In this article, Rebecca Stoner highlights a model for non-extractive climate financing that aims to support and serve worker-owned, grassroots-level just transition projects. The Our Power Loan Fund, a Climate Justice Alliance initiative, works at the intersections of economic, racial, and environmental justice through its mission to support sustainable agriculture projects led by people of color from low-income communities. These communities are often the most impacted by social and environmental injustice but are the least likely to receive the necessary financing to implement solutions. The Our Power Loan Fund centers the needs of under-resourced workers by lending technical support and coaching to get projects “loan-ready” before offering loans that do not need to be paid back until the business is profitable. This model empowers local organizing — rather than exploiting it — by providing the resources necessary for frontline leaders to create pathways toward place-based environmental justice. Photo credit: Matt Feinstein/Global Village Farms
