Framing Climate Action for Small & Medium-sized Communities

Federal funding for climate mitigation funding is flowing, but effective use of this funding requires local planning and engagement to identify priority projects and partnerships. But prioritizing community needs and opportunities and creating a plan of action can be a heavy lift for many communities. While municipalities may or may not have a climate action plan prepared, one is needed to access and effectively use federal funding. Fortunately many states and technical assistance organizations offer programs or models for climate action planning to identify high impact projects that can be funded and completed in the short-term.

Several state best practice-based certification programs supporting local governments have developed simplified climate action initiatives that are particularly useful to communities without the time or capacity to do a full climate action plan. Sustainable CT, Sustainable Pittsburgh, and Sustainable Jersey will share their simple and straightforward models that identify data-driven high impact actions tailored to each community - with a focus on the needs of small and medium-sized communities. They will highlight tools for finding climate and energy data, how to use it, and the criteria used to identify high-impact actions for each program.