Fighting Climate Change, From Capitol Hill to City Hall
How 8 States and Cities Are Mobilizing Whole-of-Government Climate Action
Link: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/fighting-climate-change-from-capitol-hill-to-city-hall/
Tweet: https://twitter.com/CAPenergypolicy/status/1486330129026625538
What is it: A series of case studies authored by climate officials from Alaska, California, Honolulu, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York state, and Philadelphia. Covers everything from bold, landmark legislation to forming local stakeholder advisory committees. Evergreen product that can help inspire subnational action, regardless of wherever current progress on BBB is.
Who it may be useful for: State and local climate advocates and officials.
Contact cchyung@americanprogress.org if you have any questions or want to speak to the case study subjects.
Preview:
Historically, states, local governments, and tribal nations have been key leaders on climate ambition. For example, in the 1960s, California set the nation’s first tailpipe emissions standards1 and
continued on the path of setting the most advanced clean vehicle regulations with its Advanced Clean Cars program adopted in 2012. Meanwhile, tribal nations have been some of the first communities to address the effects of a warming climate. For instance,
in 2010, the Swinomish Tribe in Washington state enacted a landmark climate action plan that has since been followed by 50 other tribes enacting similar plans.2
Likewise, cities are often the first to set ambitious climate goals, including some two dozen U.S. cities that are on track to surpass the Paris Agreement climate targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
reductions goals by 2025.3 States, too, have taken meaningful action to confront the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and ensure that more of the jobs required to build a 100 percent clean energy economy are high-quality union positions.4 Since
2015, 17 states as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have taken action on 100 percent clean energy agendas.5 Progress has occurred in blue, red, and purple states alike: In 25 key states tracked by the Energy Foundation, 2019 and 2020 saw
218 policy victories for clean energy in state legislatures and public utility commissions, compared with only 17 setbacks.6 This progress followed 2017, 2018, and 2019 state elections that saw numerous climate leaders elected to statewide office
and state legislatures.
States, local governments, and tribes have passed and implemented ambitious climate action by deploying a whole-of-government strategy to tackle climate change from all angles—an approach that emphasizes
the need for greater collaboration and coordination across departmental boundaries to eliminate duplication, optimize resources, create synergies among agencies, and deliver seamless services to citizens and businesses. Similarly, President Joe Biden’s Build
Back Better agenda depends on a whole-of-government effort to address the confluence of crises, from public health to the economic downtown to climate change. States, local governments, and tribes are essential partners in this effort, and their examples of
climate leadership must travel from the state houses, city councils, and local governments to the White House, and vice versa. As the Biden administration charts out its whole-of-government approach, federal officials can look to other jurisdictions—both state
and local— for lessons learned on cross-sectoral and interagency coordination.
At the 2021 U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, John Kerry—U.S. special presidential envoy for climate—acknowledged the urgency for
climate action at all levels of government, announcing a “Subnational Leadership Initiative for Climate, which will be a U.S. government interagency initiative to catalyze ambitious climate action by cities, states, and regions around the world.”7 Secretary
Kerry described the initiative as U.S. subnational government actors—mayors, governors, and lieutenant governors—working internationally to demonstrate to other governments examples of successful climate action at a local level. This initiative would take
states’ lessons learned beyond the White House and to other local governments around the world.
The Build Back Better agenda advances many of the Biden administration’s key climate policies, and implementing it will require an integrated and coordinated approach across federal agencies and states
looking to access and spend federal funds. The case studies in this report represent a cross-section of the work being done coast to coast to take a whole-of-government approach to climate action at the state level. The administration, as well as state and
local climate leaders, can draw on lessons learned and best practices from these case studies in order to inform their own efforts to maximize emissions reductions and implement clean energy and climate resiliency projects across all sectors of government.
This report offers lessons learned from a whole-of-government approach—from the perspectives of authors from politically and geographically diverse states—in order to illustrate best practices that can
be applied under a variety of circumstances across the country. Where there is commitment to climate action from leadership, a whole-of-government approach can be implemented at the state, local, and tribal level. The breadth of lessons offered in this report
provide the Biden administration with a comprehensive look into how it can tailor its whole-of-government approach across a diverse nation.
The authors of the following case studies offer best practices to inform the Biden administration as it enacts a whole-of-government approach capable of meeting the urgency that the climate crisis demands.
The following recommendations are synthesized from the case studies:
There are a range of approaches to deploying a whole-of-government effort as exhibited by the states and municipalities showcased in this report, including embedding climate deputies across all departments
and agencies, standing up climate councils, and establishing gubernatorial climate cabinets. Simultaneously, multiple case studies exhibit the need for increased federal funding and coordination in order to meet the scale and urgency of the climate crisis.
This report offers six examples of state climate leadership from Alaska, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, and New York, along with two local examples from Honolulu and Philadelphia. These
eight case studies outline different whole-of-government approaches to climate and exemplify how climate ambition can be driven through states and cities. Moreover, they offer examples of how the federal government can apply these lessons learned at the national
level.