Abstract: The path to deeply decarbonized economies requires innovation and highly interdisciplinary work across diverse fields. In this talk I will examine both the theory and practice of an urgently needed ‘climate-justice nexus’. Examples will be drawn from evolving energy markets in the US, from power-sector modeling in the US, Japan, China and East Africa, from the science and policy of the built environment, and from the delivery of health care in under-resourced communities. Across these diverse cases, a consistent finding is that aggressive cost-savings for decarbonization results in significant co-benefits as defined by the UN sustainable development goals. In sum, we find a dramatic case of climate, social, and infrastructure leverage points exist to power the Just Energy Transition.