Climate Changes and Discriminatory Practices

WHEREAS, the impacts of climate change are global, the effects are not spread evenly across the world. Instead, climate change is likely to have different impacts on people of different socioeconomic and racial groups; and

WHEREAS, The U.S. Congressional Black Caucus issued a report entitled "Black Americans and Global Warming: An Unequal Burden" which details the fact that minorities in America and African Americans specifically are most likely to suffer disproportionately as a result of the foreseeable impacts of climate change which include flooding, heatwaves, and high energy prices; and

WHEREAS, as a result of lower average income and wealth, African Americans and other people of color are more vulnerable to environmental policies with regressive impacts. African-Americans spend a higher proportion of their income on carbon-intensive purchases and therefore are more likely to be impacted by changes in the higher prices of energy. In as much as market mechanisms reduce the overall costs of emission control, these methods can reduce the transmitted costs to African Americans and other people of color; and

WHEREAS, African Americans are already disproportionately burdened by the health effects of climate change, including deaths during heat waves and from worsened air pollution. Similarly, unemployment and economic hardship associated with climate change will fail most heavily on the African American community; and

WHEREAS, African Americans are generally more vulnerable to pollution impacts because of their spatial distribution and may be disproportionately worse off with the use of market mechanisms for pollutants that cause local hotspots unless additional safeguards are added to limit the impact of local concentrations; and

WHEREAS, climate change is an issue of global significance and will disproportionately affect African Americans, people of color, and disadvantaged communities and neighborhoods across the United States and around the globe.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP shall take a leadership role in advocating for socially just solutions for the environment8nd global warming that will have the impact of reducing racial and ethnic economic disparities; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP will educate communities on the impact of global warming as well as advocate for legislative policies at the local, state, and federal levels, and urge its international affairs department to promote policy as a non-governmental organization (NGO) that aims to meaningfully reduce climate change which impacts communities of color.