Climate Change and Environmental Justice

ICCR's Climate Change and Environmental Justice program works to identify climate challenges and opportunities facing the private sector. Investors collaborate to develop strategies to reduce corporate carbon footprints and accelerate an equitable and just transition to a green economy. 

This framework links support for necessary climate action with commitments to labor standards and human rights. Existing systemic risks associated with racial and economic inequality, lack of decent work, and adverse impacts on human rights, as well as environmental degradation, may be exacerbated, creating significant financial uncertainties. Investors, companies, and governments have already faced resistance from workers and communities, and this resistance has slowed the transition. Various international human rights frameworks protect stakeholders' rights, from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to various UN General Assembly Resolutions, such as resolution 76/300, which acknowledges the “human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.” 

ICCR's Climate Change and Environmental Justice program focuses on four key areas: a just and equitable transition to a clean energy economy, an equitable decarbonization of climate finance, Paris-aligned corporate climate lobbying, and methane emissions reduction.

Investor Alliance Collaboration 

The Investor Alliance coordinates with ICCR's Climate Change and Environmental Justice program through a shared focus on just transition. The Investor Alliance's work on the human rights crisis in the Xinjiang Autonomous Uyghur Region engages with green energy solutions in the solar sector and electric vehicle sector to enact their human rights due diligence, monitoring and ensuring their value chains do not include sourcing and manufacturing tainted with state-imposed forced labor.

Current Initiatives 

Through a combination of dialogue, roundtables, and filing shareholder resolutions, ICCR's members are calling on companies and policymakers to ensure a just transition that supports a racially and economically equitable, decarbonized economy by prioritizing "high-road" jobs, respect for human rights, and positive community impacts. 

For more information, please visit the Climate Change and Environmental Justice program page or contact Christina Cobourn Herman.