Advancing Climate Resilience Through Equity: Introducing the Charles River Climate Compact Equity Action Plan
We are excited to share the launch of the Charles River Climate Compact: Equity Action Plan (2024 - 2028), a key initiative of the Charles River Climate Compact (CRCC), a voluntary partnership of over 2 dozen watershed municipalities, to embed equity into our climate resilience efforts across the Charles River watershed.
WHY EQUITY MATTERS IN CLIMATE RESILIENCE
We know that the impacts of climate change - flooding, extreme heat, extreme storms, and more - disproportionately impact Environmental Justice communities in our watershed.
For the past year, the CRCC worked alongside a Climate Equity Action Team led by Duncan Núñez Consulting , to develop the plan identifying three core action areas for our work to ensure that historically marginalized groups can participate and help shape climate solutions that protect both people and the watershed:
LISTEN: Listen to environmental justice (EJ) communities and climate justice (CJ) populations and develop accessible approaches that effectively engage individuals in the watershed whose identities or experiences typically exclude them from environmental benefits and climate investments or unfairly intensify their environmental burdens and climate risks.
PARTNER: Partner with organizations and individuals that serve low-income populations, communities of color, people with disabilities, unhoused persons, elders, and other CJ and EJ populations to achieve shared goals.
LEARN: Learn more about inclusive projects, approaches, resources, and tools to support resilience, ecological health, and biodiversity for all communities in the watershed.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The CRCC has already started to undertake actions identified in the Equity Plan. In our first year, we will
Participate in community partner events and initiatives, particularly those related to Native land and water stewardship, affordable housing, youth development, and urban agriculture.
Develop a proposal to help fund our equity efforts, particularly to support EJ and CJ leaders in participating in working groups, projects, field trips, and other activities.
Establish working groups to guide the Compact as it develops public education materials and establish a volunteer language bank.
Create training, field trips, and resources for members and partners on effective climate equity projects and meaningful community engagement.
Read the full Equity Action Plan here.
GET INVOLVED
Building equitable resiliency across the watershed is only possible through collaboration. Whether you’re a local leader, a concerned resident, or part of an organization working on social, health, and equity work, we invite you to join us in this effort! Visit www.crwa.org/climate-compact to learn more about the Equity Action Plan and upcoming opportunities to participate or reach out to Julie Wood, jwood@crwa.org, if you have any questions.
