEQ in consultation with WHEJC and others, issued interim implementation guidance as a blueprint of actions, and recommendations to demonstrate how to reorganize agency processes, programs and operations. It includes an interim definition of disadvantaged communities, examples of benefits to communities from Justice40 covered programs, and guidance for reporting and calculating program benefits. Agencies responded by examining their operations and in some cases, developing specific outcomes for Justice40 or equity focused priorities that support Justice40.

Agency Approaches to the Justice40 Initiative — Desired Outcomes from the Justice40 Initiative

Department of Transportation

• Increase affordable transportation options that fight climate change and connect communities.
• Identify and prioritize projects that benefit disadvantaged communities.
• Evaluate the negative impacts of transportation projects on disadvantaged communities.

Department of Energy

• Decrease energy burden in disadvantaged communities.
• Decrease environmental exposure and burdens.
• Increase parity in clean energy technology.
• Increase access to low-cost capital in disadvantaged communities.
• Increase clean energy enterprise and jobs in disadvantaged communities.
• Increase energy resiliency and democracy in disadvantaged communities.

Environmental Protection Agency

• Develop comprehensive framework for EJ impacts in relevant EPA decisions.
• Build capacity for community participation.
• Strengthen EPA's external civil rights compliance program.
• Integrate community science.
• Make procurement and contracting more equitable.

Housing and Urban Development

• Help tribal communities achieve safe, resilient housing.
• Pilot new models for Section 3 compliance.
• Improve equity in community planning and engagement.
• Reduce lead and radon exposure.
• Update HUD's environmental review policies to include climate hazards and environmental justice.

New Offices were established within the EPA and Department of Justice for enforcement and accountability. The EPA Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights consolidates and elevates EPA leadership over environmental justice and enforcement of civil rights in frontline communities. The cadre of 200 regional staff will provide direct technical assistance for and oversee distribution of investments such as the $3 billion climate and environmental justice block grant program created by the Inflation Reduction Act. The Office of Environmental Justice in the Department of Justice will support environmental justice investigations and litigation and facilitate outreach to communities with environmental justice concerns.

Although this is not an exhaustive list of Executive Order 14008 accomplishments, it should be viewed as an indication of the intent to systematically approach implementation of a whole-of-government environmental justice agenda.

A Status Check on Community Awareness

After the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — which includes historic investments to address legacy pollution — and the Inflation Reduction Act — which has an estimated $60 billion directed to advance environmental justice — passed, the administration in collaboration with environmental justice organizations, held public outreach sessions through webinars and conferences to help inform communities about the pipeline of investments. Are communities ready and what are they expecting from an all-of-government Justice40 Initiative approach?

Several studies, including a survey from World Resources Institute and Data for Progress, show that more work is needed to strengthen communication and partnerships that can translate to action between the government and communities.

In 2021, WE ACT for Environmental Justice and Green Latinos led a survey to understand how Black and Brown communities think about the issues of climate change, environmental justice and the policies to address them. Their study found that those frontline communities understood “the inherent link between climate change solutions and economic benefits” in marginalized, underserved communities disproportionately burdened by pollution. A recent study on Americans’ support for federal climate justice goals and policies by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication found that nearly 70% of Americans support increasing environmental justice funding.

At the start of this year, Data for Progress, working in collaboration with the WRI, surveyed over 1,200 likely voters to better understand the public saliency of the Justice40 Initiative. Overwhelmingly, with more than 75% of the respondents in agreement, environmental justice was identified as an important consideration for lawmakers when creating environmental laws.

While the Justice40 Initiative is unfamiliar to the public, after reading a description of Justice40, respondents support ensuring disadvantaged communities receive 40% of the overall benefits of federal climate investments by a +21-point margin.

Of those surveyed, 85% had not read or heard any details about the Justice40 Initiative but 54% supported the concept. Even with this level of support, the administration should rededicate itself and its resources to broaden the level of public awareness and understanding of Justice40 to enhance and strengthen the ability of communities to be meaningfully engaged with projects intended to deliver specific benefits.

Accomplishing the Justice40 goals requires the participation of those affected by these policies — a tenet of participatory justice which helps address environmental injustices.

In most cases, funding for Justice40 will flow through multiple government jurisdiction processes. Who will communities turn to should those benefits not be realized? When asked about which jurisdictional level they trusted to deliver Justice40 benefits in a timely, transparent, and impartial manner, respondents indicated slightly more trust (32%) in local government to deliver on these goals than the state (27%) or federal government (21%).

This may be an opportunity for the administration to strengthen ties across jurisdictions but also reach into communities to shore up partnerships with the end user of these new economic and climate policies.

Important Justice40 Actions to Watch

In this next year of Justice40 Initiative implementation, finalizing the remaining provisions of its structure, mechanics and addressing other areas of concern may help successfully deliver long needed investment and climate benefits to communities on the front lines of the climate crisis. Here’s a list of initiatives we’ll be watching for:

Complete the development of the Environmental Justice Scorecard. Once published, it promises to help evaluate if and how agencies are “reducing environmental burdens, delivering clean energy and climate benefits, and undertaking institutional reforms that ensure that the voices of communities are reflected in decision-making,” according to CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory. It was initially intended for release by February 2022. Until its release, there will be a level of uncertainty around how agencies are delivering Justice40 goals.
Complete an update of Executive Order 12898, the country’s first national environmental justice policy framework. The Order is credited with advancing environmental justice actions across the federal government. However, the Biden administration recognizes more can be done and environmental justice advocates, some who serve as WHEJAC members, agree. More than a year ago, WHEJAC sent recommendations to the IAC to clarify agency responsibilities and implementation, update definitions, research, data collection and analysis, and expand policies for subsistence consumption and public access to information. The Order was expected to be reviewed by the president last year.
Alignment or coordination across government jurisdictions. As investments begin to flow from federal agencies to states and local governments, disadvantaged communities should know that processes, policy frameworks, and mechanisms are in place to ensure the appropriate final mile delivery of those investments. That coordination should involve engagement from and input of local and statewide environmental justice advocates and those with lived experience from frontline communities.

Julia Jeanty, who contributed to this article, is the senior policy manager at Data for Progress.

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