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- State Climate Actions
- State and Regional Climate Policy Maps
- State Climate Action Plans
- State Climate Action Plans Database
State Climate Action Plans
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Climate change action plans help states identify and evaluate feasible and effective policies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through a combination of public and private sector policies and programs. By taking a proactive approach to planning, states can lower their greenhouse gas emissions, reduce their energy costs, protect air quality and public health and improve the economy and environment.
Developing a State Climate Action Plan
Most states have created Climate Change Task Forces to develop their State Climate Action Plans. The climate change task force can bring together experts within the state to develop a comprehensive strategy to address climate change. Task force members generally include state planners, policy analysts, natural resource specialists, environmentalists and representatives from the private sector. Their expertise often represents a range of disciplines – engineering, science, economics, policy analysis, planning, education and community development – and sectors – energy, industry, transportation, agriculture, forestry and waste.
Once the task force is established, a similar set of activities is typically undertaken:
- Develop a greenhouse gas inventory for the state
- Project future emissions based on expected population, economic growth and other factors
- Identify areas where emissions could be reduced, and
- Develop a greenhouse gas emission reduction goal
Collectively, they identify and select policy options based on several characteristics, including greenhouse gas reduction potential, cost-effectiveness, ancillary benefits, political feasibility and public acceptance. In most cases, policies are ranked and selected by the task force. The best policy mix to achieve the plan's objectives are specified in the state action plan as recommendations and shared with state policymakers. Often the plan is circulated to the public for comments during the process.
See the State Climate Action Plan map to find out which states have completed, or are working on, a State Climate Action Plan; click on an individual state to see details about that state's Climate Action Plan. Also, see the State Action Plans Database for a searchable database of policy recommendations by sector contained in completed State Climate Action Plans.