A screening tool the federal government is using to decide which neighborhoods have a disproportionate amount of pollution and risk of damage from climate change could worsen air pollution exposure disparities along racial lines, according to a new analysis.
Researchers from several universities around the United States who modeled the potential effects of the use of the tool in guiding federal investment told The Associated Press it’s because race was excluded as a part of the equation that decides which communities are the most in need.
The analysis they did, which was published in Science on Thursday, brings important context to a debate between the federal government and the environmental and climate justice community over how to improve decades-old environmental and climate disparities.
Researchers used the tool to model three 20-year scenarios: one where no action is taken to reduce emissions, one where emissions are aggressively reduced and one where emissions are very aggressively reduced. They found that while the tool is useful in eliminating disparities in air pollution exposure for low-income people and communities designated as disadvantaged, disparities along race and ethnicity lines weren’t improved and in some communities it was worsened.
“The use of race in land-use planning is part of what got us here,” said Julian Marshall, a study co-author and professor of environmental engineering at the University of Washington, referring to city planning processes that determine where infrastructure like highways and factories is built. “So the result we’re seeing is if you don’t include race in the solution it’s a lot harder to solve the problem.”
A cornerstone of the Biden administration’s historic efforts to reduce pollution and mitigate climate change is to ensure that 40% of benefits from their environmental and climate policies go to disadvantaged communities. It’s called the Justice40 Initiative.
In order to invest in communities that need…
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