Meeting the moment: lessons from the 'once in a lifetime' investment of the Biden Administration in Environmental Justice

In one of its earliest moves, the Biden Administration made a historic commitment to advancing environmental justice, significantly increasing federal programs, funding, and public awareness on the issue. This bold approach has been heralded as a "once in a lifetime" investment, creating new pathways for justice, equity, and environmental sustainability.

But four years later, what has been the outcome? How have these expansive policies impacted the communities they were designed to serve? What are the successes, challenges, and ongoing barriers in this unprecedented investment?

Join us for an in-depth conversation with Kyle Whyte, a distinguished scholar, and practitioner of environmental justice. Drawing on his direct service to the Biden Administration, environmental justice organisations, and Tribal nations, Kyle will share his insights into how these groups have navigated the complex landscape of new federal environmental justice policies. This event will offer a unique window into the lived experiences of these communities and the transformative potential — and limitations — of the Biden Administration’s environmental justice agenda.

Speakers

Kyle Whyte

Kyle Whyte is a faculty member at the University of Michigan where he is George Willis Pack Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, and Professor of Philosophy in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Kyle teaches in the SEAS environmental justice specialisation. He is founding Faculty Director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment, Faculty co-Director of the Energy Equity Project, co-Principal Investigator of SEAS' Global Center for Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Transboundary Waters, Faculty Associate of Native American Studies, and Senior Fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows. His research addresses environmental justice, focusing on moral and political issues concerning climate policy and Indigenous peoples, the ethics of cooperative relationships between Indigenous peoples and science organisations, and problems of Indigenous justice in public and academic discussions of food sovereignty, environmental justice, and the anthropocene. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

David Schlosberg

David Schlosberg is Professor of Environmental Politics and Director of the Sydney Environment Institute. His work focuses on environmental, ecological, and climate justice; environment and everyday life; and climate adaptation planning and policy. Professor Schlosberg has worked extensively with local and state governments on just adaptation and resilience planning, the social impacts of climate change, and community-based food systems and policy. At SEI, he is one of the Research Leads on Creating Just Food and Energy Policy, Self organising systems to minimise future disaster risk, Concepts and practices of multispecies justice, and Grounded Imaginaries.