September 2023 DEI Committee Blog

Climate, Clean Air, & Justice: A Conversation with Irene Burga

This September, the WGR DEI Committee was joined by Irene Burga, Climate and Clean Air Program Director for GreenLatinos, who shared her experiences advancing policies to address climate change and the disproportionate impacts of the Latine* community in the United States, which led to the development of the Latino Climate Justice Framework.

The Latino Climate Justice Framework creates cohesion by outlining the common interests and perspectives of Latine communities in the climate policy discourse. The framework puts forward a 3-prong vision of how climate and environmental justice solutions can adequately respond to the unique problems and needs faced by Latine communities across our nation:

1. Path to Energy, Environmental, and Economic Justice

2. Protecting Vulnerable Communities from the Climate Crisis

3. Providing Equitable Access and Representation

For government relations professionals interested in engaging in coalition work, Burga reflected on strategies that helped GreenLatinos engage a diverse group of 22 diverse organizations behind collective action. The Latino Climate Justice Framework includes problem and solution statements with vivid language to describe intersecting issues and focus on the desired outcome. She emphasized the importance of concrete real-world examples, adding, “You combat misinformation by giving evidence of what the truth is.” Burga shared living examples from C40, a global network of mayors of the world’s leading cities that are united in action to confront the climate crisis. She also highlighted the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for its efforts to facilitate solar installations.

Burga encouraged interested WGR members to tune into events related to GreenLatinos Week, September 25-29, 2023. She highlighted two panels taking place on September 29th. Extreme Heat Resilience: Bridging Latine Communities and Solutions brings together the Latine community for a dialogue on how to best leverage investments from the Inflation Reduction Act and policy proposals from the Latino Climate Justice Framework to address disproportionate impacts of extreme heat on the Latine community. Rumores Renovables: Anti-Renewable Energy Narratives in Spanish is a panel discussion on countering the effects of misperceptions and false information about energy efficient infrastructure and incentive programs.

*Note on terminology: GreenLatino uses the terms ‘Latino/a/x’ to describe the second largest racial or ethnic group in the United States, comprising a culturally, economically, socially, and politically diverse group with shared Latin American origin or descent. In her presentation, Burga also used the term Latine (pronounced la·ˈti·ne), which is a gender-neutral form of the word Latino created by LGBTQIA+, gender non-binary, and feminist communities in Spanish speaking countries. This idea is native to the Spanish language and can be seen in many gender-neutral words like “estudiante.”

We welcome all WGR members to join DEI Committee Meetings on the third Tuesday of each month. Register here for the next meeting on October 17th from 11:30 - 1pm Eastern Time. For more information on WGR’s DEI Committee, please reach out to dei.wgr@gmail.com.

DEI Committee Chairperson Larkin Willis authored this month’s blog.