The report Climate Change, Environmental Challenges and Vulnerable Communities: Assessing Legacies of the Past, Building Opportunities for the Future brings together demographic, health and environmental data and research for Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. It delves into state and local initiatives for mitigation and adaptation, assessing the progress for communities of color and concluding that some communities of color face a "perfect storm" of poor health, socioeconomic barriers and climate-related challenges.

Register for the webinar with the authors which takes place on May 21st here.

Download the Executive Summary below, or the Full Report and Appendices.

This Joint Center webinar features U.S. experts and Mexican leaders who successfully advocated for Mexico's new global warming legislation, highlighting key features of the law and its potential impact on U.S. and international climate politics.

The full webinar can be found here (registration required).

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies today joined forces with the National Minority Quality Forum to create a database that will offer lawmakers and community activists access to important data on local health and environmental conditions.

As a result of this collaboration, local civic and political leaders, other community activists and residents will have a powerful visual tool to assist them in communicating their concerns about health and environmental burdens in their neighborhoods.  Additionally, it will enable those making health and environmental decisions to better target their actions by understanding where these problems are most severe and where the most help is needed.

A report by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health provides an expanded review of six new air quality regulations proposed or recently adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA). These include the first national standards for reducing dangerous emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants.

Though the cost of implementing the new regulations is estimated to be about $195 billion over the next 20 years or so, the economic, environmental and health benefits amount to well over $1 trillion, considerably outweighing the control costs, according to the report, which was issued by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Read more at Terradaily.

An expanded review of six new air quality regulations proposed or recently adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) is provided in a report by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

These include the first national standards for reducing dangerous emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants. Though the cost of implementing the new regulations is estimated to be about $195 billion over the next 20 years or so, the economic, environmental and health benefits amount to well over $1 trillion, considerably outweighing the control costs, according to the report, which was issued by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C.


Read more at Med India.

A literature-based white paper that discusses the range of potential health benefits that could be gained by people of color in the three cities
as a result of proposed EPA regulations. The paper considers the impact on reduced exposures to PM2.5 and ozone pollution, and the potential for reductions in premature deaths due to respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, and lung cancer. There is also an examination of the potential reductions in asthma. One important component of this work is an expanded review of EPA's technical analyses of health benefits that are expected
from regulations, building on existing available data. In addition to summarizing main findings from the EPA analyses, the paper evaluates the extent to which the EPA methodology addresses health benefits from an environmental justice perspective.

Download the companion Research Brief: Three-City Survey of African Americans on EPA Regulations, Climate Change and Health

Three members of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change will join representatives from more than 190 nations in Durban, South Africa next week for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 17th Conference of Parties (COP).

The conference is expected to be a critical juncture for international climate initiatives.  As a designated non-governmental organization with Civil Society Observer Status through the United Nations, the Joint Center will participate along with hundreds of public interest organizations and thousands of activists from around the world in advocating for a fair, ambitious and binding agreement that will reduce global emissions, build vulnerable nations' resilience to climate change and foster a low-carbon green economy globally.
 
Representing the Joint Center’s Commission will be State Senator Rodney Ellis (D-TX), the Commission’s Co-Chair, and Commission Members Carolyn L. Green, Managing Partner of EnerGreen Capital Management LLC, and Benjamin Bronfman, Strategic Advisor, Global Thermostat.

As we consider the trajectory of green jobs over the past 18 months and where it appears to be headed, there is indeed a good story to tell. However, in order to appreciate it, we must come to terms with several setbacks.

Across the country, African American communities are suffering the consequences of the recession. Black unemployment is projected to hit a 25-year high and is nearly twice the national average, and joblessness is almost twice as severe for black men ages 16-24.

But people are not the only ones suffering. Our planet is in peril, too. The true threat of global warming, affirmed by the scientific community, does not go away when politicians and pundits stop talking about it or try to discredit it on cable television. The dirty economy, based on drilling and burning, is a direct threat to the health of all people, and especially to that of African Americans and other people of color.