Climate Change and Low-Income Communities

The consequences of climate change disproportionately affect low-income people. Low-income people and communities are particularly vulnerable to temperature increases for many reasons, including the "heat island" effect, lack of air conditioning, poorly insulated homes, inadequate access to medical care, and difficulty in getting to cooling stations during heat waves. Pollution is disproportionately concentrated in low-income neighborhoods and increased temperatures speed its transformation into harmful ambient ozone that aggravates respiratory conditions such as asthma. Low-income people are the least able to obtain extreme weather insurance or to rebound from a natural disaster’s aftermath. And low-income people are heavily employed in sectors, such as agriculture and tourism, likely to be hard-hit by climate change.

Climate change initiatives should be structured in a way that protects both the environment and low-income people. The Shriver Center is engaged in advocacy to ensure that low-income people have a voice in this important public policy arena.

Letter to Senator Durbin
The Shriver Center recently sent a letter to Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) urging him to support sufficient reductions in carbon emissions, adequate consumer relief, and job opportunities for low-income and minority individuals in the ongoing negotiations on climate change legislation.

Climate Change Symposium

On September 30, 2009, the Shriver Center sponsored a symposium on climate change policy and low-income communities. The symposium brought together experts to explain how climate change particularly affects low-income communities in Chicagoland, the basics of the cap-and-trade policy being debated in Congress and its current standing, the financial impact of cap-and-trade on costs of energy, food, and other necessities and alternative policy proposals to offset these added costs, and how low-income people can benefit from sweeping changes that are coming through green jobs and mass weatherization projects, among others. Below are links to resources from the symposium

Presenters

Dan Lesser, Senior Attorney, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law (moderator)
Evelyn Diaz, Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Mayor, City of Chicago
Jennifer Kefer, Senior Advisor, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Rebecca Stanfield, Senior Energy Advocate, Midwest Office of the Natural Resources Defense Council
Donald Wuebbles, Harry E. Preble, Endowed Professor, University of Illinois

Resources

A recording of the symposium is available online at IllinoisLegalAdvocate.org.

Climate Change and Low-Income Communities, presentation of Donald Wuebbles

Chicago Green Jobs for All, presentation of Evelyn Diaz

Regulatory Approaches to Address U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions, presentation of Rebecca Stanfield

Minimizing the Pain of Federal Climate Legislation, presentation of Jennifer Kefer

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, How Low-Income Consumers Fare in the House Climate Bill (July 8, 2009)

Union of Concerned Scientists, Confronting Climate Change in Illinois

City of Chicago, Green Jobs for All