A Climate Action Agenda for Working People
The Climate Jobs National Resource Center (CJNRC) is a labor-led organization working to build an affordable and equitable clean energy economy powered by good union jobs. At a time when the climate crisis demands solutions at unprecedented scale, CJNRC centers working people—especially in frontline communities—in efforts to build a clean energy economy that creates union jobs, tackles inequality, drives affordability, and cuts greenhouse gas emissions.
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CJNRC became a national organization in 2020 and now supports a growing network of state-based, union-led climate jobs coalitions campaigning to win concrete climate action that delivers real benefits for working people. In collaboration with the Climate Jobs Institute at Cornell University, CJNRC supports unions to develop science-based climate action plans tailored to each state’s economy and workforce and supports organizing campaigns to win and implement those plans.
The climate jobs model traces its origins to New York. After the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2012—which hit working-class neighborhoods and communities of color particularly hard—unions representing 2.6 million workers across the state formed Climate Jobs New York, the first climate jobs coalition, to advance labor’s vision for a clean energy future that could protect against climate disasters and deliver for working families with high-quality union jobs.
Since then, CJNRC has worked to educate workers and the broader public about bold, ambitious new ideas and tools capable of cutting emissions quickly and delivering tangible, immediate gains for workers and their families. From Illinois and New York to Texas and Rhode Island, CJNRC’s network of climate jobs coalitions has advanced bold climate wins with strong labor standards, linking clean energy investments directly to high-quality union jobs so people can see the benefits in their electricity bills, their paychecks, and their communities.
