Local climate champions build a resilient future during tumultuous times
New UCLA research shows how California’s Transformative Climate Communities program empowers residents
South LA Eco-Lab Partners at Ciclavia 2024 to promote the variety of TCC-funded climate resiliency projects happening in South LA. Credit: Community Partners
By: Colleen Callahan and Mara Elana Burstein
In a year that began with climate-fueled firestorms and government funding cuts, everyday climate champions across California remain focused on their mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the quality of life in their communities. With funding from California’s Transformative Climate Communities grant program (TCC), neighborhoods with histories of poverty, pollution, and environmental injustice remain resilient and resolute toward effecting profound change.
“What local climate heroes have been able to do with TCC investments is nothing short of inspirational,” said Erin Curtis, executive director of the California Strategic Growth Council, the state agency that administers the program. “They provide hope that when we put decisions and resources into the community’s hands, we see meaningful change.
Researchers at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation have published recent accomplishments towards meeting community-defined goals, such as economic development, in South Stockton and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of South L.A. and the Northeast San Fernando Valley.
Stories of Impact
UCLA has a front row seat to how investment in community-led climate action directly helps residents of neighborhoods with histories of disinvestment. The researchers have released personal stories to uplift and center community voices to tell their accounts of how TCC has affected them. This year’s stories include those about:
- Low-income renters advocating for their housing rights in South LA
- Community members with no previous work experience learning how to install solar panels on homes in Stockton
- Electric vehicle drivers saving money at new charging stations in the Northeast San Fernando Valley
Through investments in cost-saving measures and local leadership capacity, TCC is helping build resilience to economic and political shocks. This is perhaps the most transformative legacy of the program we’ve seen thus far.
– Jason Karpman, TCC project director for the Luskin Center for Innovation
What Project Partners are Saying
- “There’s a lot of fear due to federal funding cuts, but there’s also a lot of determination … to continue to do the great work that we’re doing” – Devon Deming, LA Metro Deputy Executive Officer of Fare Programs and South LA Eco-Lab partner
- “Seeing the community resilience, for me, is the most inspiring, as well as seeing how hopeful people are for the work that we’re doing.” – William Muetzenberg, Program Manager, Public Health Advocates, and Stockton Rising partner
- “Residents are very conscious of leaving a cleaner, better, community and world for their children, and that is one of the biggest strengths that you have; whereas they have economic hardships, they still have long-term goals that they want to meet.” – Wendy Thum, Environmental Committee Chair of the Sun Valley Neighborhood Council and Green Together Leadership Council representative (Northeast San Fernando Valley)
Expanding the Model
This year, UCLA researchers also plan to document and uplift the climate action efforts at a new TCC site: Pomona. With a $22 million TCC grant, Pomona ACTS aims to address climate challenges while enhancing public health, shared prosperity, and community identity. Specifically, funds will be spent on solar panel installations, the creation of a shared electric bike program, tree planting, and the cooling of hard surfaces, among other interventions. [Pomona text pending approval]
A Path Forward
Last year, California voters reaffirmed their commitment to climate resilience programs with the passage of Proposition 4. Forty percent of the $10 billion in funding is earmarked for programs in vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, including TCC.
As the climate crisis accelerates, community-led programs like TCC offer a model for how to build and sustain momentum on equitable climate action. The Luskin Center for Innovation will continue to document these efforts, ensuring that data and stories alike help shape a more sustainable, just future.
To learn more, see UCLA’s Tracking Groundbreaking Climate Action webpage.
Research Team
- Megan Mullin, faculty director
- Jason Karpman, project director
- Elena Hernandez, senior project manager
- Samantha Astudillo, project manager
- Alex Aguirre Levitas, project manager
- Camille Burrus, staff researcher
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