Climate Justice Alliance

The Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) is a United States-based network of more than 70 rural and urban, community-based organizations working at the intersection of climate change, racial justice, economic inequality, poverty alleviation, and local development. Rather than treating climate change as an isolated environmental problem, the alliance frames it as a political and economic issue whose effects are distributed unevenly. Its work centers communities that experience disproportionate exposure to pollution, extraction, displacement, climate hazards, and underinvestment, often described in its advocacy as frontline communities. Although CJA was formally established in 2013, its roots lie in several years of coordinated grassroots activity within the environmental-justice movement. A notable precursor was a climate-justice assembly organized at the 2010 United States Social Forum in Detroit, which brought together approximately 400 participants. After its formal formation, the alliance coordinated activity in Arizona's Black Mesa region with the Black Mesa Water Coalition. That work brought roughly 100 members together around community-led responses to coal mining and the effects of extractive development on vulnerable populations. CJA's central organizing framework combines opposition to harmful systems with the construction of alternative local institutions. Its Our Power Campaign promotes what the alliance calls a local living economy through Our Power Communities. The model links zero-waste systems, regional food networks, public transportation, clean community energy, efficient and affordable housing, and ecosystem restoration and stewardship. CJA has also described a loan fund and associated technical assistance intended to help participating communities become ready to receive financing and develop locally controlled projects. The alliance describes its wider approach through a six-part strategy: fighting harmful industries and policies; building new economic models; changing rules through policy and political partnerships; moving money away from extractive or polluting systems; building a larger and geographically broader movement; and changing public narratives about what constitutes a normal or acceptable economy. These themes position CJA as an organizing network and movement platform rather than a conventional environmental service provider. CJA supports the Green New Deal but has argued that climate legislation must explicitly protect frontline communities and address pollution at its source. In public statements and advocacy around the proposal, the alliance criticized reliance on carbon offsets, net-zero accounting, carbon markets, and unproven technological fixes when such mechanisms could allow continued pollution in communities already carrying disproportionate burdens. It has promoted locally grounded versions of Green New Deal policy, including work associated with a Feminist Green New Deal and a Green New Deal for Public Housing. Its present identity is therefore defined by grassroots power-building, community control, anti-extraction organizing, and demands that climate transition policies also deliver racial and economic justice.

The Climate Justice Alliance emerged from the United States environmental-justice movement, which emphasizes that environmental harms are shaped by race, class, geography, and political power. Before the alliance acquired its formal name, participating organizers spent several years building coordinated grassroots relationships among rural and urban community organizations. One important precursor was a climate-justice assembly held during the 2010 United States Social Forum in Detroit. The event reportedly brought approximately 400 people together and helped create a basis for a broader national network. CJA was formally founded in 2013 as a collective of more than 70 community-based organizations. Its early work included a coordinated effort in the Black Mesa region of Arizona, hosted with the Black Mesa Water Coalition. Around 100 alliance members participated in organizing and protest activity concerning large coal-mining operations and their effects on communities and ecosystems. This activity illustrated CJA's characteristic approach: combining opposition to harmful development with demands for community authority, economic opportunity, and protection from disproportionate environmental burdens. From this organizing context, CJA developed the Our Power Campaign. The campaign seeks to construct a local living economy through community-scale institutions and infrastructure. Its Our Power Communities model connects waste reduction, regional food systems, public transportation, clean energy, affordable and durable housing, and ecosystem restoration. The alliance has also described a loan fund and technical support designed to help participating communities develop projects and become prepared for financing. These initiatives distinguish CJA from organizations focused only on litigation, research, or national policy advocacy. CJA's strategic framework later expanded into six linked forms of action: fighting harmful industries and practices, building replacement institutions, changing public rules, moving financial resources away from the old economy, expanding the alliance's movement base, and changing the stories that legitimize environmental and economic inequality. The framework treats climate policy as inseparable from questions of ownership, labor, race, public investment, and democratic control. The alliance became an active voice in debates surrounding the Green New Deal. It endorsed the proposal's broad ambition but argued that its implementation needed explicit safeguards for frontline communities. CJA representatives warned that net-zero accounting, offsets, carbon markets, and speculative technological solutions could permit pollution to continue in communities already affected by industrial activity. The organization advocated for direct reductions at pollution sources and for policy designs that prevent communities from being treated as sacrifice zones. CJA subsequently supported or helped advance locally focused versions of Green New Deal politics, including concepts described as a Feminist Green New Deal and a Green New Deal for Public Housing. Through these interventions, the alliance has maintained a dual role: a coalition for grassroots climate organizing and a policy advocate pressing national proposals to include racial, economic, housing, and community-control dimensions. Publicly available reference material does not establish a specific headquarters, founder, corporate parent, listed status, or current executive roster beyond the identification of Angela Adrar as executive director in cited material.

• 2019

  Green New Deal advocacy

  [1]Climate Justice Allianceen.wikipedia.org

  CJA publicly supported the Green New Deal while pressing for frontline-community protections and source-based emissions reductions.

• 2013

  Formal establishment of the Climate Justice Alliance

  [1]Climate Justice Allianceen.wikipedia.org

  CJA was formally created as a collective of rural and urban community-based organizations focused on climate justice and community-led development.

• 2010

  Climate-justice assembly at the United States Social Forum

  [1]Climate Justice Allianceen.wikipedia.org

  Early participants associated with the future alliance organized a climate-justice assembly in Detroit that drew approximately 400 people and helped build the network's organizing base.

• Black Mesa organizing effort

  [1]Climate Justice Allianceen.wikipedia.org

  The alliance coordinated with the Black Mesa Water Coalition in Arizona around the effects of coal mining and extractive development on vulnerable communities.

• Development of the Our Power Campaign

  [1]Climate Justice Allianceen.wikipedia.org

  CJA developed the Our Power framework to support local living economies and community-scale systems for energy, food, transportation, housing, waste, and ecological stewardship.

A grassroots climate-justice alliance that combines environmental organizing with racial justice, economic democracy, community ownership, and locally controlled climate solutions.

• Community economic-development program

  Our Power Campaign

  CJA's principal organizing and development campaign promotes a local living economy. It links community-controlled projects involving zero waste, regional food systems, public transit, clean energy, affordable durable housing, and ecosystem restoration. The campaign also includes support intended to help participating communities prepare projects for financing.

• Community infrastructure model

  Our Power Communities

  Our Power Communities are local implementations of the alliance's community-centered economic model. Rather than treating climate transition as a narrow technology substitution, the model combines environmental improvements with local ownership, essential services, resilience, and economic opportunity.

• 2019Green New Deal advocacy

  United States

  CJA supported the Green New Deal and organized advocacy emphasizing frontline communities, direct emissions reductions, and opposition to offset-based approaches.

  Outcome. The alliance promoted additional approaches including a Feminist Green New Deal and a Green New Deal for Public Housing.

  Source
• Our Power Campaign

  United States

  A community-led campaign to build local living economies through clean energy, regional food, public transportation, zero waste, affordable housing, and ecosystem stewardship.

  Outcome. The campaign established the Our Power Communities framework and associated technical and financing support.

  Source
• Black Mesa climate-justice organizing

  Arizona, United States

  CJA worked with the Black Mesa Water Coalition to organize against coal mining and extractive development viewed as harmful to local communities.

  Outcome. The effort coordinated approximately 100 alliance members around community-led action, although the cited material does not provide a final campaign result.

  Source

• 2019

  Conditioned Green New Deal support on frontline-community protectionsStrategy

  Background

  CJA viewed the Green New Deal as an important opportunity but argued that climate legislation must also address industrial pollution, wealth inequality, democratic weakness, and the unequal burdens carried by frontline communities.

  Action taken

  The alliance publicly supported the proposal while opposing reliance on net-zero loopholes, carbon offsets, carbon markets, and unproven technological fixes that might allow pollution to continue at its source.

  Aftermath

  CJA advocated related frameworks including a Feminist Green New Deal and a Green New Deal for Public Housing.

  Source

1. 1Climate Justice Allianceen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Climate Justice Alliance official websiteclimatejusticealliance.org