Who We Are

The UC Center for Climate Justice is a University of California system-wide initiative to address climate change as a social justice and equity issue.

Climate justice recognizes the disproportionate impacts of climate change on low-income communities and communities of color around the world, the people and places least responsible for the problem. The systems that create climate change are also those responsible for economic inequalities and social and racial injustices. These issues cannot be separated, so, in order to be effective, solutions must simultaneously address climate change and inequity.

The UC Center for Climate Justice seeks solutions that address the root causes of climate change and in doing so, simultaneously address a broad range of social, racial, and environmental injustices.

Our Team

We are faculty, researchers, students, and staff with a deep commitment to climate justice. We collaborate within a larger ecosystem of academics, climate justice organizations, Indigenous leaders, leaders from low-income communities and communities of color, policymakers, philanthropists, and private sector actors aligned with climate justice.

Faculty Directors

Tracey Osborne

Founding director of the UC-wide Center for Climate Justice and Associate Professor and Presidential Chair in the Management of Complex Systems Department at the University of California, Merced.

Javiera Barandiaran

Co-Director of the Center for Climate Justice. Associate Professor in Global Studies at UCSB, and directs the Center for Restorative Environmental Work (CREW).

Julie Sze

Co-Director of the Center for Climate Justice and a Professor of American Studies at UC Davis. Former founding director of the Environmental Justice Project at UC Davis