TOOLKIT

ECONOMIC JUSTICE
The NAACP promotes equity through wealth creation, job development,
and community assets that ensure benefits to all in a racially inclusive
manner. Depreciated property values resulting from the disproportionate
placement of toxic facilities in communities of color is an economic
justice issue. Substandard housing stock, reliance on public
transportation, and under-insurance (home, business, and health) are all
economically based vulnerabilities that make African American
communities more vulnerable and less resilient in the face of increasing
disasters/severe weather events resulting from climate change. At the
same time, shifts in the infrastructure of our current economic and
political system to make room for the new energy economy will provide
new educational, entrepreneurial, and employment opportunities that we
must seize.
Why Entrepreneurship, Energy Efficiency, and Clean Energy?
Equity in a green economy means not only improving the environmental health of communities,
but also wealth building potential, including sustainable livable wages and benefits to workers,
provision of a safe and healthy work environment, and enabling employee to advocate for his or
her interests collectively through participation in unions. As we advocate for clean energy
alternatives there is great opportunity as well as a significant risk to some as we push for the
closure of coal based industries which employ tens of thousands of people nationwide.
Therefore, it is important to create a just energy transition to create entrepreneurial
opportunities, contracts that insist on local hires, and the proliferation of good, green jobs. This
requires advancing and improving legislation related to energy efficiency and clean energy, as
well as availability of contracts and programs that ensure access for African Americans.
Energy efficiency and shifting reliance on fossil fuels to cleaner forms of energy promotes
economic equity. Global climate change will create extremes in temperature on both ends of the
spectrum. There will be an increase in demand for heating energy in winter and also an
increase in demand for cooling energy in summer. Both will result in significant increases in
electricity use (and costs) and higher peak demand in most regions. Energy efficiency in homes
cuts down on these expected high energy bills as well as reduces the use of fossil fuels, which
contribute to climate change. Clean energy avenues include solar wind and geothermal sources
and new businesses as well as community and municipally owned utilities are being built every
day providing energy through clean renewable sources to communities nationwide.
30 | P a g e