EJ4Climate: Environmental Justice and Climate Resilience

The applying organization must be located in Canada, Mexico or the United States and project implementation must take place within North America (including all territories), whether in the same country where the organization is located or in a different North American country, or whether the project is a transboundary effort in Canada and/or Mexico and/or the United States.

The following entities are eligible to apply:

• Nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs);
• Civil society groups;
• Environmental groups;
• Community-based associations;
• Faith-based organizations;
• Tribal nations; and
• Indigenous Peoples and communities.

The following entities are not eligible to apply:

• Businesses;
• Private individuals;
• Universities, academic and public research institutions; and
• Municipal, provincial/state, territorial and federal governments.

However, a university, academic or public research institution may be involved if it teams up with community-based organizations to support the application and they serve as community partners. Proposals from qualified organizations that partner with the private sector or with local government entities are eligible.

Having 501(c), donataria autorizada or charity status is not mandatory. However, your organization must be formally incorporated or have a legal registration issued by the government of your country and it must own a bank account.

If your organization is not legally registered, identifying a fiscal sponsor may be necessary. You will need to name your fiscal sponsor before applying, and if your proposal is successful, you will have to enter into a fiscal sponsorship agreement. The fiscal sponsor must be a registered organization actively involved in the proposed project and eligible for the grant program, such as a legally-registered NGO.

Please contact us if you have any doubts or questions.

You are not eligible to apply if:

• You reside outside of North America, or your project is implemented outside the North American region.
• You are currently under another CEC grant agreement (EJ4Climate or NAPECA).
• You are currently receiving or applying for funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada for the same project.
• An employee or officer of your organization is an immediate family member (spouse, parent, sibling or child) of:
  • An official from any of the Parties to the Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (ECA) (i.e., the Government of Canada, the Government of the United States of America, or the Government of the United Mexican States), or who served in that position within the past year;
  • An official of the CEC Secretariat or one who has served in that position within the past year;
  • A present or past member (within the past year) of the CEC Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC); or
  • A present or past member (within the past year) of the domestic advisory committees.

For more details, please refer to the Call for Proposals.

Projects must have a duration of 12 to 24 months. The start and end dates indicated in your proposal must be within the range specified in the Call for Proposals.

The applying organization must be located in Canada, Mexico or the United States and project implementation must take place within North America (including all territories), whether in the same country where the organization is located or in a different North American country, or whether the project is a transboundary effort in Canada and/or Mexico and/or the United States.

Each organization can submit a maximum of one proposal per country. This means you can apply for funding for up to three projects, as long as each project is located in one of the three countries.

The following categories of projects and activities are not eligible for funding:

• Activities for which the local, state/provincial or federal government is responsible (e.g., construction of roads, bridges, sewage treatment plants);
• Purchase of motor vehicles, property, or land;
• Renovations;
• Pursuing legal action;
• Projects dedicated exclusively to planning;
• Projects meant only to beautify an area;
• Lobbying or advocacy;
• Annual or regular organizational events/campaigns;
• Expenses to attend general conferences; and
• Projects implemented outside the jurisdiction of the three USMCA/CUSMA Parties. 

Remember that your project must be more than a paper exercise. Project activities must conclude in tangible and measurable results that will be achieved at the community level within the project timeframe.

You can submit proposals for up to $175,000 Canadian dollars. There is no minimum grant amount established.

Please use the provided worksheet template (available at the bottom of this webpage and on the online application form) to detail the total budget requested and its breakdown in Canadian dollars. Make sure to include a thorough and clear budget breakdown to help the selection committee better understand your proposal and how you intend to use the grant funds. Budget breakdown in Mexican pesos or US dollars will not be accepted.

The budget may cover the following expenses:

• Salaries and benefits;
• Equipment and supplies;
• Travel (note: the CEC will not fund travel expenses that exceed 15% of the total grant amount);
• Consultant services (if applicable);
• Overhead (note: the CEC will not fund overhead and administration expenses, such as rent, telephone, fax, and photocopies, that exceed 15% of the total grant amount); and
• Other costs.

There is no limit on the amount requested for each of the categories, except for the travel and overhead limits. However, keep in mind that the selection committee will pay attention to your budget items to ensure that the resources allocated by the grant program meaningfully impact and/or remain in the community/ies involved in the project as much as possible.

Please note that having counterpart funding is not required. Proof of other financial support is optional; however, if applicable, we encourage you to detail other financial support to your project (confirmed or not) in your application form in the appropriate section.

Proposals must be submitted electronically through the online application portal. To submit a proposal, you need to create an account and complete the online form. If you are having difficulties creating an account or completing the online form, please contact us at ej4climate@cec.org.

Please note that the forms are available in English, French and Spanish, allowing you to answer the questions in your preferred language.

Include as many relevant details as possible in your proposal to ensure clarity. However, be concise and avoid repetition, as you will be limited by the number of characters allowed.

The portal allows you to create and save drafts of your proposal, enabling you to work on it and return later.

Be sure to submit your proposal on time. Please verify the deadline time in your current time zone to avoid any confusions. After submission, a confirmation email will be sent to your provided email address. If you do not receive it, please check your junk or spam folder.

Each organization can submit a maximum of one proposal per country. This means you can apply for funding for up to three projects, as long as each project is located in different one of the three countries.

A letter of support is required only if your organization is not part of the community or communities where the project activities will take place.

In this case, you should provide a letter from an authorized representative or your main point of contact within the community. This letter should explain how, as an external partner, you have been involved with the community over time and how you will contribute to or promote the long-term emancipation of the community.

While not mandatory for all applicants, letters of support are highly encouraged, as they can strengthen your proposal.

No, the deadline is fixed. The online portal will close immediately after the deadline, and you will not be able to submit your proposal.

Please note that the deadline is based on Eastern Time, so be sure to adjust for your local time zone.

Grant applications are reviewed and evaluated by the Secretariat (with the support of a team of external consultants) and a Selection Committee, based on the selection criteria outlined in the Call for Proposals. For the detail of the evaluation process, we invite you to consult the Administration and Funding Guidelines.

We receive an average of 300 applications per funding cycle. We are able to support about 10 to 15 projects per grant cycle in total, aiming for a balanced representation among the three countries.

You will receive a written notification about the decision on your proposal via the email address provided in the online application portal. Please check your email, including your junk or spam folder, around the date for “Notification of decisions” indicated in the Call for Proposals.

The Secretariat is not able to provide individual feedback on its evaluations due to the high volume of applications we receive.

However, we can share some common reasons why proposals may not be selected. These include, but are not limited to, the very competitive nature of the process due to the high number of strong submissions and the fact that we need to balance the number of recipients among the three countries, the degree of alignment with our current organizational priorities or the grant cycle theme, and the completeness and clarity of the application, including the project objectives, activities and budget items. Lack of community involvement in the project, or too few tangible and measurable expected results at the community-level are also frequent reasons for disqualification.

Successful candidates will need to enter into a funding agreement with the CEC before any contribution is made to their projects. Grant funds are disbursed based on progress reports and financial statements that demonstrate how the funding is being used to generate the intended results.

Grantees will be required to submit one progress report and one final report, according to a Payment and Reporting Schedule. The project summary section of the final report will be used for public distribution (CEC’s website) once the project is completed.

It is not necessary to enclose receipts with your reports, but they should be retained in case of audit.

Origins and evolution of the EJ movement

Although the precise origins of environmental justice as a concept and as a movement are widely disputed, there is broad agreement that the self-labeled “EJ” movement initiated in the United States, emerging from the Civil Rights Movement and the fight against racial segregation that began in the 1950s. The EJ movement focused on the impacts of pollution on already disadvantaged and marginalized people, setting itself apart from the more traditional environmental movement focused on the conservation of natural resources.

Specific historical events have marked key moments of the EJ movement, such as the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike, which took place in Memphis, Tennessee after two African American sanitation workers were crushed to death while performing their duties. Subsequent EJ milestones, such as the 1982 sit-in protesting the Warren County PCB Landfill, began to consolidate the identity, narrative and terminology of the environmental justice movement, responding to evidence that demonstrated disproportionate rates of pollution with neighborhoods where African Americans and other people of color were predominantly living.

One key meeting, that catapulted the EJ movement onto the national stage in the United States, as well as drawing attention regionally and globally, was the 1991 First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. Hundreds of activists from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and beyond gathered in Washington, D.C. for four days, ultimately issuing the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice, which are still considered pillars of the EJ movement today.

At its core, and since its origins, environmental justice is about protecting people from pollution and harm. It’s about racism, discrimination and human rights violations due to inequitable impacts of environmental degradation and pollution. The broader, global environmental justice movement has evolved in unison with a parallel international environmental movement more broadly associated to human rights and environment-based advocacy that emerged in the late twentieth century, which resonated with the EJ movement and embraced EJ-compatible narratives. 

Definitions of EJ in Canada

Several official Canadian definitions of environmental justice have recently appeared. Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) Glossary on Climate Change and Public Health, defines EJ in the following manner:

“The principle under which every person, regardless of their race, ethnic origin, religion, sex or gender, age, social class or socioeconomic status, is entitled to equitable protection under environmental laws and can participate in environmental decision-making processes in their community.”

ECCC also offers a definition of environmental “injustice” which serves to contextualize the understanding of environmental justice in the Canadian context (highlighting equity of risk, human health and climate vulnerability):

“Environmental injustice refers to inequitable exposure to environmental risks, including to health risks, making some populations more vulnerable to climate change.”

A more recent definition of environmental justice (also defined relative to environmental “injustice”) can be found in Canada’s 2023 National Adaptation Strategy as follows:

“Environmental Justice: Environmental injustice reflects the procedural and geographic discrimination of Indigenous, Black, Racialized, religious, low-income, 2SLGBTQI+, women, and other marginalized communities such as the very young, older adults, or people who experience structural inequity, poverty, or isolation, placing said communities in close proximity to environmental hazards, often resulting in direct health impacts. These same communities are also under-represented in environmental decision-making spaces.”

The guiding principles of the National Adaptation Strategy also reference environmental justice (in a climate context) by saying:

“Adaptation efforts must act to advance climate justice and more broadly environmental justice. This includes addressing and minimizing social, gender, racial, and intergenerational inequities which requires diverse perspectives at the table—including youth and persons with disabilities. It also includes prioritizing populations and communities at greater risk of climate change impacts—e.g., due to historical and ongoing practices and policies that shape lived experiences, capacity and access to resources. As we build systems and solutions that are more climate resilience, we have the opportunity to address systemic inequities that make people more vulnerable.” 

Definitions of EJ in Mexico

The term environmental justice appeared in Mexico in the 1990s and has generally been utilized in relation to issues of procedural justice. Currently, two government programs in Mexico in the environmental sector offer a definition of EJ.

The 2020–2024 Environment and Natural Resources Sectoral Program (Promarnat) 2020-2024 defines EJ narrowly, linked to judicial and procedural elements, as:

“The obtention of an opportune judicial solution to a specific environmental conflict, taking into account that all persons must begin with the same conditions to access environmental justice”.

PROFEPA’s 2021–2024 Procurement of Environmental Justice Program proposes a definition of EJ that includes additional and broader aspects related to EJ, defining EJ as:

“The rights of nature for all; individuals, families, communities, companies and other human groups in relation to the environment, considered as a common good, but in exchange of responsibilities and legal obligations these responsibilities and obligations oftentimes are grouped under the notion of “social and environmental responsibility”, the liberty to exploit the environment ends where it threatens others (and so it is an obligation not to over-exploit a resource), and where the environment (biodiversity, natural habitats, and genetic diversity) would be themselves threatened by human activities.”

Definitions of EJ in the United States

The term environmental justice did not appear in regular use in the United States until the mid-1990s. Prior to this, the issue of EJ was referred to either as “environmental equity” or as “environmental racism.”

One of the most recent US government definitions of EJ is in Executive Order 14096, titled Revitalizing our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All. In this April 2023 order, environmental justice is defined as follows:

“Environmental justice” means the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of income, race, color, national origin, Tribal affiliation, or disability, in agency decision-making and other Federal activities that affect human health and the environment so that people: (i) are fully protected from disproportionate and adverse human health and environmental effects (including risks) and hazards, including those related to climate change, the cumulative impacts of environmental and other burdens, and the legacy of racism or other structural or systemic barriers; and (ii) have equitable access to a healthy, sustainable, and resilient environment in which to live, play, work, learn, grow, worship, and engage in cultural and subsistence practices.” 

Indigenous environmental justice

Is there a specific framework or lens to look at environmental justice from an Indigenous perspective? Are Indigenous rights issues also EJ issues? Is one the subset of the other, or are they interrelated? There is a growing body of literature and discussion on Indigenous Environmental Justice (IEJ). Indigenous analysis on the current shortcomings and deficiencies of Western-influenced development models in the past and present is strongly anchored in colonial history and persistent colonial and settler governance systems, which most Indigenous communities argue must be deconstructed, or decolonized, in order to re-establish a sustainable balance in the natural, spiritual and human worlds. This de-constructionist view of the present state of affairs guides a majority of advocacy about Indigenous rights and subsequently influences IEJ approaches.

We can identify several EJ-relevant aspirational goals in Indigenous rights advocacy, for example in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), such as the rights and pursuits for diversity,  justice and access to justice, non-discrimination, equity, participation in decision-making, access to information, physical and mental health, redress, reparations and compensation, as well as intersectional considerations for vulnerable groups (including youth, elders, women and people with disabilities), non-discriminatory conservation of the environment and the proper management of toxic waste.

One gray area from an EJ framework analysis for specific IEJ issues concerns Indigenous Peoples’ calls for autonomy, sovereignty, self-determination, self-governance and the prioritization of the deconstruction of colonial legacies. In contrast to these aims of many Indigenous Peoples, many EJ leaders, although similarly critical of the legacies and continuing inequities of governance systems, are instead seeking inclusion and participation in existing governance systems, rather than autonomy or self-governance.

Climate change adaptation (or climate adaptation) refers to actions that help reduce vulnerability to the current or expected impacts of climate change like weather extremes and hazards, sea-level rise, biodiversity loss, or food and water insecurity.

Many adaptation measures need to happen at the local level, so rural communities and cities have a big role to play. Such measures include planting crop varieties that are more resistant to drought and practicing regenerative agriculture, improving water storage and use, managing land to reduce wildfire risks, and building stronger defences against extreme weather like floods and heat waves.¹

We understand “underserved communities” as “populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life…”and includes individuals “such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.”¹

See also California’s definition of “climate vulnerability” developed for its Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program.²