Environmental Justice Leader Mustafa Ali to Review Justice40 Initiative with White House Advisor Gina McCarthy at Second Annual BIPOC Climate Justice Dialogue
Washington, D.C. – By Edrea Davis – Environmental justice leader, Mustafa Santiago Ali, will discuss the progress made on the implementation of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 initiative with White House Advisor Gina McCarthy during the Second Annual BIPOC Climate Justice Dialogue. Hosted by the HBCU Green Fund and other environmental groups, the two-day virtual event is open to the public and will take place April 7 – 8, 2022. To register visit: https://bit.ly/35aiE3N.
The event will feature discussions and addresses from Ramon Cruz, president, Sierra Club, U. S. Representative Raul Grijalva (AZ), White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council representatives, federal agencies, and climate leaders about the key accomplishments made by the Biden Administration and next steps for implementation of Executive Order 14008: Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which committed to deliver 40% of climate investment benefits to disadvantaged communities. Recommendations gathered from the discussions will be reported to the federal government.
President Biden appointed McCarthy, a leading environmental health and air quality expert, as the National Climate Advisor in 2021. She was EPA Administrator under President Obama and helped in efforts to secure the Paris Climate agreement. Ali is a former Environmental Protection Agency official and served as senior vice president for the Hip Hop Caucus. He is the vice president of environmental justice, climate and community revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation and founder of Revitalization Strategies.
US ACE Coalition, Land Peace Foundation and the BIPOC Climate Scholars Project joined with HBCU Green Fund to convene the event. In addition to several break-out dialogues, primary discussions planned for the conference are:
Climate Justice: A year of Justice40
Mustafa Ali and Gina McCarthy
WHEJACT Justice40 Report Panel
Moderator: Mustafa Ali,
Panelists: Ruth Santiago, EJ Advocate, Miya Yoshitani, executive director, APEN.
Federal Agencies Justice40 Advancement
Moderator: Richard Gragg, professor, FAMU
Panelists: Daniel Blackman, EPA Administrator Region 4, Christopher Coes, deputy assistant secretary, DOT
Path Forward: Justice40 Frontline Initiatives
Moderator : Chandra Farley, CEO, ReSolve Consulting
Panelists: Nathaniel Smith (video), CEO, Partnership for Southern Equity; Denise Fairchild, president, Emerald Cities; Sherri Mitchell founding director, Land Peace Foundation; Jacqueline Patterson, executive director, Chisholm Legacy Project.
Making Justice40 a Reality: Regional Perspective
Moderator: Donna Hope, president, UHope Consulting
Panelists: Kizzy Guzman, executive director, NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice ; Larry Lambert, Delaware House of Representatives; Zachary Lou, APEN; Andres Jimenez, executive director, Green 2.0.
The BIPOC Climate Justice Dialogue is free and open to the public. To register and get a full agenda go to https://bit.ly/35aiE3N.
ABOUT HBCU GREEN FUND
The HBCU Green Fund promotes investment in sustainable campus solutions, interdisciplinary sustainability curriculum development, student and faculty engagement and just climate policy with a focus on historically black colleges and universities.
ABOUT U.S. ACTION FOR CLIMATE EMPOWERMENT COORDINATING TEAM
The ACE team promotes the alignment of climate education, workforce development, and civic engagement nationally to accelerate a just transition to a low carbon economy and coordinates multi-level participation in the development of an Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) Framework to advance the US national strategy as articulated in UNFCCC and Article 12 of the Paris Agreement.
ABOUT LAND PEACE FOUNDATION
The Land Peace Foundation (LPF) is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Indigenous way of Life, which includes: the protection and preservation of Indigenous land, water, religious and/or spiritual rights; proliferation of cultural and traditional practices; strengthening of kinship roles, and; preservation of ceremonial ways of being.
ABOUT BIPOC CLIMATE SCHOLARS PROJECT
The BIPOC Climate Scholars Project is established as a resource hub activating a national network of Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian/Pacific climate science and policy experts eager to advise, conduct and support research and implementation of public and private action to address climate change.
