Apolitical: Why swift action on climate change is doomed without an equity-driven approach

Originally published in Apolitical. Read the full article here

While climate change is a global challenge, not all communities bear the brunt equally. As a Black woman born in the island nation of the Bahamas, I know all too well how certain communities have and will bear the brunt of climate change - and how compounding factors like pre-existing health conditions and poor living conditions make individuals in these communities particularly vulnerable.

Even in my current home in the US, a country leading the race to cut emissions targets, Black, Indigenous people, and people of colour (BIPOC) disproportionately experience the impacts of climate change. We saw it when lead contaminated the water in Flint, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey; when we unpacked how environmental racism is tied to COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on BIPOC communities; and when we looked at the devastation of floods in Black neighbourhoods.

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For society as a whole to combat climate change, we must find solutions that work for everyone. If we do not hear the voices of major segments of our global community and leave them out of climate solutions, those solutions will fail. While centring equity will look different in every region, country, state, and locality, at the most fundamental level, leaders must empower BIPOC communities to be the architects of solutions.