Climate Justice Alliance

To advance frontline community-centered, community-led Just Transition solutions that move us toward regenerative economies and healthy, resilient communities in areas that historically have been impacted most by environmental and climate injustice.

We are a unique alliance of 89 frontline base building groups; grassroots alliances and networks; and movement support organizations. All are at the forefront of the interlinked crises of climate change, racial injustice, and economic/social inequality. Our members span 28 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Indian Territories across the US and into Canada; and are traditionally underrepresented constituencies. These communities include Indigenous Peoples, African American, Latinx, Asian-Pacific Islander, and low-income white communities, many located proximate to toxic facilities and pollutive industries.

Our organization was founded by, centers, and is directly accountable to frontline communities. We hold that climate change cannot be solved by solely addressing environmental impacts, and must be centered on systemic change and solutions led by frontline communities. Our primary role within the broader climate movement is to organize those most impacted by the climate crisis to: develop common analyses, priorities, and positions; cohere their collective visions and strategies; and visibilize frontline power by amplifying their voices, realities, solutions, and victories.

Our members work to address the impacts of climate change, serving as vital communities in a growing movement that is demanding bold action by government and industry to confront the climate crisis, while organizing for a Just Transition toward sustainable, living, regenerative economies. Through our dual strategy of stopping the bad while building the new, we advance our mission through engagement of frontline leaders in addressing root causes of climate change, generations of environmental injustice, and inequitable access to resources to implement Just Transition solutions. We aim to accomplish this via three core objectives

Objective 1: Make Just Transition Real on the Ground by building capacity and developing leadership via technical assistance, popular education, trainings, resourcing, and communications to support Just Transition projects and campaigns, spanning 48 Our Power Communities and 9 Just Transition Regional Hubs, anchored by CJA frontline base building organizations.

Objective 2: Center frontline voices within the broader climate movement by Building the Bigger We and strengthening organizational capacity. CJA will continue to build the visibility of grassroots organizing power and frontline-led climate solutions via narrative and communications strategies; center accountability to frontline communities in movement partnership formations; and implement organizational development plans.

Objective 3: Resource the Just Transition by moving capital to grassroots organizations to support their strategies and projects on Just Transitions to Regenerative Economies. We will continue to organize funders and individual wealth holders, and create and maintain transparent resource distribution processes and vehicles to move money to the grassroots to advance Just Transitions.

Testimonials

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