Abstract

The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, H.R. 3684 (U.S. Congress, 2021) and more recently, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, H.R. 5376 (U.S. Congress, 2022), which includes additional billions in climate resilience and climate justice funding, are perhaps the most compelling signal to date that the issue of climate resilience/climate justice is finally landing in the hearts and minds of the American public and people all over the planet. Climate change as a scientific fact is no longer in debate. The question now is, what are we going to do about it?

The Journal of Climate Resilience and Climate Justice (CRCJ) was launched in parallel with these and other pathbreaking policy initiatives, in the United States and abroad, to support the evolving field of climate resilience/climate justice. CRCJ is intended to be a timely new resource to support the field’s evolution in this critical growth phase, while providing a novel educational experience for graduate students who help edit and contribute content to CRCJ, tomorrow’s climate leaders for whom the equity/justice part of the equation almost goes without saying.

For our inaugural issue, we’ve curated a variety of research reports, essays, and articles representing a wide range of geographic, disciplinary, and policy perspectives, in keeping with the emerging field’s expansive, cross-cutting nature. The response to our call for papers in the summer of 2022 was global. Our Advisory Board and Student Editorial Board culled through the submittals, looking for content that was accessible, practical, and novel, and edited accordingly.

Research Articles:

• Pandemic Response and Mutual Aid as Climate Resilience: Learning From Community Responses in the Boston Area
• Climate Change and Urban Migration in Sub-Saharan African Cities: Impacts and Governance Challenges 
• Evaluating the Incorporation of Climate Justice Concerns Within Resilience Plans Across Eleven U.S. Coastal Cities 
• Climate, Capital, and Colonialism: A Congolese Perspective 
• Learning From Disaster: What Two Hurricanes Reveal About Ways to Design Public Space as Flood Infrastructure 
• Are Underserved Populations Left Out of National Flood Mitigation Efforts and Facing Greater Impact? A Method to Assess Racial Inequality at the Census Tract Level 
• Capacity-Building for Successful Climate Justice Collaborations 
• A Review of the Impact of Climate Change on Water Security and Livelihoods in Semiarid Africa: Cases From Kenya, Malawi, and Ghana 
• Barriers to Equity Within Environmental Justice and Climate Justice Grant Programs 
• Making Progress Through Disagreement: Meeting Residents Where They Are on Climate Change