Leading with Race in Climate Solutions
Climate justice is racial justice. There is no way to advance equitable, effective, and just solutions to climate change without also addressing the marginalization of people of color and the disproportionate burdens that communities of color shoulder as the planet warms.
The U.S. economy is built on racial injustice that permeates public and private structures and systems to this day. Without consciously designing for racial equity, we are limited in our ability to repair past harm and are at risk of perpetuating it.
THE PROBLEM
Opponents of racial justice have been mounting increasingly effective legal attacks on race-conscious policy and action. The new federal administration, and previous Supreme Court decisions to ban affirmative action, are shifting the legal terrain and stoking fear and uncertainty. The confusion and chaos is causing many sectors to walk back or freeze their racial equity efforts entirely. Organizations doing climate equity work are actively targeted and others are scrambling to figure out what’s next.
THE SOLUTION
In order to defend and extend decades of progress on racial justice, we need to come together now to reaffirm our commitment to leading with race in climate change solutions. We need to fully understand our legal options and be able to distinguish between scare tactics and legal constraints.
More than ever we need to double down on co-creating proactive strategies that address this moment of need and transform systems for a racially just climate future.
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Our Resources
UPDATE: EPA IS WEAKENING ITS OWN CIVIL RIGHTS RULES
We covered the DOJ’s dangerous move in December 2025 to gut disparate impact, a legal standard in federal civil rights law that allows policies that cause unequal harm to people to be challenged, even without proof of discriminatory intent. Now EPA is proposing the same rollback to its own rules.
WHAT IS DISPARATE IMPACT AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Download our one-pager resource on changes to disparate impact protections, their impact on climate justice, and what can be done to challenge policies that cause unequal harm. See our update above for what’s changed since, including EPA’s move to roll back its own civil rights rules.
Key Reminders Amidst the Uncertainty of the Trump Administration
Given the constantly shifting legal and political terrain, our team has distilled nine key points to keep in mind as you work to center racial justice in your climate efforts.
How to Win the Messaging War: Fighting Back Against Attacks on DEI
In this recorded webinar hosted by Leading with Race in Climate Solutions, Kia and Jordyn from American Pride Rises share recent resources and tools they’ve developed to defend and protect DEI, and an update on the legislative landscape. They discuss common DEI myths, and share strategies for how we can reclaim the narrative.
FROM THE FIELD
- Multistate Guidance on Antidiscrimination Protections – (September 2026): Guidance from 14 state attorneys general in response to federal executive actions challenging civil rights protections. The guidance affirms that civil rights protections against intentional and disparate-impact discrimination remain enforceable and recommends practices for employers, schools, housing providers, and other organizations.
- Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions – Just Security (Updated regularly): A searchable, regularly updated tracker from Just Security of lawsuits challenging Trump administration executive actions, with case summaries and current court status.
- Advancing Racial Equity: Legal Guidance for Advocates – Othering & Belonging Institute (Updated February 2025): Legal guidance from UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute on what the law permits and prohibits in racial equity work, with hypothetical scenarios illustrating race-conscious policies that avoid racial classifications.
- Democracy Resilience Toolkit: Prompts and Actions Pocket Guide – Government Alliance on Race and Equity (2025 Edition): A pocket guide from the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) with prompts and actions to help government practitioners protect racial equity work through political disruption, organized by mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
- FROM PROJECT 2025 TO PROJECT 2029: How We Resist an Authoritarian Takeover and Turn Public Administration into a Force for Equity and Justice – Race Forward (September 2024): A Race Forward toolkit on how Project 2025 threatens the federal agencies that protect rights and advance equity, and how movement groups can reclaim public administration as a force for equity and justice.
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