Justice Climate Fund

In 2024, JCF received a $940 million grant from the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) to promote the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) program. ⁶ In March 2025, the Trump administration froze Justice Climate Fund’s GGRF funds pending an investigation into alleged financial malfeasance related to the grants. ⁷ JCF sued the EPA in response. ⁸

In April 2025, three U.S. House of Representatives committees and subcommittees launched an investigation into the JCF’s EPA grants and more than $20 billion in other Biden administration climate grants. ⁹

Initiatives

The central initiative of the Justice Climate Fund (JCF) is the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) program, part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) program. The Biden administration awarded JCF a $940 million GGRF grant to invest in left-wing climate projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and producing weather-dependent energy. ^{1 2}

To apply for financing through JCF, an entity must be a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) bank or a public, quasi-public, or nonprofit community lender and be a member or affiliate of one of the five JCF CCIA Network Coordinators. JCF also prioritizes race and socio-economic factors when considering which projects to finance. Entities that fit JCF’s profile are eligible to receive up to $10 million in financing, $1 million for capacity building and technical assistance, and training and resources to support climate activism. JCF’s three project priorities are distributing energy generation and storage, achieving net-zero carbon building projects, and achieving zero-emission transportation. In 2025, the JCF webpage claimed CCIA projects would roll out starting in late 2024 or early 2025 and continue through 2028. ¹

In 2024, JCF claimed its network of community lenders serve a total of 281 million Americans (almost 86 percent of the country) and represent more than 1,000 CDFIs across every state in the nation. ⁶

Federal Funding Controversy

In November 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its shortlist for potential recipients of grant money from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), a $27 billion EPA program established by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) under the Biden administration. These “green funds” were intended to fund “green banks,” institutions that provide financing options specifically for left-wing climate-related investments. JCF was on that shortlist to receive EPA funding through the program, along with Coalition for Green Capital, Power Forward Communities, Climate United, and Ecority. ²

In April 2024, the Biden administration selected JCF as the recipient of a $940 million grant through the EPA’s GGRF program for the purpose of financing the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) program. ^{6  10}

In March 2025, the second Trump administration’s EPA Acting Inspector General Nicole Murley announced the agency was launching an investigation into the Biden-era GGRF grants and recipients. The letter alleged financial malfeasance on the part of the Biden administration’s EPA, accusing the former GGRF acting director Jahi Wise of a conflict of interest in overseeing a $5 billion grant to his previous employer, the Coalition for Green Capital. The letter also alleged that a “$2 billion grant was awarded to Power Forward Communities, a new nonprofit with ties to Stacey Abrams, despite reporting only $100 in total revenue in 2023.” The letter did not specifically allege malfeasance by the Climate United Fund or the Justice Climate Fund (JCF), but the Trump administration froze access to $20 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants, including the $940 million for JCF. ⁷

JCF responded to the freeze by suing the EPA in the U.S. District Court for the District of District of Columbia. JCF claims the EPA violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause and Due Process Clause, and federal contract law. ⁸ It was one of several suits by similar nonprofits that filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the EPA and Citibank to prevent the termination of the grants and have restored access to the funds. By April, the individual appeals from similar nonprofits were combined into one case through Climate United Fund as a suit against the EPA. The Court argued it had jurisdiction and granted a preliminary injunction in ordering the EPA and Citibank to restore funding the grants to the organizations. However, on appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the District Court had abused its discretion in issuing the injunction while ruling jurisdiction for such claims lay with the Court of Federal Claims and not the district court. In September 2025, the district court rescinded the previous injunction and the case is ongoing. ^{11 12}

In April 2025, U.S. Representatives Brett Guthrie (R-KY), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; Gary Palmer (R-AL), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations; and Morgan Griffith (R-VA), chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment, wrote letters to the eight Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) grant recipients informing them the House Oversight Committee was opening its own investigation into the Biden administration’s distribution of the grants. The chairmen claimed the “investigation is key to evaluating whether these funds were awarded fairly and impartially to qualified applicants and determining how the federal funds are being used.” ⁹

Leadership

As of 2025, Amir Kirkwood was the CEO at the Justice Climate Fund (JCF). Previously, Kirkwood was president and CEO of Locus, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). He also worked as the chief lending and investment officer for the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN); the first vice president for Commercial Banking at the labor-union controlled Amalgamated Bank, where he was also senior advisor to the Amalgamated Foundation; as a partner at Next Street; and as director in Citigroup’s Municipal Securities Division. ¹³

Lenwood V. Long, Sr. was chair of the board at JCF as of 2025. At that time, he was CEO at the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs, the group that led the Community Builders of Color Coalition (CBCC) to help found JCF in 2023. ^{14 15}  Long was previously president of BV & L Associates and senior pastor at New Bethel Baptist Church. He is also the former president and CEO at the Carolina Small Business Development Fund and a former chief of staff for former U.S. Rep. Eva M. Clayton (D-NC). Long received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from St. Augustine University and his master’s degree in urban administration from Georgia State University. ¹⁶

Steering Board

As of 2024, members of the JCF steering board include the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs, the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders, Inclusiv, the National Bankers Association, the Oweesta Corporation, Opportunity Finance Network, Partners for the Common Good, Community Development Bankers Association, ImpactAssets, the Housing Partnership Network, and Connecticut Green Bank. ¹⁷

Financials

On its 2023 tax return, the Justice Climate Fund (JCF) reported $915,772 in total revenue, $915,772 in total expenses, and $811,984 in total assets. ¹⁸

In April 2024, the Biden administration selected JCF as the recipient of a $940 million grant through the EPA’s GGRF program for the purpose of financing the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) program. ^{6 10}  The funding was quickly frozen by the second Trump administration in early 2025 pending an investigation into the haste and potential mismanagement with which the Biden administration distributed grant money in its final months. ⁷  JCF responded to the freeze by suing the Environmental Protection Agency; the case remained ongoing as of 2025. ⁸