As climate change intensifies, low-income communities and communities of color continue to bear a disproportionate share of climate risk while receiving fewer benefits from climate investment. Transformative climate action (TCA) seeks to address the root causes of this climate inequity by changing how decisions are made, who benefits, and how resources are distributed. Community and economic development (CED) organizations are uniquely positioned to advance this work because of their decades of experience working in underserved neighborhoods, their trusted relationships with community leaders, their commitment to resident voice in decisionmaking, and their innovative housing and economic development approaches that build local wealth and resilience. This report examines how CED practitioners are advancing climate action today and what it would take to move efforts from incremental to transformative. It provides a framework to help practitioners, funders, and policymakers assess progress and identify pathways toward more equitable climate outcomes.

What We Found

• Transformative climate action addresses the root causes of climate inequity. It goes beyond addressing immediate climate risks to confront the historical, economic, and governance systems that create unequal vulnerability, emphasizing community voice, economic justice, future-oriented planning, innovation, and scalable change.
• The community and economic development sector is uniquely positioned to advance transformative climate action and can connect climate investments to the communities that need them most.
• Transformative climate action should be viewed as a continuum rather than a binary goal. Many CED organizations are already supporting climate resilience through incremental and reform-oriented activities, and these efforts can evolve into more transformative forms of systemic change.
• CED organizations are already advancing climate action in diverse and impactful ways. Examples from across the country show that the most transformative approaches shift ownership, decisionmaking authority, and economic benefits toward residents while leveraging the broader CED ecosystem to expand and sustain impact.
• The whole CED ecosystem is essential for scaling transformative climate action. Supporters of place-based community and economic development organizations, including philanthropic organizations, state and local government partners, community development financial institutions, universities, and climate organizations, will be critical in supporting CED organizations in moving their work further along the continuum toward transformative climate action.

How We Did It

This report draws on an extensive review of the research literature on climate change, community and economic development, and transformative climate adaptation; program documentation and data from CED organizations and their national partners; Urban Institute’s climate and community development work; and interviews with 20 community and economic development practitioners working in climate-vulnerable cities across the United States.