Montgomery County, Maryland has just released an exciting plan whose stunning goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 100% by 2035. The plan doubles down on actions you’d expect, like boosting the availability of solar and wind power and building more energy-efficient mass transit. But what makes this climate plan stand out, and what makes it a model for other states, is the degree to which social and environmental justice considerations frame almost every one of the 86 climate objectives the County has set.
“MoCo,” which abuts Washington, D.C. and where I live, is a community of contrasts. It has a population of 1,017,859, with the median household per capita income of $99,435, making it one of the wealthiest counties in America. It is also very diverse and includes White, Hispanic, Black, Asian, and African ethnic groups. Almost 42% of households in the county speak a non-English language at home as their primary language. A survey by WalletHub found that two MoCo cities—Silver Spring and Gaithersburg – are the 6th and 7th most diverse nationwide.
Within the county’s great diversity has come great economic inequality. According to the U.S. Census 2011-2015 American Community Survey Five-Year Estimates, 11% of Black and 11.6% of Hispanic residents live below the federal poverty level. Individuals with less than a high school education live in poverty at a rate of 16.4%. More than 30% of households pay more than one-third of their incomes for housing.
In 2017, Montgomery County public officials and local citizens began working on its climate action plan (CAP). From the beginning, racial equity and social justice were priorities. Why create an infrastructure of electric vehicle charging stations if a big percentage of residents couldn’t afford electric cars? Why focus on installing solar panels on homes when so many people weren’t homeowners? Why create an exclusive energy infrastructure that would automatically exclude disadvantaged communities – no matter how much it helped stop climate change?
To that end, equity and justice workshops were convened with more than 20 community organizations spanning public health, economic development, environmental justice, civil rights, and religion.
The County wanted to make sure that the needs of residents in the “climate gap” would be met. “People of color, low-income communities, new immigrants, international and domestic climate migrants, the elderly, and those with physical disabilities are disproportionately affected by climate change, yet have the least resources and less ability to cope with and respond and adapt to its impacts,” the County said. The Climate Action Plan was intended to “identify existing blind spots and barriers to implementation, incorporate diverse voices and perspectives…and start conversations with underrepresented communities.”
Central to the process were deep dives into systemic racism and environmental injustice, inequity in housing and homeownership, unfair access to transportation, and other “climate impact multipliers” that “make communities that already face inequities even more vulnerable and susceptible to new shocks.”
For example, the working group noted that flooding, which is occurring more often as extreme weather events tick up, threatens low-income and immigrant communities who are more likely to live in basement apartments and may experience mold after flooding occurs. High heat days lead to high utility costs and threaten the lives of poorer people living in older homes that do not have air conditioning and are more susceptible to extreme heat. Language barriers prevent people from understanding what how climate change is affecting them. Minimal or no access to technology—from wifi to computers to smart phones—prevents people from taking actions that could help reduce their carbon footprint. That could include accessing free programs to installing LED light bulbs or tapping into rebate programs that make trading in old refrigerators and air conditioners for new, energy-efficient models possible.
“All of these factors that contribute to climate injustice connect to the broader category of environmental racism,” the climate plan notes. To achieve desired, widespread positive impact, it is “essential that climate action incorporate consideration of racial equity and social justice principles.”
“The urgency of climate change inspires Montgomery County to serve as a model for other jurisdictions,” said County Executive Marc Elrich, a driving force behind creation of the plan. “Combatting climate change provides an opportunity to build a healthy, equitable and resilient community. There is no magic wand to accomplish this monumental task. We must take big, bold steps—and many of them. Collectively, communities across the State of Maryland, the country and the world must tackle climate action at the scale that is necessary to curb the cataclysmic social, environmental and economic impacts of climate change.”
Interestingly, the climate plan was developed in the midst of the pandemic. While Elrich acknowledged that the pandemic significantly constrains the County’s fiscal capacity, it also showed that people can, and will, change.
“We have no choice but to address COVID-19, climate change, economic disruption, and racial inequity simultaneously,” he said. “Doing so makes great sense regardless of our fiscal circumstances because these issues are fundamentally intertwined…We cannot address climate change without recognizing its disproportionate impacts on certain segments of our population…and we cannot rebuild our economy without considering both racial equity and climate change.”
Read the Montgomery County Climate Action Plan here.
Summary of the Racial Equity and Social Justice Workshops here.
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