Community Finance for Climate Action

Consumer Finance for Climate Action (CFCA) is a collaborative effort led by Inclusiv and SaverLife to identify and develop practical products, services, and policies that support low- and moderate-income households in the face of climate change.

CFCA Infographic on climate and financial health

Why CFCA
Climate change is increasingly affecting the everyday lives of households across the United States. Weather events, from storms to flooding to fires, have become both more common and more severe. Chronic conditions, such as excessive heat and poor air quality have also increasingly become a regular part of life for families in every state and region across the U.S.

While all U.S. households increasingly feel the effects of climate change, the impacts disproportionately affect low- and moderate-income (LMI) households, who are both more likely to be negatively impacted (based on their lack of financial security, where they live, what jobs they have, the condition of their housing, etc.) and have fewer resources to prepare for and respond to climate change. The negative effects of climate include both catastrophic events, like property damage or loss of a home, and more everyday impacts, like power outages or rising utility costs. In addition to increasing the financial resilience of LMI households, we need all households to benefit from climate solutions, whether that means switching to more energy efficient appliances, installing rooftop solar, or driving an electric vehicle.

Inclusiv and SaverLife are working together to create CFCA in response to this duality: that low-income households need to benefit from climate solutions and increase their financial resilience in the face of climate change – and yet, they have less ability to do either.

What CFCA Will Do
The goal of CFCA is to identify and lift up innovative solutions that address climate change and support the financial well-being of households with low-to-moderate incomes. Those solutions fall under the umbrellas of both financial services and financial health, and these two fields will need to work closely together to provide families with the supports they need to weather this crisis.

Landscape Analysis
As part of this work, we conducted a landscape scan to gather perspectives from 38 cross-sector experts. Read the summary and the full analysis.