Climate change is here and we’re taking action in the South.
Explore the groundbreaking climate solutions unfolding now across the region.
Report: How Federal Funding Is Sparking Climate Progress
Our report, Southern Solutions: How Federal Funding Is Sparking Climate Progress, explores how five Southern cities are slashing pollution, spurring local economies, creating new high-quality jobs, and enhancing community resilience.
Pulse check: Richmond's transit success
Providing cleaner, more equitable transportation options is one of the best things a locality can do for its residents and the environment. In Richmond, Virginia, innovative transportation choices are taking Southerners farther — and often faster — than ever before, while curbing pollution.
National climate report highlights growing impacts to the Southeast
Across the Southeast, extreme heatwaves are already more common, sea level rise is encroaching into coastal communities, and we’re seeing more flooding from increasingly unpredictable, volatile storms. The Fifth National Climate Assessment’s Southeast chapter examined these trends and highlights the need for urgent climate action in the region.
Solar funding unlocks opportunities for the South
In little less than a decade, solar capacity in our region has doubled. Despite solar’s track record of success in the sunny South, many residents still lack access to solar power. Solar for All presents a major opportunity to both expand rooftop solar in our region and to create community solar programs that provide cost savings.
Patching holes: WERiSE advances energy equity in Alabama
Chandra Taylor-Sawyer, leader of SELC’s Environmental Justice Initiative, chats with Reverend Michael Malcom, executive director of The People’s Justice Council, about the WERiSE initiative and how its helping communities alleviate energy burden, modernize homes, and combat the climate crisis.
All aboard: New funding boosts passenger rail in the South
Virginia and North Carolina are leading the charge in expanding passenger rail options and investing in faster, more frequent, and more extensive connections between rapidly growing cities.
Energy equity can be a reality in South Carolina
The South Carolina Energy Justice Coalition began in 2021 with a single issue – a moratorium on utility shutoffs during the pandemic – and has grown to include over 60 organizations working across the four regions of South Carolina to support communities experiencing high energy burdens, persistent energy inefficiency, and other inequities in the state’s energy system.
Transforming coal mines to solar arrays in Virginia
Closed coal mines and abandoned production facilities leave behind large stretches of cleared, unused land that’s ripe for clean energy alternatives. Solar advocates in southwest Virginia are showing how building solar facilities on former coal sites can be possible in more places.
Our communities have been the energy generation centers of the country for a long time and will be essential to the nation’s clean energy transition.
Josephus Allmond, Staff Attorney
Solutions to share
Spread the word about all the great work that is happening across the South to address climate change.
Investing in our future
We are in a critical moment for climate action. There are new opportunities because of new funding and clean technologies like the Inflation Reduction Act, energy efficiency programs, and solar energy, which are helping to create real progress across the South.
27x the solar capacity
compared to a decade ago in our six states
$500 million
invested in new environmental justice projects and programs to strengthen southern communities
640% increase
in electric vehicle registrations in less than a decade
43% reduction
Our region has retired 25,600 MWs of coal-fired electricity, reducing coal capacity by 43%
Solutions start here
Connect with us to stay up to date on our latest legal and advocacy work, ways to get involved, and breaking news on how we’re defending our natural resources and the people that live in the South.