regionalizing climate action jessica johnston, sr. program manager

Regionalizing Climate Action

Jessica Johnston, Sr. Program Manager

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Our Changing Climate

Adapted from: Anthropogenic and natural warming inferred from changes in Earth’s energy balance

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Our Climate Future

https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/figure-spm-5.html

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What a 2-4˚Increase Could Mean

Per Degree of Change:

• 5-10% changes in precipitation across many regions

• 3-10% increases in the amount of rain falling during the heaviest precipitation events

• 5-10% changes in streamflow across many river basins

• 5-15% reductions in the yields of crops as currently grown

• 200-400% increases in the area burned by wildfire in parts of the western United States

Hotter summers ● Increase in the intensity of precipitation ● Droughts

National Academy of Sciences: http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/materials-based-on-reports/booklets/warming_world_final.pdf

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Local and Global Perspective

11%

Global cereal demand expected to rise 1.2% per year

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What do we do?

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The Role of Urbanization

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2025

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Why Cities Matter

Bloomberg found that cities could reduce annual CO2 emissions from five key sources within their control by 8 gigatonnes by 2050. That would be equivalent to half the emissions caused by the annual burning of coal today.

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Climate Impacts are Local

National Climate Assessment: http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/sectors/urban

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What US Local Governments are Saying

72%

DO NOT have a sustainability plan

31%

Address climate change

11%

Adopted a climate adaptation plan

21%

Adopted a climate mitigation plan

BARRIERS

42%

Have no staffing, goals, task forces or committees addressing sustainability

23%

Elected Officials

16%

Lack of information on how to proceed

62%Lack of Funding

The data are preliminary results from a survey that is part of a research project led by Cornell University professor Mildred Warner and funded by the National Science Foundation

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Preparing and Adapting to Climate Change

Thinking of Climate Resiliency as a Shared Service• Critical services cross

city/county borders

• Environmental assets rarely follow jurisdictional lines

• Small/Medium size communities don’t have the funding to tackle challenges on their own

• Local governments can’t afford to wait for state and federal action

Solid Waste Mgt.

Public Safety

Schools

TransportPublic Safety

Parks & Rec

Power WaterPublic Health

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The Case for Regionalization

• Ability to leverage small amounts of fiscal resources for staff investment• Garnering the attention of state and

federal agencies with funding for adaptive infrastructure• Allows for knowledge sharing that

contributes to process improvements and efficiencies• Creates the foundation for a collaborative

environment

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What does regional action look like? • Develop annual Legislative Programs

and jointly advocate for state and federal policies and funding

• Dedicate staff time and resources to create a Southeast Florida Regional Climate Action Plan to include mitigation and adaptation strategies

• Meet annually in Regional Climate Summits to mark progress and identify emerging issues.

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Compact Accomplishments

•Unified sea level rise projections

• Regional GHG baseline

• Regional inundation mapping

• Regional Climate Action Plan

• 6 Climate Leadership Summits with public and private sector participation

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4 Counties │ 100+ Cities

3 Working Groups

110 Action Items

5.6 MPeople in the Region

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Organizational Structure

Summit Planning

Team 

Policy Development, Coordination & Advocacy Team

 Regional

Work Groups

Compact Staff

Steering Committe

e

Mayors, Managers

and/or Commissions

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Who is taking notice and what’s happening?

Durban, South Africa

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Take-aways from the SE Florida and Durban Experience1. Find your elected and staff

champions

2. People aren’t excited about what they don’t understand….Train, train, train

3. Use community participation tools to prioritize climate actions

4. Integrate climate into larger strategic visioning efforts

5. Measure to understand successes and failures

6. Don’t keep score, keep encouraging

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Other ExamplesSan Diego Regional Climate Collaborative is a regional forum for public agencies to share expertise and leverage resources to facilitate climate action planning.

The Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability (LARC) is a network designed to encourage greater coordination and cooperation at the local and regional levels by bringing together leadership from government, the business community, academia, labor, environmental and community groups.

WAA brings together 13 cities in the Southwest U.S. who have similar climate adaptation challenges to learn from and support each other as they develop and implement their individual adaptation strategies and programs.

Western Adaptation Alliance

King County and eleven Washington cities — Bellevue, Burien, Issaquah, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Redmond, Renton, Seattle, Shoreline, Snoqualmie, and Tukwila — are collaborating through the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C) to coordinate and enhance the effectiveness of local government climate and sustainability action.

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Common “Compact” Challenges

• Lack of political will and sense of urgency

• What will success look like? How do we measure it?

• Starting point – Working from similar metrics

• Translating climate science for the average citizen

• Institutionalizing goals across sectors

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Local Context: Nebraska’s Climate FutureLow emissions scenarios = 2.2-2.7˚C riseHigh emissions scenarios = 4.4-5˚C rise

100 ˚Days

Decrease in Soil Moisture

Reduced Rocky Mountain Snow Pack

University of Nebraska: Climate Change Implications for Nebraska http://snr.unl.edu/research/projects/climateimpacts/reportannouncement.asp?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Web&utm_term=Climate%20change,%20Nebraska&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Climate%20Change%20Implications%20for%20Nebraska

Increase drought frequency and severity

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Where Nebraska Stands

53 Million Metric Tons

Equivalent of Morocco 33Million people

http://www.globalcarbonatlas.org/?q=en/emissions

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Nebraska going urban?

Nebraska Department of Economic Development http://www.neded.org/business/data-a-research/population

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Points of entry for Nebraska climate action?• Agriculture• Fresh water basins•Water conservation• Conservation •Urban Greening• Energy usage• Flood protection

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Getting Started in Your CommunityPart 1: Get Started

• Identify needs & gaps in existing resources through meetings with key stakeholders

• Get buy-in from key leaders and agencies to form initial work group• Set boundaries for the effort

Part 2: Get Organized• Identify detailed needs of collaborative members• Develop governance structure• Craft basic communications strategy• Secure initial funding• Engage and build partnerships with the state & federal agencies• Engage and build partnerships with local universities

Part 3: Get Moving• Develop initial work plan including timeline• Conduct early stage activities to work on that will show progress and build trust

Part 4: Get It Right• Set up process feedback mechanisms to communicate outcomes to

stakeholders• Establish monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for your region

Adapted from Alliance for Regional Collaborative for Climate Adaptation http://www.arccacalifornia.org/toolkit/

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You’re not alone…

A consortium of local governments around the world committed to climate action at the local level

A global coalition of mayors and city officials committing to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, enhance resilience to climate change and track their progress publicly.

ICMA's Center for Sustainable Communities provides knowledge, resources, and technical assistance on leading practices at the intersection of sustainability and local government management.

Jessica JohnstonJjohnston@icma.org