Laws, Regulations, Policy Analysis, and Strategies
This tab includes strategies for serving communities on the frontline of climate change, including best practices, legal and policy analysis, laws, regulations, agency guidance, and executive orders relevant to equity and adaptation.
Resources are automatically presented by date. Apply additional filters to narrow the list by organization type of author, state, jurisdictional focus, region, or resource type.
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April 29, 2019
From the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), this comprehensive Toolkit provides a series of modules to help NAACP chapters and other advocates mediate climate adaptation planning processes and ensure that adaptation plans and policies meet local needs, while focusing on frontline communities, environmental and climate justice, and equity. The Toolkit provides guidance to help community groups and advocates develop an Environmental and Climate Justice (ECJ) Committee to inform adaptation planning and policy through 19 different Modules.
Author or Affiliated User: Jacqui Patterson
Resource Category: Planning
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April 2019
In 2018, the Maryland General Assembly enacted the Maryland House Bill 183 (HB183) establishing the Environmental Justice Commission to address the environmental and public health concerns in Prince George's County. HB 183 lists the composition of the Commission, outlines the missions and duties of the Commission, mandates a findings and recommendations report along with a plan of action within two years and a month. Enacting the commission to facilitate environmental justice in Prince George's County can help improve inequities of low-income and minority residents in the area impacted by climate change. After the Commission had submitted the first final report in February 2019, the General Assembly further acknowledged the Commission’s work and passed HB 1362 in April 2019 to extend the termination date of the Commission to June 30th, 2020. The final report was submitted on January 10th, 2020.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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April 2019
Developed by the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) in 2019, this report summarizes the findings of a survey of 15 Regional Climate Collaboratives (RCCs) that are supporting climate change action at the regional scale in the United States. RCCs are networks that coordinate adaptation (and sometimes mitigation) work across jurisdictional boundaries in municipal regions of the U. S. and often include local and state government representatives as well as nonprofit, academic, and private partners.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Steve Adams , Karina French
Resource Category: Solutions
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March 22, 2019
New Mexico’s 2019 Senate Bill 489 enacts the Energy Transition Act, establishing ambitious statewide renewable energy standards and a pathway the state will use to transition its economy towards one powered by clean energy. The bill includes tens of millions of dollars of economic and workforce support for communities affected by the transition away from coal. By incorporating equity considerations into its framework, this bill not only ensures greater renewable energy production, but also eases the burden of energy transition on frontline and disadvantaged communities.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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March 8, 2019
Established in 1972, the California Coastal Commission has a mandate “to protect and enhance California’s coast and ocean for current and future generations" by regulating development with local government. In 2016, AB 2616 was enacted to amend the state’s Coastal Act, giving the Commission authority to specifically consider environmental justice when making coastal permit decisions. While providing the public and the Commission with guidance on how the agency will implement its authority under AB 2616 - the 2019 environmental justice policy is intended to integrate the principles of environmental justice, equality, and social equity into all aspects of the Commission’s program and operations.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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January 31, 2019
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Environmental Research Program includes a focal Research Area of Climate Change Adaptation. This document focuses on the climate change adaptation component of the program’s comprehensive research plan. NYSERDA’s adaptation research aims to provide “a scientific foundation for formulating effective, equitable, energy-related environmental policies and resource management practices that can guide strategies to prepare for a changing climate.
Resource Category: Planning
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January 8, 2019
From California Governor Gavin Newsom, this Executive Order directs CAL FIRE and other state agencies to recommend administrative, regulatory, and policy changes to prevent and mitigate wildfires. To support the California communities most vulnerable to wildfire impacts, the California Department of Fire and Forest Protection (CAL FIRE) will also recommend a methodology to assess what communities are at greater risk from wildfire that includes socioeconomic factors. The order states that California's “present emergency condition” with wildfire is due to a history of fire exclusion, forests managed to be overcrowded, climate change and drought.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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2019
In 2019, the Union Square Neighborhood Council (USNC) negotiated and ratified a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with the developer Union Square Station Associates LLC (US2), following approximately a year of weekly meetings with the negotiating committee. The CBA set forth terms on a number of issues, including housing, workforce development, and environmental sustainability. Specifically, under the CBA, US2 committed to developing 90 permanently affordable units in the Union Square neighborhood (out of a total of 1,000 new affordable and market rate units).
Resource Category: Solutions
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December 13, 2018
In 2018, Miami passed a mandatory inclusionary zoning (IZ) ordinance that requires the inclusion of affordable housing in the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) district, a 30-block area north of downtown Miami. Miami currently ranks lowest in the availability of affordable rental units among cities in the nation. Meanwhile, low-income communities in the city’s inland neighborhoods that are historically black and Latinx now face development pressures from wealthier residents seeking to relocate from the city’s low-lying coastal neighborhoods to the city’s inland neighborhoods.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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November 30, 2018
Citing observed and predicted temperature and sea level rises worldwide and the disproportionate effects of climate change borne by frontline communities, the City Council of Oakland, California passed this resolution (No. 87397) in October 2018 declaring that climate change is a global and local emergency. The resolution further calls for city-wide net zero emissions and a “just transition,” defined as a “fair shift to an economy that is ecologically sustainable, just, and equitable for all its members.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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