CEQ’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool Needs to Consider How Burdens Add Up

This research paper by the World Resources Institute analyzes version 1.0 of the White House Council on Environmental Quality's (CEQ) Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST). While the update identifies more disadvantaged communities than the beta version, the authors argue it fails to account for cumulative burdens—where multiple environmental, health, and socioeconomic stressors overlap—which disproportionately affect communities of color.

• CEJST 1.0 has expanded the number of people identified as living in disadvantaged communities to 109.1 million (33% of the U.S. population), an increase from the 93.5 million (29%) identified in the beta version.
• The increase in identified disadvantaged populations is driven by new indicators including transportation barriers, underground water storage, projected flood risk, access to greenspace, and lack of indoor plumbing. Specifically, 11.8 million people meet the projected flood risk threshold and 9.8 million meet the projected wildfire risk threshold, with over half of these individuals residing in Florida, Texas, and California.
• The inclusion of all Federally Recognized Tribes as disadvantaged communities significantly impacted state-level data, particularly in Oklahoma, where 81% of the state's disadvantaged population now lives in communities within tribal areas.
• While the white population's share of disadvantaged communities increased from 36% in the beta version to 40% in version 1.0—largely due to indicators like abandoned mine land—communities of color remain disproportionately exposed to higher numbers of burdens.
• CEJST 1.0 does not measure cumulative burden, meaning a community meeting 18 indicator thresholds is treated the same as one meeting only one for funding prioritization. Data shows that communities with higher cumulative burdens are more likely to be non-white; for example, in communities meeting 10 indicators, 76% of residents are Black or Hispanic/Latino, compared to 43% in communities meeting only three indicators.
• The authors identify a gap where approximately 10 million people (including 3.8 million in majority non-white census tracts) meet the threshold for five or more indicators but are not classified as disadvantaged because they do not meet the low-income criteria.

APA

World Resources Institute (2023). CEQ’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool Needs to Consider How Burdens Add Up. https://www.wri.org/technical-perspectives/ceq-climate-and-economic-justice-screening-tool-cumulative-burdens

Chicago

World Resources Institute. CEQ’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool Needs to Consider How Burdens Add Up. 2023. https://www.wri.org/technical-perspectives/ceq-climate-and-economic-justice-screening-tool-cumulative-burdens.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=CEQ’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool Needs to Consider How Burdens Add Up |date=15 March 2023 |url=https://www.wri.org/technical-perspectives/ceq-climate-and-economic-justice-screening-tool-cumulative-burdens |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2023ceqs, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{CEQ’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool Needs to Consider How Burdens Add Up}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://www.wri.org/technical-perspectives/ceq-climate-and-economic-justice-screening-tool-cumulative-burdens}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }