- Climate change is an urgent issue that many are trying to address.
- City leaders are seeking solutions to these problems to protect their communities.
- Here are three actions leaders can take to make their cities more climate-resilient.
- This article is part of a series focused on American cities building a better tomorrow called "Advancing Cities."
Cities across the country are feeling the effects of climate change through more extreme weather events, flooding and sea-level rise, hotter temperatures, and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, city leaders are seeking solutions to these problems to protect their communities.
"Growing our resilience to climate change helps us anticipate, prepare for, and respond to climate hazards," Jessica Price, sustainability and resilience manager in the Madison, Wisconsin mayor's office, told Insider. "It opens the door to proactively taking action to avoid or minimize climate impacts, rather than only responding once disaster strikes."
Being proactive and taking action now enables cities to embrace an array of solutions and strategies, which Price said will save money in the long run and protect the health and well-being of communities.
Here are three actions city leaders should take to make their communities more climate-resilient.
1. Conduct a climate assessment
City leaders must understand how vulnerable they are to the effects of climate change to take action. Price suggested starting with a climate vulnerability assessment, which accounts for the characteristics of different neighborhoods, populations, and existing infrastructure to address climate hazards.
Conducting an assessment provides a foundation for cities to develop equitable long- and short-term climate strategies. Madison, for example, is working toward several climate goals outlined in its Climate Forward agenda, such as reaching 100% renewable energy and zero-net carbon emissions in city operations by 2030 and community-wide by 2050.
"If a comprehensive analysis seems daunting, start by focusing on one climate hazard impacting your area, like heat waves, and build on that work over time," Price said.
Cities can conduct a climate assessment internally or partner with a local college, university, nonprofit, or disclosure organization, like CDP, for analyses and planning help. Price said Madison is working with researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to map the city's urban heat island effect and help the city develop a plan to minimize these effects in an equitable way and promote community health and well-being.
2. Engage the community to ensure solutions are equitable
Because climate solutions are meant to protect community members, Matthew Gonser, chief resilience officer and executive director of the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability, and Resiliency for Honolulu, Hawaii, said the "voices from frontline communities should be loud and clear" in developing strategies.
"The knowledge and experiences of community members illuminate the vulnerabilities, perceptions, values, and strengths to guide strategy and vision," he told Insider. "Engagement empowers both government and the people."
Honolulu's Resilience Office developed its Resilience Strategy by engaging the neighborhood boards on the island of Oahu, which is home to Hawaii's capital city and Honolulu County. Residents were surveyed for their concerns about climate change and ideas for solutions, and city officials found that residents were most concerned with hurricanes, cost of living, and how well infrastructure would hold up in a disaster. The office collected hundreds of ideas, which were narrowed down into 44 long-term actions, like making flood insurance more affordable for residents and expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure, that comprise the strategy.
The city also created an interactive climate game to drive conversations around climate change concerns and hosted community meetings about its Climate Action Plan — another strategy that was adopted in 2021 for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% within five years and becoming carbon neutral by 2045.
Engaging the community also ensures solutions are developed equitably so the residents most affected are prioritized and all neighborhoods share the benefits, Price said. Low-income communities, people of color, the elderly, women, and people with disabilities are often at a higher risk for climate-related impacts, according to a McKinsey & Co. report. Climate change "amplifies existing health, social, and economic inequities," she said.
3. Track and be transparent about climate-resilient progress
Cities should also establish methods for tracking and reporting progress on climate initiatives, Gonser said.
"This builds trust, establishes accountability, and allows for more informed decision-making," he said, adding that the Resilience Office is in charge of tracking climate progress in Honolulu, which includes monitoring energy and water use in city operations.
Statewide, Hawaii launched the Aloha+ Challenge in 2014 to identify and address climate goals based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, including clean energy transformation, natural resources management, and building and educating a green workforce. The initiative features an online scorecard where the public can keep an eye on the state's progress on these metrics.
Madison also tracks energy use in city buildings and is performing retrofits to make them more energy-efficient. The city tracks and reports its Climate Forward agenda goals, and now has nearly 75% of the electricity for city operations coming from renewable energy, including solar power. Madison strives to reach 100% by 2030.