Explore Climate Friendly Parks

The Climate Friendly Parks (CFP) Program, a collaboration of the National Park Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, provides national parks with management tools and resources to address climate change. The program aims to provide national parks with comprehensive support to address climate change both within park boundaries and the surrounding community. The CFP program has developed an established framework for providing climate change support. This structure is based on providing the technical assistance, tools and resources for national parks to protect their natural and cultural resources and serve as models of climate friendly behavior.

DOWNLOAD the CFP Poster (0.6 MB PDF File)

The program offers:

• Staff training and/or a tailored Climate Friendly Parks workshop
• Carbon management inventory tool designed specifically for national parks
• Carbon management action planning tool designed specifically for national parks  
• Technical assistance conducting a park specific emissions inventory
• Technical assistance developing a park specific Climate Action Plan
• Climate Friendly Parks best practices and related resources
• EMS expertise
• National recognition
• A dynamic visitor engagement program
• Education and outreach products

Participants in the Climate Friendly Parks program work with representatives from EPA's Program Integration Branch and NPS Headquarters throughout the planning and implementation processes. The central elements of the initiative include:

1. A Climate Friendly Parks Workshop designed to educate national park staff about climate change and train them to use the tools available.
2. The Climate Leadership in Parks (CLIP) Tool, a Microsof Excel based program that helps a park conduct an emission inventory, develop strategies for reducing emissions through the development of an action plan, and educate park visitors about climate change and what the park is doing to address the issue.
3. The Do Your Part! program, a program for park visitors to join together and reduce their personal emissions.

Why is the Climate Friendly Parks Program important?
National Parks, because of their location and unique, protected resources, are places where the effects of these changes are particularly noticeable. With the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916, responsibility was given to the Service to preserve and protect the significant resources within the parks for the enjoyment of future generations. As knowledge about climate change and its effects has accumulated, it has highlighted the need to maintain park resources through practicing not only good stewardship of the flora and fauna within parks' boundaries but also active protection of the natural environment on regional and global scales more>>

Climate Friendly Parks Program Timeline
The Climate Friendly Parks program has worked with Parks around the country to help promote sustainable practices.