For people in the environmental field, 2024 has been both disturbing and rewarding. Global temperatures set another new record, but green energy infrastructure keeps growing at a rapid pace. Unfortunately, not fast enough to keep up with rising demand. Data centers and crypto mining, with their vast electricity demands, are the latest environmental scourge.

Federal funding for environmental justice communities made a great leap forward under Biden, but the deficit remains vast. Mining, drilling, oil refineries and pipelines continue to be developed and sited near working class, non-white, or otherwise marginalized communities. But as the new year begins, our position is the same as before: “Move forward, push harder, don’t stop now.”

A2 comprises nearly 400 climate and environmental justice organizations in every U.S. state and territory. Our goal in the year ahead is to expand the alliance to 500 or more and harness our collective power to achieve a more just and sustainable future.

If you’d like to support our work, please visit our website to donate.

• The launch of five State Organizing Centers (SOCs) in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri. Funded by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, the SOCs will enable grassroots organizations to work together to change state policy and regulation. Tanya Harris-Glasow, former Director of the New Orleans chapter of ACORN, has been hired to lead the initiative.
• Award winning graphic designer and former A2 board member, Rick Valicenti, has helped us re-conceive our website. Watch for our new look in mid-January. It will “knock your SOCs off.”
• Inaugurated a collaboration with Magnum, the photo consortium established by Robert Capa and Cartier-Bresson, to employ some of the best photographers in the world to document A2 communities impacted by climate change and environmental abuse. Here’s a photograph by Matt Black, of A2 member Rebecca Jim, head of LEAD Agency in Miami, Oklahoma.
• Submitted another round of proposals to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s National Coastal Resilience Fund. Of the eight submitted, five were accepted for a total value of $4 million. One is for Finafinau, our new member in American Samoa.
• Prepared grant applications for five A2 members for the EPA Community Change Grant worth a total of $84 million, and helped ten more A2 members secure EPA Community Change Equitable Resilience Technical Assistance.

Additional successful grant applications:

• Secured for the North East Ohio Black Health Coalition $1.3 million via NOAA’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge.
• $300,000 from the CDC Foundation for three regional collaborations – in Oklahoma, Montana, and Arkansas – representing fifteen frontline communities.
• $200,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Program, on behalf of Micah 6:8 Mission in Louisiana.

We have no illusions that the year ahead will be easy. The new administration is actively hostile to environmental justice. But with leadership, imagination, and solidarity, we can overcome any obstacle. Your support is crucial. Please consider contributing today.