Equity in Addressing Climate Change: Using Law and Policy to Serve Frontline Communities

Climate change is and will continue to impact frontline communities the hardest. Black, Native American, and Latinx communities are called so because they tend to live in areas that experience the impacts of climate change first and most (Krause & Reeves, 2017). The term "frontline communities" is most commonly used in the conversation about climate change focused on the United States. However, they have commonalities with similar communities globally: disproportionately poor, Black, Brown, and located in vulnerable areas. Many times, this is so because of the cost of living, cultural ties and structural oppression. Rather, cheap land is often coastal and vulnerable ("Climate impacts on coastal areas"; US EPA, 2017). The way we enforce or do not enforce laws and policies to address these disparities, particularly in the context of climate change, will shift outcomes for these and all communities.