This is how President Obama described Hurricane Katrina, referring to both the disparate and devastating impacts on New Orleans’ Black community, and the historical and structural inequity that created the conditions for devastation.

Something similar can be said about the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles in February, destroying a disproportionate number of homes and businesses in the historically Black neighborhood of Altadena. Altadena is home to a large   concentration of Black homeowners, due in part to redlining dating back to the 1930s (see map). Redlining is a race-based exclusionary tactic that was used by the federal government and banks to deny access to home ownership primarily to Black families. This practice barred many Black homeowners and renters from integrating White neighborhoods. Altadena’s aging and already declining Black population means that this community will have more difficulty recovering and rebuilding, be more vulnerable to predatory lending during that process, and with reduced assets struggle more to build generational wealth, which is closely correlated with positive financial and health outcomes.

Wildfires and superstorms are becoming familiar events, and we are starting to understand their broad ranging and disparate social and public health impacts. It is increasingly clear that we must look beyond the specific region of impact to accurately evaluate it, identify root causes, and develop effective responses.

Enter Sustainable Development Goals: Advancing Racial Equity

The number of recorded disasters has increased fivefold over the last 50 years, according to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). A study in GeoHealth found that Americans suffered more than $10 billion in health costs from 10 climate-related hazards in 2012, as global warming reaches 1.5°C (2.7°F). To reframe natural disasters as less “natural” and more the result of poor decision-making and inequitable human development, a risk-informed sustainable development strategy is needed.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a risk-informed strategy that recognizes how a broad range of interconnected factors weave a tangled web of mounting risk. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework provides the structure to do this risk-informed work, offering local and global stakeholders powerful tools that are commensurate with the complex challenges they face today.

Read the full article about advancing racial equity through the SDGs by Helen Bond and Aron Goldman at Grantmakers in Health.