Mapping the Racial Injustice of Climate Change in Illinois
After more than three years of grassroots community organizing, state legislators this month passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, one of the most ambitious and equitable clean energy laws in the nation. The law, called CEJA, commits Illinois to 100% clean energy by 2050 and to investing millions of dollars into green energy jobs, electric transportation, and programs to build up renewable energy.
But what really sets CEJA apart is the way the law prioritizes communities that have been the most burdened by pollution and climate change hazards, directing clean energy jobs and financial benefits towards and those who’ve been systemically underserved in the past, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color
"The climate and equitable-job section prioritizes Black and brown communities that have been disproportionately impacted and historically suffered due to exposure to toxic pollution," explained coalition leader Dulce Ortiz during the bill signing last week.
As a member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights helped design and negotiate the critical equity programs included in this law.
We mapped out various economic, environmental, and public health indicators generated by our coalition partners in order to locate and understand Illinois’ most overburdened and excluded communities.
“Discrimination is fundamentally about space,” said Policy Advocate Erica Knox of Chicago Lawyers’ Committee. “If we want to create an equitable clean energy economy in Illinois, we need to first map out the places that policies and resources have historically excluded.”
Working with the coalition, Erica analyzed and collected geographic data to create an interactive, online map available. Coalition members and other stakeholders were then able to explore the map to view how CEJA would geographically target its benefits by preferencing where projects are located, who qualifies for workforce development programs, who wins contracts, and which large carbon polluters must close first, among other actions.
The geographic communities that will be prioritized by CEJA can be explored in this online map: http://bit.ly/EJC_R3
The passage of CEJA into law was a massive win for community advocates – but now the hard work of implementation must begin. Chicago Lawyers’ Committee will be monitoring developments closely alongside our coalition members to deliver on the promise of environmental justice in Illinois.