Resources by Impact Focus

This page offers a sampling of many resources about those most impacted by climate change and about impacted populations’ and communities’ problem-solving, to reduce climate threats, improve health and community well-being, and advance equity.  Help us improve this resource by suggesting additions or corrections.

For more pointers, see hubs of activity in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector that are focused on supporting specific populations or communities.  

Resources Focused on Impacted Populations

ALL IMPACTED POPULATIONS

Several awards are recognizing leaders of impacted groups and communities for their contributions addressing climate, health, and equity concerns, including: 

• American Climate Leadership Awards 2020, ecoAmerica

• Goldman Prize Recipient List, The Goldman Prize  

• Health Care Climate Champions, Green and Healthy Hospitals program, Health Care Without Harm

• Heinz Awards environmental recipients, Heinz Family Foundation

• Henry A. Wallace Award recipients, Wallace Global Fund

• Jean and Leslie Douglas Pearl Awards, Cornell Douglas Foundation

• Student Champions for Climate Justice, American Public Health Association

Some overviews of climate change impacts on vulnerable or marginalized populations:

• Climate Change and Health Equity (2016); Climate Change, Health, and Equity:  Opportunities for Action (2015); both from Public Health Institute, Center for Climate Change and Health 

• Climate change, health equity 'inextricably linked': Vulnerable populations most at risk from harmful effects,  Lindsey Wahowiak, The Nation's Health (2018)

• Climate Change 2022:  Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:  Summary for Policymakers and Full report.  Prior reports include Human Health, Impacts, Adaptation, and Co-Benefits, Working Group II contribution to the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014). 

• Climate and Health Outlook, a periodic resource from the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity of the US Department of Health and Human Services, provides information for public health professionals and the public on how health may be impacted in coming months by climate events, as well as highlighting resources for proactive action.

• Health in the Climate Emergency:  A global perspective, The InterAcademy Partnership (May 2022)

• Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the U.S.: A Scientific Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program (2016)

• Lancet Countdown Report 2020 and the companion Lancet Countdown Policy Brief for the U.S., Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change (2020)

Some data tools for assessing at-risk or vulnerable populations or communities:

• CDC Social Vulnerability Index and National Environmental Health Tracking Network (including links to state and municipal partner sites), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• Environmental Justice Index, which uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank the cumulative impacts of environmental injustice on health for every census tract.  Released 2022.

• EJSCREEN: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Neighborhoods by Risk:  Searchable data by census tract for US communities' specific vulnerabilities to climate change, Headwaters Economics

See also listings in Resources by Geographic Focus for state-specific resources.

 

Resources Focused on Impacted Populations

SPECIFIC IMPACTED POPULATIONS

The following resources are listed in sections about specific impacted populations (by age, race and ethnicity, gender and sexual identity, health status, social and economic status, or work status and occupations).  Following those lists are resources related to specific types of impacted communities (including coastal, indigenous, rural & farm, island, urban, and those with specific climate-related risks). 

Within each section, resources are listed alphabetically by title.  Section categories draw on the Candid (formerly Foundation Center and GuideStar) Philanthropic Classification System taxonomy, as well as on the Environmental Grantmakers Association’s “Tracking the Field” database and an EGA/HEFN expanded taxonomy being used to track grants across those networks’ memberships.

AGE GROUPS 

Children and Young People

• Considerations for Leaders: Intersection of Early Childhood and Environmental Impacts, National League of Cities (2023)

• Children's Environmental Health Indicators, Children’s Environmental Health Network. National and state (CO, FL, MI, MN, NC) reports of indicators

• Climate Changes Children's Health, American Public Health Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, ecoAmerica (2020)

• Global Climate Change and Children's Health, American Academy of Pediatrics

• How Climate Change Affects Children, American Academy of Pediatrics

• Lancet Countdown Report 2019 and Lancet Countdown Policy Brief for the U.S., Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change (2019)

• Our Children, Our Future: Why the AAP is Leading on Climate Change and How Pediatricians Can Help, video by American Academy of Pediatrics and ecoAmerica

• Protecting Children's Health from Climate Change and Eco Bookworms Club, American Public Health Association

• Young adults, across party lines, are willing to take climate action, Yale Program on Climate Communications polling data (2020)

• Young People are Leading the Way on Climate Change, and Companies Need to Pay Attention, Andrew Winston, Harvard Business Review (2019)

Older People

• Building Resilience: Older Adults, Disasters and Philanthropy, Grantmakers in Aging (2014)

• Climate Change and the Health of Older Adults, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Issue Insight: Older Individuals, Center for Disaster Philanthropy

• Preparing older citizens for global climate change, Margarete Zalon, American Nurse article (2019)

• Retirees in Service to the Environment (RISE) training manual and other resources, Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging 

• The Convergence of Population Ageing with Climate Change,   Sarah Harper, Journal of Population Ageing (2019)

RACIAL & ETHNIC GROUPS

Black People, Indigenous Peoples, People of Color

(See also Resources by Issue Focus section on Environmental Justice)

• Association of Air Pollution and Heat Exposure With Preterm Birth, Low Birth Weight, and Stillbirth in the USA Systematic Review, JAMA Network (2020)

• Building Equitable, Healthy, and Climate Change-Ready Communities in the Wake of COVID-19,  Cathleen Kelly, Mikyla Reta, Center for American Progress (2020)

• Climate Justice for All, Green American special issue (2016)

• National Equity Atlas with population-specific and local demographic data sets on racial and economic equity, PolicyLink and USC Equity Research Institute (2020)

• The Effects of Historical Housing Policies on Resident Exposure to Intra-Urban Heat: A Study of 108 US Urban Areas,  Jeremy S. Hoffman, Vivek Shandas, Nicholas Pendleton, Climate (2020)

• The unequal vulnerability of communities of people of color to wildfire, Ian P. Davies, Ryan D. Haugo, James C. Robertson, Phillip S. Levin, PLOS One (2018)

• Which racial/ethnic groups care most about climate change? Yale Program on Climate Change Communications polling data (2020)

Indigenous Peoples

(See also Indigenous Communities section below)

• Climate Action Resource Center, National Congress of American Indians

• Fourth National Climate Assessment, Chapter 15, Tribes and Indigenous Peoples

• Indigenous Peoples' Forest Tenure Solutions Summary, Project Drawdown

• Indigenous People's Resilience Actions, searchable map from National Climate Assessment, Bureau of Indian Affairs

• Widening the Sacred Circle: 2018-2019 Strategic Framework, Native Americans in Philanthropy

GENDER & SEXUAL IDENTITY

LGBTQ People

• Across America, Activists Work at the Confluence of LGBTQ Rights and Climate Justice, article in Inside Climate News (2020)

• In Conversation: An Episode on Climate Justice & Queer and Trans Liberation, podcast by Climate Voices (2019)

• LGBTQ+ Communities and Disasters, web resources from Center for Disaster Philanthropy

• What the Queer Community Brings to the Fight for Climate Justice, Aletta Brady, Anthony Torres, Philip Brown, Grist (2019) 

Women

• Association of Air Pollution and Heat Exposure With Preterm Birth, Low Birth Weight, and Stillbirth in the USA Systematic Review,  JAMA Network article (2020)

• Climate Change and the Health of Pregnant Women, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2016)

• Health and Education Solutions Summary and Technical Summary, Project Drawdown

• Heat Exposure and Maternal Health in the Face of Climate Change,  Leeann Kuehn, Sabrina McCormick, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2017)

• Introduction to Gender and Climate Change, report on Gender, Climate Change, and Health (2014), and other resources from World Health Organisation

• Leaders' Forum on Women Leading the Way: Raising Ambition for Climate Action, Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice

• Toolkit for a Gender-Responsive Process to Formulate and Implement National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Angie Daze and Clare Church, NAP Global Network (2019)

HEALTH STATUS

People with Diseases and Illnesses

• Climate Changes Allergies and Asthma and Climate Changes Mental Health, American Public Health Association climate and health factsheets

• Lancet Countdown Report 2020 indicators 1.3 on  climate-sensitive infectious diseases, Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change (2020)

• Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance, prepared by American Psychological Association, Climate for Health, and ecoAmerica  

• Scrambling for Safety in the Eye of Dorian:  Mental Health Consequences of Exposure to a Climate-Driven Hurricane, James M. Shultz, Duane E. Sands, Nadia Holder-Hamilton, William Hamilton, Sandeep Goud, Krista Marie Nottage, Zelde Espinel, Stephanie Friedman, Craig Fugate, James P. Kossin, and Sandro Galea, Health Affairs (2020)

People with Disabilities

• Climate concerns and the disabled community,  Aleksandra Kosanic, Jan Petzold, Amy Dunham, Mialy Razanajatovo, Science (2019)

• Disability and Adaptation Planning, literature review by the  Climate Adaptation Initiative, Columbia University

• Issue Insight: People with Disabilities, Center for Disaster Philanthropy

• Pay More Attention to Climate Perils People with Disabilities Face, Experts Warn,  Daniel Cusick, E&E News, Scientific American (2019)

• The Right to Be Rescued:  Disability Justice in an Age of Disaster,  Adrian Weibgen, Yale Law Journal (2015)

• The Unknown Ally in the Fight for Environmental Justice:  What People with Disabilities Can Teach Us About Climate Change, Ximena Saskia Warnaars, blog post, Ford Foundation (2020)

SOCIAL & ECONOMIC STATUS

Immigrants and refugees

• Climate Migration And The Future Of Health Care, Katharine Lawrence, Health Affairs 2020

• Differences in Heat-related Mortality by Citizenship Status:  United States 2005-2014, American Public Health Association factsheet

• How Climate Change is Driving Emigration from Central America, PBS News Hour (2019)

• Immigration Nation Episode 4 Watch Party & Discussion:  Drawing the Connection Between Climate Justice, Immigration, and Essential Workers, funder program by Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (2020)

Economically disadvantaged people 

• Building Equitable, Healthy, and Climate Change-Ready Communities in the Wake of COVID-19,  Cathleen Kelly, Mikyla Reta, Center for American Progress (2020)

• Climate Change and Environmental Justice fact sheet, state fact sheets, and other resources from The Poor People's Campaign:  A Call for Moral Revival

• Lancet Countdown Report 2020 indicators 1.4 on food security and undernutrition,   Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change (2020)

• Mitigating Health Disparities After Natural Disasters:  Lessons from the RISK Project, Ethan J. Raker, Mariana C. Arcaya, Sarah R. Lowe, Meghan Zacher, Jean Rhodes, and Mary C. Waters, Health Affairs (Dec 2020) 

• National Equity Atlas with population-specific and local demographic data sets on racial and economic equity, PolicyLink and USC Equity Research Institute (2020)

WORK STATUS & OCCUPATIONS

Farmworkers and other outdoor workers

• A People's Framework for Disaster Response: Rewriting the Rules of Recovery After Climate Disasters,  Resilience Force and The New Florida Majority (2020)

• Climate Change and the Health of Occupational Groups, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2016)

• Emancipation Never Really Came to Agriculture, FAIR/Counterspin interview transcript by New England Sustainability Institute (2020)

• Farmworkers at Risk: The Growing Dangers of Pesticides and Heat,  Rafter Ferguson, Kristina Dahl, Marcia DeLonge, Union of Concerned Scientists (2019)

• Protecting Outdoor Workers from Heat Illness and other resources from National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

• Work adaptations insufficient to address growing heat risk for U.S. agricultural workers,  Michelle Tigchelaar, David Battisti, June Spector, Environmental Research Letters (2020)

Health care professionals 

• Climate Change, Health, and Equity: A Guide for Local Health Departments, American Public Health Association and Public Health Institute (2018)

• Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Agenda, data center, procurement guide, and other resources, Health Care Without Harm

• Health Care Pollution and Public Health Damage in the United States:  An Update; Health Care Sustainability Metrics:  Building a Safer, Low Carbon Health System; Pressured by Students, Medical Schools Grapple with Climate Change; all in Health Affairs special issue (Dec 2020)

• Health Voices for Climate Action, Medical Consortium on Climate and Health video series (2020)

• Health Approaches to Climate Change: How do health care providers and public health professionals approach climate change differently? and How public health officials can advance an energy just future, American Public Health Association factsheets (2020)

• Lancet Countdown Report 2020 indicators 2.2-2.4 on planning, adaptation, and resilience for health, 3.6 on mitigation in the health sector,  Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change (2020)

• Partnering for climate resilience:  A practical guide to community-based disaster planning for health care, Health Care Without Harm (May 2022)

• Pressured by Students, Medical Schools Grapple with Climate Change, Michele Cohen Marill, Health Affairs (Dec 2020)

• U.S. Call to Action on Climate, Health, and Equity: A Policy Action Agenda, Health Voices for Climate Action (2019)