New investment in climate action can be a game changer for Latinos

It’s no secret: Extreme weather events disproportionately impact low-income neighborhoods and communities of color more than others. With President Biden signing into law the 2022 historic Inflation Reduction Act and the 2021 bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, our country is now on a path to fight this reality and begin to correct years of neglect.

Currently, a majority of Latinos live in four states already experiencing the devastating effects of climate change: California, Texas, Florida and New York. If we continue along the course set by rising greenhouse emissions levels, existing disparities in communities of color will worsen. Brown and Black communities still face the racist legacy of redlining. Those communities are often hotter, more vulnerable to flooding and have higher levels of exposure to air pollution than their counterparts. Moreover, in a rapidly changing environment, diagnoses of childhood asthma, higher mortality rates because of extreme temperatures, longer workdays, as well as property loss as a result of extreme weather will be more severe and frequent.

The good news is that we’re finally seeing change at the federal level to address these historic and systemic injustices. Biden began his administration with a promise to help change this enormous disparity. He established a Justice40 approach to level up the playing field, requiring 40 percent of the overall benefits of federal investments to be allocated to communities most impacted by climate change, pollution and environmental hazards. States and cities are following suit across the country — taking bold steps to center environmental justice.

For example, this past February, the mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico, signed an executive order to implement the administration’s Justice40 initiative, becoming the first city to take this step. The order establishes a local oversight coordinating committee to develop and implement a five-year Justice40 plan.

The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, moreover, put us on the right path to help the communities hardest hit by years of environmental injustice and climate change.

Over the next 10 years, we will see climate justice implementation, including $3 billion in Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants to reduce pollution and climate risks through community-led projects. National and local organizations are already working to inform communities about the initiative and enhance training so people can benefit from these opportunities. This is important since a 2019 study found that Latino majority census tracts have installed 30 percent less rooftop solar than non-Latino majority census tracts. Additionally, federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have already made available $100 million for projects that advance environmental justice in underserved and overburdened communities across the country.

The climate plan also includes a substantial expansion of clean energy that will transform the labor market as we know it, creating more opportunities for all workers, especially for communities of color. Currently, racial and ethnic minority groups account for nearly 40 percent of U.S. clean energy workers. Among the most prevalent occupations in the clean energy sector —building efficiency insulation workers and construction laborers — Latino workers already hold 25.7 percent and 31.5 percent of those jobs, respectively. Not only are Latinos getting much-needed climate resiliency investments, but they are also an active part of the solution to combat the climate crisis. For example, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Latino workers occupy 43 percent of all green jobs, compared to 39 percent of total jobs in the region.

After decades of devastation and disinvestment, the U.S. is finally beginning to enact the change that low-income neighborhoods and communities of color at the frontlines of climate change have been demanding. Strong implementation of the federal climate plan and continuous feedback from communities as well as state and local governments is essential to the legislations’ success. This is only the beginning of what’s to come.

Michael Méndez, Ph.D., is an Andrew Carnegie fellow and assistant professor of environmental policy and planning at UC Irvine, as well as the author of “Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement” (Yale University Press).