Carolinas Collaborative on Climate, Health, and Equity
Climate change is here and now in the Carolinas.
We are seeing more extreme rainfall and higher temperatures. Severe weather events are causing unprecedented damage.
Climate change has and will continue to impact the health and well-being of every community, but not all communities are affected equally. Low-income and communities of color are harmed first and worst.
Since forming in the fall of 2021, the Carolinas Collaborative on Climate, Health, and Equity (C3HE) is committed to understanding our changing climate and addressing the impacts in a just and equitable way.
We work together with communities across the Carolinas to help predict and understand their exposure and vulnerability to climate threats, such as drought, heat, and flooding.
By integrating social science, physical science, and regional knowledge, the C3HE team and participating groups co-produce solutions that are tailored to meet unique local needs and priorities.
Focusing our efforts on underserved and at-risk populations, we strive to support communities that are disproportionately exposed to climate hazards and other compounding social inequities.
We are working with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Albemarle Regional Health Services in Northeastern NC, the City of Raleigh, and other communities to co-produce climate resilience research and solutions in the most at-risk parts of their communities.
Learn more about some of our activities.
C3HE is co-hosted by the North Carolina State Climate Office and the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies at NC State University.
People
Reports
Our aims include:
Aim 0. Demonstrate our commitment to address the climate reality in a just and equitable way, while ensuring the inclusivity and diversity of all voices are represented in every aspect of our work in the Carolinas;
Aim 1. Build and enhance local partnerships in underserved communities across the Carolinas to identify, test, and refine equitable solutions for climate resilience;
Aim 2. Understand and predict how co-occurring and consecutive hazards interact with exposure and vulnerability to shape climate risk;
Aim 3. Identify and connect the complex linkages between structures of power, intersecting social positions, and climate-health inequities in vulnerable communities; and
Aim 4. Design and implement community-sciences programs to track physical and social science metrics and build community-level climate resiliency literacy.
Grant to fund climate resilience solutions for Carolinas
North Carolina State University will lead a multi-institutional effort to develop climate resilience solutions in frontline communities in the Carolinas, thanks to a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Frontline communities refer to communities who experience the first and worst impacts of the climate crisis.
