How to Build an Equitable and Just Climate Future | Peggy Shepard | TED

It should be no surprise

that every community should have a right to a clean environment.

Yet, some are sacrifice zones.

Sacrifice zones:

communities living on the front lines of pollution and environmental hazards.

But the good news is that we have a unique opportunity

to address legacy pollution

as we together build an equitable and just climate future.

Now, this is a story about communities in crisis.

Mostly, these are communities of Black and brown and Indigenous peoples.

It's often a story of low-income communities.

But race, race is the decisive factor.

Now, studies show that an average middle-income Black family

with an 87,500-dollar income

is likely to live with more pollution

than a white family making 22,500 dollars a year.

Now, my organization, WE ACT for Environmental Justice,

works within a movement of hundreds of environmental justice groups,

here and abroad,

to address the disproportionate impact of pollution borne by our communities.

So I'm talking about environmental justice,

which is a civil rights and a human rights analysis

of environmental decision making,

with a focus on the permitting,

the permitting process that gives polluters permission to pollute

within a regulatory standard for air, water and soil.

Now, these permits,

they are an allowance that sacrifices the health of community residents.

The cumulative effect of multiple facilities sited in a community

that emit high levels of pollution in close proximity to where people live.

That contributes to glaring health disparities.

Now, Harvard University studies among Black Americans

living in areas like Harlem and the South Bronx,

those are communities which do not need clean air standards

set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

And those studies that found

that Black Americans have died of COVID-19

at higher rates than others

due to living in air-polluted communities.

Now, that's not a surprise

since the majority of people who live in areas

that do not meet clean air standards

are Latinos and Black Americans.

And that's the case in an area called "Cancer Alley."

Now, there's a song sung by the late Nat King Cole

called "Unforgettable."

And that is what "Cancer Alley" is.

It is unforgettable.

It's in the worst possible way.

It's a 75-mile corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

It's a continuum of petrochemical and plastics manufacturing facilities

on acres of former plantations.

Now, these facilities have created

an intergenerational history of death from cancer,

with some communities suffering cancer rates

higher than the national rate.

Now communities experience environmental hazards

and pollution exposure in diverse ways.

In urban areas,

mobile sources, contaminated sites, they're really the challenge.

And local governments generally manage the infrastructure of pollution.

But in smaller cities and rural areas, industrial and oil refineries,

landfills and incinerators, they're usually the problem.

And in places like Texas and California,

there may be no zoning laws

that separate industrial facilities from residential backyards.

So environmental racism and injustice

results from a complex legacy of housing segregation,

land use and zoning discrimination,

and from unequal enforcement and policies.

Now decades ago,

policies such as redlining

denied home loans to people of color into certain communities.

And this government policy reinforced racial segregation in cities

and diverted investments away from those communities,

creating large disparities in home ownership

as well as urban heat environments.

A few trees and no open space.

So today we're still living out the legacy of those racist policies.

Now, I first began organizing around these issues

as an elected Democratic district leader in my West Harlem neighborhood.

In 1988, I co-founded West Harlem Environmental Action,

known as WE ACT for Environmental Justice.

And, you know, we began organizing,

educating our neighbors to understand the impact

of the disproportionate siting

and permitting of polluting facilities in our communities.

We started out by pressing New York City

to fix the North River sewage treatment plant

in the Hudson River

that was ruining our quality of life by emitting toxic fumes.

And we began to ask ourselves a number of questions.

How could we transform the New York City diesel bus fleet

to clean fuel buses

since we housed over 740 of the city diesel bus fleet in uptown depots?

How could we have a waterfront park

along the beautiful Hudson River instead of a parking lot?

And how could we get environmental justice on the agenda of New York City,

the state and the federal government to invest in sustainability

in our communities?

I know that it only takes one person to reimagine what's possible,

and some policy change takes decades.

It took us 18 years

to transform the New York City diesel bus fleet to hybrids.

However, it took only a few months

to ensure that all New York schools are tested for lead in drinking water.

I know that so much is possible when we have the right political moment.

But to capitalize,

we must mobilize a critical mass of people to create real change.

And to monitor that our policies are implemented

in the way that was intended.

And environmental justice groups have done just that.

In a number of ways.

So we've created working groups and campaigns

amongst people who have a real stake in the outcome,

those most affected by harm or new policies.

And we engage them in environmental decision making.

Those are the people who have the lived experience,

who can best advise on climate adaptation and resilience planning.

Now, if their perspectives had been known and integrated

into the inter-agency emergency response planning

in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina,

then thousands of families would not have been stranded on their roofs,

waiting for rescue

or sleeping in a sports stadium,

because the city would have already known

that lower-income families living in a flood zone

did not have a car to evacuate the city

or a credit card to access a hotel room.

Another tactic we engage is we engage community in educational workshops

that help them better articulate the data,

testify at hearings,

train residents to become citizen scientists

who collect their own air and water quality data

to influence policymakers and elected officials.

And those officials should resource every community

to develop a climate action plan

that addresses neighborhood level response and challenges

to extreme weather events.

We've also developed strong, strong policy agendas at the city,

state and federal levels,

based on community perspectives, experience

and the evolving transition from a fossil fuel economy.

And these are tactics that can be applied within local contexts in any community.

So as we transition to renewable energy sources,

we know that energy insecurity will impact millions more households

as utility bills increase.

And to decarbonize buildings,

a pre-investment will be needed to upgrade residential buildings

in frontline communities

before electrification of all buildings will be achieved.

So I challenge you

to create the change we need

by incorporating equity and lived experience

into all public and government policies.

My vision is to redress the legacy of pollution

by targeting frontline communities,

not for pollution, but to become green zones.

Green zones where we can incentivize community shared solar, electrification,

green businesses, good jobs and worker cooperatives.

Because today we are at an inflection point

with an opportunity to achieve that vision.

You know, the Biden administration

has committed to centering environmental justice

in all government policies

through an executive order

that directs at least 40 percent of the benefits

from federal investments in clean energy

to go to disadvantaged communities.

So there is an opportunity

to implement a transformative and accountable process

for the fair and just distribution of benefits of Justice40

to frontline communities of Black,

brown and Indigenous peoples.

But we must make certain that the investments and the benefits

reach the communities intended,

given the bias and ambivalence of many state and local governments.

But if done effectively,

this can be transformative

and could stop the cycle of exploitation and extraction.

Every community,

every community has the right to a clean environment.

And you do not need to be an environmental champion

or a climate justice leader to embrace that value.

So I call on your humanity

to center the voices and perspectives in all policies

of those most affected by environmental hazards

and climate change.

We can create a legacy of environmental quality

and climate resilience for all.

We can do this and we must.

Thank you.

(Applause)