Sabin Center and WE ACT for Environmental Justice Launch New Community Advocacy Tools to Protect Public Health
Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and WE ACT for Environmental Justice have partnered to create two new resources to empower local environmental justice advocacy protecting public health and defending against polluting projects. These resources will ensure that communities are both protected from harms from development projects and establish benefits agreements with cities and developers. Both tools are available to download here. To launch these materials, WE ACT and the Sabin Center will host a webinar on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 at 12:30 pm. Sign up here to learn more about the resources and how they can be used most effectively by advocates. This work is part of the Dismantling Injustice project, which began with a series of model environmental justice legislation and resources. More information on the project can be found at dismantlinginjustice.org.
Environmental justice communities—which are majority Black, Brown, and low-income—have for decades been disproportionately used as sacrifice zones and dumping grounds for polluting infrastructure from fossil-fuels and other industries. As a result, these communities live with outsized exposure to dirty air, undrinkable water, and poison in the soil. It has given these families excessive amounts of cancer, heart diseases, asthma, and premature death for generations. In 2025, as the current administration seeks to exacerbate the climate crisis by expanding fossil fuel infrastructure and removing environmental justice policy and programs, it is more important than ever that local communities continue to find pathways to keep themselves safe at the local level. Some of the major development projects in this arena include what are called “false solutions,” such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen, and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Industry asserts these technologies cut greenhouse gases, but they actually reinforce our fossil fuel dependence, increase pollution, and burden communities further.
To address this, the first, new WE ACT and Sabin Center community advocacy resource consists of fact sheets on four topics related to carbon dioxide and natural gas infrastructure: (1) carbon dioxide pipelines, (2) CCS infrastructure, (3) LNG terminals, and (4) natural gas pipelines. Each fact sheet provides an overview of the legal framework governing that topic and offers a list of ways community advocates can understand their rights and take action to defend from additional polluting sources. Two versions of the fact sheets are available, one longer and one shorter, to provide varying levels of detail depending on the context in which they are being used.
The second community advocacy resource is a template for a community benefit agreement (CBA). A CBA is a legally binding contract between a developer and a community organization, coalition of organizations, or municipality. CBAs can be used for a variety of projects, including but not limited to pipelines, liquified natural gas terminals, hydrogen hubs, landfills and waste management facilities, or any significant project that could harm the health and wellbeing of the surrounding community. CBAs help to ensure that if a project is moving forward, following an environmental impact assessment, the community is able to access benefits from these development projects; allow residents a seat at the table in planning and shaping projects; protect community needs and interests, such as health and quality of life, throughout the life of the project; and provide a way to legally enforce the promises that developers make to communities. The CBA template is intended as a starting point for advocates to draft and negotiate CBAs that are customized to the needs and priorities of their community.
For more information, please contact:
Ashley Sullivan, Senior Communications Manager Federal Policy at WE ACT ([email protected])
Tiffany Campiz-Challe, Communications Associate at Sabin Center ([email protected])
Olivia N. Guarna, Climate Justice Fellow at Sabin Center ([email protected])
About WE ACT
WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan-based, membership-driven organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents are meaningfully included in the development of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at weact.org and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, Twitter/X, and Instagram.
About the Sabin Center
The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, a center of Columbia Law School and an affiliate of the Columbia Climate School, develops legal techniques to combat the climate crisis and advance climate justice, and trains the next generation of leaders in the field. Visit us on Bluesky | Linkedin | Instagram