About Us
The Climate Justice Wing (CJW) of the Maryland Legislative Coalition is a collaborative community of over 30 grassroots and professional organizations and individuals primarily focused on state legislative advocacy, while also tracking and supporting policy implementation, to address climate change in a just and equitable way for all Marylanders. We inform, educate, and engage grassroots groups and legislators by serving as a source of expertise and advocating for critical climate justice policy. We work in partnership with other groups and coalitions and seek to support and lift-up the issues, needs, and goals of frontline communities and communities of color.
Our goals include:
- reducing greenhouse gas emissions to achieve the state’s climate targets;
- reducing our dependence on and use of fossil fuels (decarbonization);
- increasing energy efficiency and electrification of buildings;
- promoting transportation for the future (e.g., increased public transit, vehicle electrification, and bikeable/walkable communities);
- drawing down carbon (including enhancing natural systems to cool the planet);
- adapting to current and future climate change impacts; and
- improving resiliency to those impacts, particularly for disproportionately affected communities.
Since 2021, we have focused annually on two priority bills and have helped achieve several legislative wins, (i.e., 2021 Transit Safety and Investment Act, 2022 Climate Solutions Now Act, 2023 Community Solar Pilot Program). We submit testimony, write op-eds, and advocate in support of our priority and other climate justice and environmental bills.
In the future, we will continue to focus on climate justice, while expanding connections with issues of;
- energy justice;
- affordable, healthy housing;
- waste reduction;
- regenerative agriculture and food resilience;
- forest preservation, restoration, and urban trees; and
- a just transition to clean energy jobs.
Our Member Organizations!
| Takoma Park Mobilization Environment Committee | Coalition for Smarter Growth |
| Maryland Poor People’s Campaign | MCPS Clean Energy Campaign |
| 350 MoCo | Do The Most Good Montgomery County |
| Chesapeake Climate Action Network | Potomac Conservancy |
| Indivisible Howard County | Casa De Maryland |
| The Climate XChange | Food & Water Action |
| WISE | Nuclear Information & Resource Service |
| Clean Water Action | Clean Air Prince Georges |
| Maryland Sierra Club | J’Aire’s Workgroup |
| Frack Free Frostburg | Laurel Resist |
| CHEER | Greenbelt Climate Action Network |
| The Climate Mobilization | Maryland League of Conservation Voters |
| Glen Echo Heights Mobilization | Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church |
| Howard County Sierra Club | Environmental Justice Ministry |
| Montgomery Countryside Alliance | Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Maryland |
| Audubon Naturalist Society | The Nature Conservancy |
| Concerned Citizens Against Industrial CAFOs | HoCo Climate Action |
| Wicomico NAACP | Farmworkers Support Committee |
| Assateague Coastal Trust | Maryland Campaign for Environmental Human Rights |
| Chesapeake Climate Action Network | MoCo DCC |
| Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility | National Parks Conservancy-Mid-Atlantic |
| Chispa MD | Columbia Association Climate Change & Sustainability Advisory Committee |
| Climate Law & Policy Project | Labor for Sustainability |