Adaptation Equity Portal

Two of the biggest challenges facing the United States - and the world - are the growing inequalities that unfairly disadvantage large segments of the population, and climate change, which exacerbates existing risks in our communities. The effects of climate change including rising temperatures, more polluted air, and more frequent and intense extreme storms, will disproportionally affect already poor and disenfranchised people. Policymakers must find ways to focus not only on the physical impacts of climate change, but also on the ways that policies can have a differential impact on certain individuals and communities. In this portal we will refer to people facing disproportionate climate impacts as "frontline communities" since these are groups that are on the frontlines of impacts from climate change.