Forging Just Futures: A Path from Climate Crisis to Climate Solutions - review paper by four Switzer Fellows

Switzer Fellows Rachel Morello-Frosch, Hasibe Caballero-Gomez, Monika Shankar and Lara J. Cushing have published a review paper in the Annual Review of Public Health exploring how large-scale societal change and infrastructure investments in rapid decarbonization and climate adaptation have “often exacerbated racialized and socioeconomic inequalities and further entrenched the structural drivers and root causes of climate change.” In this paper they “review dimensions of climate justice in the literature and define just climate solutions as those that (a) address root causes and dismantle structural drivers of social inequality and injustice; (b) are community centered and ground-truthed; (c) are reparative and maximally beneficial for historically marginalized populations; and (d) disrupt existing power relations to transform who controls framing, design, implementation, and accountability.” They “offer a set of guiding questions to help researchers, practitioners, community advocates, and policymakers operationalize this definition to evaluate climate actions in the context of mitigation, adaptation, and disaster response and recovery efforts.” 

The review in advance article is available here now, and the full volume is anticipated in April 2026. 

Citation: Rachel Morello-Frosch, Hasibe Caballero-Gomez, Monika Shankar, Lara J. Cushing. 2025. Forging Just Futures: A Path from Climate Crisis to Climate Solutions. Annual Review Public Health. 47:In press. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-071723-040657