Tackling Climate Change and Environmental Injustice

We pursue climate action that meets the crisis’s urgency, creates good-quality jobs, benefits disadvantaged communities, and restores U.S. credibility on the global stage.

People with placards and posters on global strike for climate change. Woman speaking in megaphone in front of crowd. (Getty/urbazon)

What We're Doing

Pursuing environmental justice

Investing in equitable climate solutions that address the country’s legacy of environmental racism while working to ensure that all communities have the right to breathe clean air, live free of dangerous levels of toxic pollution, access healthy food, and share the benefits of a prosperous economy

Creating good, clean jobs at home

Laying the groundwork for an urgent transition to a clean energy economy that works for all, creating millions of well-paying jobs with the opportunity to join a union, and improving the quality of life for all Americans in the process

Protecting nature

Addressing the linked climate and biodiversity crises by conserving 30 percent of all U.S. lands and water by 2030 and promoting natural solutions to the climate crisis that benefit all communities

Restoring U.S. climate leadership on the global stage

By taking strong and equitable domestic action, we restore the ability to bring countries together to reduce emissions and help developing countries transition to carbon-neutral economies and adapt to inevitable impacts

By the numbers

$182.7B

The cost to U.S. taxpayers from extreme weather events in 2022

National Centers for Environmental Information

123

The number of elected senators and representatives who still deny climate change

CAP, “Climate Deniers in the 118th Congress” (2024).

2°F

Human activity, largely burning fossil fuels, has warmed the planet this much since 1800s

The New York Times, “A Hotter Future Is Certain, Climate Panel Warns. But How Hot Is Up to Us.” (2021).

1M

The number of plant and animal species at risk of extinction around the world today

CAP, “How Much Nature Should America Keep?” (2019).

What You Can Do

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The Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans’ Plan To Make Billionaires Richer May Make Americans Sicker Article
Cars travel on the highway to and from Los Angeles, which is enveloped in smog.

The Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans’ Plan To Make Billionaires Richer May Make Americans Sicker

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are working to finance their plans to cut taxes for the ultrawealthy—and they are cutting environmental protection and clean energy programs, endangering American lives and livelihoods, as part of this effort.

Will the U.S. Housing Crisis Be Exploited for a Massive Public Lands Sell-Off? Report
The San Jacinto Mountains are seen from afar at the Big Morongo Wildlife Preserve in Morongo Valley, California, April 11, 2007.

Will the U.S. Housing Crisis Be Exploited for a Massive Public Lands Sell-Off?

Some politicians are using the nation’s housing affordability problems as a pretense to sell off public lands—an extreme agenda that puts America’s treasured lands and waters at risk without substantively addressing housing needs. A new initiative from the Trump administration publicly promises restraint, while specific proposals from Capitol Hill tell a different story.

The Trump Administration Has Invited Power Plants to Emit More Toxic Pollution in a Giveaway to Corporate Polluters Article
The sun sets behind an oil refinery in Wilmington, California.

The Trump Administration Has Invited Power Plants to Emit More Toxic Pollution in a Giveaway to Corporate Polluters

In an unprecedented move, the Trump administration has offered fossil fuel power plants and industrial sources the opportunity to ask, by email, for an exemption from the Clean Air Act, enabling them to avoid compliance with emission standards that protect Americans.

Leo Banks, Lucero Marquez

Managing the Climate Change-Fueled Property Insurance Crisis Report
A couple stands to the left of the remains of a home burned down in January 2025 during a massive wildfire in and around Los Angeles.

Managing the Climate Change-Fueled Property Insurance Crisis

As private insurers pull back services in the face of mounting losses, governments are looking to spread the costs of more frequent and severe natural disasters while confronting insurance availability and affordability challenges.

Lilith Fellowes-Granda, Marc Jarsulic, Alexandra Thornton

How the Trump Administration’s Agenda To Eliminate Environmental Protections and Promote the Fossil Fuel Industry Harms Public Health Fact Sheet
A view of DTE Energy's River Rouge power plant in Michigan.

How the Trump Administration’s Agenda To Eliminate Environmental Protections and Promote the Fossil Fuel Industry Harms Public Health

The Trump administration’s plan to abandon environmental and public health safeguards threatens the health and lives of Americans while lining the pockets of corporate polluters.

The Trump Administration’s Cancellation of Funding for Environmental Protections Endangers Americans’ Health While Draining Their Wallets Fact Sheet
People walk in Central Park amid hazy conditions in New York City.

The Trump Administration’s Cancellation of Funding for Environmental Protections Endangers Americans’ Health While Draining Their Wallets

The Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate environmental protections and funds that reduce pollution in working-class communities threaten public health and increase costs for families.

Forecasting Disaster: How DOGE’s Cuts to NOAA Will Affect Weather Awareness and Well-Being Past Event

Forecasting Disaster: How DOGE’s Cuts to NOAA Will Affect Weather Awareness and Well-Being

Please join the Center for American Progress for the first in a series of virtual events highlighting the impact that DOGE’s cuts are having on the lives of everyday Americans; this event will focus on how cuts to NOAA will harm the weather forecast and Americans' safety.

Online only

Congressional Republicans’ Plan To Cut Clean Energy Investments Would Cause Higher Energy Bills and Job Losses Across States Article
Workers carry a solar panel onto a roof in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Congressional Republicans’ Plan To Cut Clean Energy Investments Would Cause Higher Energy Bills and Job Losses Across States

The clean energy supply chain spurred by U.S. investment has created jobs and helped to lower electricity costs; repealing these investments midstream would increase electricity prices for households and businesses in nearly every state.

The U.S. terminated its 30×30 conservation plan but this also presents an opportunity (commentary) In the News

The U.S. terminated its 30×30 conservation plan but this also presents an opportunity (commentary)

In an op-ed published by Mongabay, Angelo Villagomez and Alia Hidayat argues that while President Trump's nixing of Biden's historic “30x30” conservation plan is a significant loss, a hopeful post-30x30 conservation framework may already be emerging.

Mongabay

Angelo Villagomez, Alia Hidayat

Trump is using tariffs as a blunt-force tool. It won’t work In the News

Trump is using tariffs as a blunt-force tool. It won’t work

In an op-ed published by The Guardian, Mike Williams argues that tariffs can be a necessary tool to level the playing field in steel trade, but they will not incentivize the kind of investment in modern, low-emissions technologies the industry needs to reverse its current decline.

The Guardian

Mike Williams

Prioritize Community Needs Over Politics In the News

Prioritize Community Needs Over Politics

In an op-ed published by InsideSources, Margaret Cooney writes about the wildfires in Los Angeles and describes the practical ways local policymakers can better prepare to offset the effects of climate change.

InsideSources

Margaret Cooney

Highlights from ‘State Efforts To Decarbonize Key Industrial Sectors’ Video

Highlights from ‘State Efforts To Decarbonize Key Industrial Sectors’

The Center for American Progress held a virtual event that explored state policy efforts to decarbonize and detoxify the production of construction materials and discussed lessons learned from policy implementation.

Jamie Friedman, Reema Bzeih, Matthew Gossage

The Trump Administration’s Retreat From Global Climate Leadership Article
U.S. President Donald Trump holds an executive order announcing the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement .

The Trump Administration’s Retreat From Global Climate Leadership

President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement marks a deliberate weakening of the multilateral system, jeopardizing global efforts to combat the climate crisis and risking America’s economic and environmental future.

Kalina Gibson

8 Ways Special Interests Are Asking President-Elect Trump To Sell Out U.S. Public Lands Report
Large rock formations seen through plants

8 Ways Special Interests Are Asking President-Elect Trump To Sell Out U.S. Public Lands

Corporate insiders have shamelessly lined up a suite of proposals to enrich themselves at the expense of American families and future generations. President-elect Trump will soon make his choice: reject these bad ideas or sell out America’s parks and public lands on the cheap.

State Efforts To Decarbonize Key Industrial Sectors Past Event

State Efforts To Decarbonize Key Industrial Sectors

Please join the Center for American Progress for a virtual event that will explore state policy efforts to decarbonize and detoxify the production of construction materials, and lessons learned from policy implementation.

Online only

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