Aradhna Tripati, Marshall Shepherd, Vernon Morris, Karen Andrade, Kyle Pows Whyte, Dominique David-Chavez, Joseph E. Trujillo-Falcón, Brandon Hunter, Deanna Hence, DaNa Carlis, Vankita Brown, William Parker, Andrew Geller, Alex Reich, Mary Glackin

Water, weather, and climate affect everyone. However, their impacts on various communities can be very different based on who has access to essential services and environmental knowledge. At the same time, structural discrimination, including racism and other forms of privileging and exclusion, affects people's lives and health, with ripples across all sectors of society. In the United States, the need to equitably provide weather, water, and climate services is uplifted by the Justice40 Initiative (Executive Order 14008), which mandates 40% of the benefits of certain federal climate and clean energy investments flow to disadvantaged communities. To effectively provide such services, particularly given increasing weather-related disasters, public health impacts of climate change, and disparities in terms of which population subgroups are most affected, systemic reform is required that centers equity in all undertakings. It is imperative that those with positional authority and resources manifest responsibility by: (1) recognizing, including, and prioritizing community expertise; (2) building a stronger and more equitable workforce; (3) communicating about climate risk in equitable, relevant, timely and culturally responsive ways; and (4) developing new models of relationships between communities and the academic sector.