Translate
Climate Equity Community Task Force
Learn more about the Climate Equity Community Task Force (CECTF), a group of community leaders who helped develop King County's first climate justice framework.
About the Task Force
The Climate Equity Community Task Force (CECTF) is a community working group of frontline community leaders partnering with the County on climate initiatives, funding decisions, and policymaking.Frontline communities are people disproportionately impacted by climate change due to existing and historic racial, social, environmental, and economic inequities. They often experience the earliest and most acute impacts of climate change, but they also often have experiences that empower unique strengths and insights into climate resilience strategies and practices.
Frontline communities include Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, immigrants and refugees, people living with low incomes, communities experiencing disproportionate pollution exposure, women and gender non-conforming people, LGBTQIA people, people who live and/or work outside, those with existing health issues, people with limited English skills, and other climate-vulnerable groups.
The CECTF first convened in 2019 and worked with County staff for over a year to develop the Sustainable & Resilient Frontline Communities (SRFC) section of the 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP), which was King County’s first climate justice framework. The CECTF went on to serve as an ongoing, integral voice in County planning and implementation on climate action, and played a central role in the development of the 2025 SCAP SRFC section, which you can read here.
In the coming years, the task force will be essential to implementing items in the 2025 SCAP, especially those with a direct impact on the residents of King County. The task force meets monthly and is funded through the budget of the King County Executive Climate Office (ECO).
Sustainable and Resilient Frontline Communities
Sustainable and Resilient Frontline Communities represents the first climate justice framework for King County, and first community-driven policy-making process for our climate work.
The vision for this work: Frontline communities are centered in developing climate solutions and have the:
- Knowledge
- Skills
- Resources
- Capacity
- Social and political capital
to equitably adapt, lead, and thrive in a changing climate.
The Sustainable and Resilient Frontline Communities section of the Strategic Climate Action Plan highlights actions to increase climate resiliency and mitigate disproportionate climate impacts on frontline communities in King County.
Resources
In recognition that we build off of the work of those that have come before us, we would like to share a few of the key equity and environmental justice resources that influenced the CECTF Process:
- King County Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan (2016-2022)
- Communities of Opportunity
- Guide to Equitable Community-Driven Climate Preparedness Planning (Urban Sustainability Directors Network, 2017)
- Community-Driven Climate Resilience Planning (Movement Strategy Center, 2017)
- Our People, Our Planet, Our Power (Got Green & Puget Sound Sage, 2016)
- City of Seattle Environment & Equity Agenda (2016)
- City of Portland and Multnomah County Climate Action Through Equity (2016)