The United States is the world’s largest historical emitter of carbon dioxide, and today it is the No. 1 producer of oil and gas. Yet Black, Brown, Indigenous, and coastal frontline communities across the country and around the globe continue to bear the heaviest consequences of a crisis they did little to create. From sacrifice zones in the American South to climate-ravaged nations in the Global South, the harm is happening daily and compounding.
This is not a coincidence. It is an injustice with a name: climate debt. Despite this, the U.S. climate movement remains heavily focused on domestic issues. There is not enough grassroots demand in the U.S. to fulfill its international obligations: to pay what it owes in climate finance and to support adaptation and recovery in frontline communities.
Our Climate Reparations Camp (CRC) is changing that one cohort of young organizers at a time. By connecting local struggles in U.S. communities to the global systems that fuel them, we’re building the political power needed to demand real, fair-share climate action at every level.
In this framework, reparations are about accountability, healing, and restoration: building a future where frontline communities everywhere can live with dignity.
That includes, but goes well beyond, monetary compensation. It means confronting histories of occupation, slavery, genocide, and land theft, and building the futures we deserve.
We bring frontline activists together to build real international solidarity between communities in the U.S. and the Global South.
We cover all participant costs so no one gets left out. Your gift, any size, helps put an organizer in the room. Give today.
For the third year running, ActionAid USA trained 25 young climate activists and local leaders, largely people working directly with communities on the frontlines, on how climate justice at home isn’t achievable without climate justice globally.
Using a reparations framing, repairing harm to communities in the U.S. while standing in solidarity with communities across the Global South, campers examined how building power at home is inseparable from winning justice for climate-affected communities everywhere.
This year’s cohort was convened in partnership with:
Campers consistently describe the week as life-changing: energizing, empowering, and proof of what a movement built with care, love, and a commitment to justice looks like.
The U.S. owes a climate debt, and Climate Reparations Camp is training the organizers who will demand it gets paid. We bring frontline activists together to build real international solidarity between communities in the U.S. and the Global South. All participant costs are covered so no one gets left out. Your gift - any size - helps put an organizer in the room. Give today.
