Climate change is here, it is wreaking havoc, and no community is immune from its impact. Summer 2021 alone saw heavy flooding across the globe, including in the United States. Fire clouds started wildfires across Alberta, and the US and Canada saw record-breaking, debilitating heat and equally extreme drought. As communities struggle to cope, there is growing recognition that local and place-based action is essential to addressing climate change. For this reason, the Great Plains Institute is excited to share new planning tools we’ve developed to help communities in the US succeed on climate action.
Key highlights
- Local governments feel the burden of climate change most directly and are increasingly leading action to both cut their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate hazards. However, cities need tools and technical assistance to help them set goals, implement their actions, and track progress.
- GPI works closely with cities on climate action and created tools to address gaps in the resources that cities need to be successful.
- The Climate Metric Tracker and Data Collection Process Guide are two tools available for free to local communities working on climate action.
New tools to scale local climate action
Local governments feel the burden of climate change most directly and are increasingly leading action to both cut their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate hazards. Initially, climate action was led by larger cities with greater resources. For the past several years, a growing number of small- and medium-sized cities also began acting on climate. Indeed, some of the most aggressive climate actions goals are being set by small and mid-size communities, despite limited resources.
To make sizeable emissions reductions, local governments need to
- make major changes to land use patterns, enabling mixed-use, walkable communities;
- transform auto-centric transportation systems to prioritize and enhance the experience of other modes of mobility (e.g., biking, walking, and transit);
- dramatically reduce energy use in existing buildings and ensure new construction uses as little energy as possible;
- incorporate adaptation measures across all sectors to mitigate the impacts of climate change; and
- address existing disparities among residents to undo past wrongs and ensure equitable and beneficial outcomes for everyone.
This is no easy feat. There are financial, policy, and regulatory barriers that slow progress. Many cities do not have the resources to know where to begin, let alone implement robust climate action. Cities need tools and technical assistance to help them set goals, implement their actions, and track progress. GPI has been working closely with cities on climate action. Through this work, we have identified gaps in the resources that cities need to be successful and created tools to address them.
For cities just starting out, we have compiled a Data Collection Process Guide consisting of a comprehensive inventory of resources to support goal setting and planning. To help cities track progress against their goals, we have created an easy-to-use metrics tracking sheet. We are excited to share those tools to help scale local climate action and get cities of all sizes on track to meet their goals.
Need spurs development of tools for local governments
With funding from the Carolyn Foundation, GPI staff have worked with a cohort of five Minnesota communities to develop tools for climate metric tracking. We also assisted the cohort with data collection on climate and sustainability specific to communities. Then we adapted our templates for this work for communities across the country.
Data Collection Process Guide
Many communities lack resources or information on what data is available to them and where to find it. Our Data Collection Process Guide helps resolve this issue by providing common data points that are necessary for planning and the resources that host that data and information.
For example, understanding the energy burden (the percent of household income spent on energy bills) in a community is critical for planning for equitable renewable energy deployment and residential energy efficiency programs. The tool directs communities to EPA’s LEAD platform, which draws on US census data (among other sources) to estimate energy burden for a community, and makes it possible to transform and compare additional community-specific data.
Example from Data Collection Process Guide – Local Solar Resource
Download the Data Collection Process Guide to use in your community!
The Data Collection Process Guide categorizes information by sector and incorporates the information into the Climate Metric Tracker.
The Climate Metric Tracker
One of the greatest needs identified for city climate and sustainability action was data and insight on how to track or measure progress towards goals. We identified these needs through our conversations with city staff and through a survey of over 300 national planning professionals conducted by GPI in collaboration with the American Planning Association’s Sustainable Communities Division. GPI created tools to respond to these needs.
Features of the Climate Metric Tracker:
- Provides multiple visualization dashboards—one exclusively for greenhouse gas emissions and another for more general progress across community-wide sectors—where communities can see progress in common metrics over time.
- Prepares a data output tab compatible for upload to other dashboard or data visualization portals like Tableau.
- Creates an open-source format, making the tool largely customizable for communities proficient in Microsoft Excel who want to track, benchmark, or include specific goals or additional metrics.
Example Screen from the Climate Metric Tracker
Download the Climate Metric Tracker to use in your community!
Minnesota-specific tools and templates
Great Plains Institute staff also worked with a state-level sustainability program called GreenStep Cities (GPI is a program partner) to integrate the program directly into the climate metric and Data Collection Process Guide. This also included rewriting some of the Data Collection Process Guide to include Minnesota-specific data sources. The template creates a space to house multi-year data inputs that are submitted to the program. Minnesota communities participating in GreenStep City steps 4 or 5 can download and use the tool to track GreenStep City metrics over time and streamline the reporting process.
Interested communities from Minnesota can download the state-specific versions of each tool below:
Link to download Climate Metric Tracker (Minnesota)
Link to download Data Collection Process Guide (Minnesota)
The Climate Metric Tracker and Data Collection Process Guide are just some of the many resources being developed for communities on climate action.
Check out these additional resources and publications for local communities interested in climate action:
- Primer on GPI’s Climate Action Workplans, Climate Action Work Plans Can Provide Cities More Accessible, Near-Term Strategies
- Highlighted by the City of Red Wing, Minnesota, Climate Action Planning Fast-Tracked in Red Wing, Minnesota
- American Planning Association’s Climate Change Policy Guide
- Yale Climate Connection podcast, “State and local governments seeking climate change ‘solutions’ have plenty of options”
With questions or for more information about climate action in your community or any of the resources discussed, e-mail Abby Finis at [email protected] or Jessi Wyatt at [email protected].
