Adaptation in Climate Planning and Implementation

The impacts of climate change are here and anticipated to become more severe. From extreme heat to wildfires, flooding to sea level rise, hazards induced by climate change threaten the prosperity of communities across the United States (U.S.). On top of these risks and hazards, frontline communities are often the most vulnerable to these consequences due to the history of social, economic, environmental, and political marginalization. U.S. local governments have a unique opportunity to improve these conditions by planning for and investing in equitable climate adaptation. The unprecedented levels of grants for climate adaptation, combined with the public’s heightened awareness due to the increasing frequency and severity of climate-induced disasters, provide a window of opportunity for local governments to act on adaptation in hopes of a more sustainable and resilient future. However, many barriers exist that make it difficult for local governments to act, such as limited staff capacity, difficulty understanding the massive amount of information available, equity gaps, and the need for cross-sector coordination. 

ICLEI USA created a Guide, Adaptation in Climate Planning and Implementation: Recommendations for U.S. Local Governments, to provide local governments with resources to overcome these barriers by walking communities through the climate change adaptation planning and implementation process. While anyone can use this resource, it is aimed at local government staff working on climate adaptation. You do not need to be an expert on climate science or adaptation to use this Guide, though some familiarity with these topics is helpful. This resource uses a five-milestone framework, adapted from ICLEI Canada’s resource  Changing Climate, Changing Communities: Guide and Workbook for Municipal Climate Adaptation (Changing Climate, Changing Communities) , to guide local governments through the adaptation process. Additionally, recommendations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) resource,  Implementing the Steps to Resilience: A Practitioner's Guide (Steps to Resilience) , have been incorporated to make the content applicable to U.S. communities.

This StoryMap provides an overview of the five milestones for climate adaptation, including equity considerations, case studies, and additional resources. For more detail, refer to the  full Guide on the ICLEI USA website .

Working through the information in this document will help your community progress along your adaptation journey through initiating, assessing, planning, implementing, and monitoring. It is important to note that the road to adaptation is a long one that varies among communities. This Guide may not have all the answers, but can give you the tools, resources, and baseline knowledge to make progress.  

Lastly, no planning process should stand alone. ICLEI USA recommends pursuing adaptation as part of an integrated planning effort that addresses climate change mitigation and equity, and that involves significant and inclusive community engagement. Please refer to other resources in the Sustainable Communities Suite for guidance and methodologies to support integrated planning. This Guide builds off of  Adaptation – First Steps , part of the Sustainable Communities Suite, which provides local governments with resources to start their adaptation process. Milestone 1 (Initiate) and Milestone 2 (Assess) of this Guide incorporate information and resources from Adaptation – First Steps. 

It is well established that the impacts of climate change are not equally distributed across communities. Often Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), low-income, and other frontline communities are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. These outcomes can be traced to historical municipal planning practices rooted in racism and discrimination, such as prioritizing the needs and development of affluent communities, and excluding people of color from living in certain areas through redlining. These policies influenced the infrastructure that we still have today and contribute to the unequal burden of pollution and risk experienced by these communities. These inequities are also exacerbated by systemic oppression, which has laid foundational societal barriers, and by geography, because low income or historically redlined communities are often located in places with higher risk of environmental disaster or pollution. As a result, extreme heat, air pollution, sea level rise, and flooding are examples of impacts that are more likely to harm frontline communities.

The federal government is providing unprecedented levels of funding for climate action and resilience through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). With these investments, local governments have an opportunity to intentionally counter these historical injustices. Centering your adaptation process in equity can help ensure all community members are equally protected from climate impacts. Failure to center your adaptation process in equity can lead to projects that unintentionally increase vulnerability and contribute to worsening inequity in your community. By focusing on advancing equitable outcomes and improving quality of life, local governments have the power to promote transformative adaptation that upends the status quo, creating a more resilient community for all.

 Centering Equity in Climate Resilience Planning and Action (Centering Equity)  provides guidance for incorporating equity in your climate adaptation process. This Guide provides ideas for centering equity within each milestone based on the recommendations in Centering Equity, including suggested tools and resources that can help you learn more about your community's climate exposure and vulnerability. Yet tools and resources are only small pieces of the puzzle. There is no report, tool, dataset, or platform that can tell your community's story. Numbers and data have a role to play in the adaptation process, but they should be considered alongside (never in place of) community voices, lived experience, and traditional knowledge. To build the resilience of all, it is essential that adaptation processes are–by design–equitable and community-driven.

For more information about equity planning and actions in communities, visit ICLEI USA’s Sustainable Communities Suite resource titled  Equity in Climate Planning: Trends and Best Practices for Local Government. 

Clarifying your overarching purpose can provide context and structure to your stakeholders by grounding your planning process in the needs of your community.

Differentiate between purpose, vision, and goals

Purpose: The underlying cause or “why” driving action

Vision: Inspiring call to action that paints a picture of the future of your community, informed by the community members

Goals: Stepping stones taken to achieve a vision

Brainstorm a broad list of potential stakeholders, drawing from many disciplines and organizations, both internal and external to the local government. Engage stakeholders and create a team with diverse experience and perspectives.

Given the history of racism and discrimination in community planning in the U.S., it is important to start your adaptation process by learning more about local historical context. Understanding the history of environmental injustice can help you understand the physical landscape and the experiences of people living in it. 

Community engagement is critical for successful adaptation planning to ensure that your plan aligns with the community’s values and vision. Your team should consider what engagement strategies make the most sense for your community based on size and demographics. Consider the Spectrum of Community Engagement and how you can move toward Stage 5 (empowering the community).

ICLEI USA’s resource, Equity in Climate Planning: Trends and Best Practices for Local Governments, identified the following major takeaways related to community engagement:

• Try multiple methods for engagement.  
• Build ongoing relationships.
• Design community engagement strategies with equity and inclusion in mind.

Craft the vision into a statement to communicate shared values, purpose, intended outcomes, and the benefits of taking action.

First, take stock of existing actions aimed at improving the adaptive capacity of your community. Some examples of existing actions may include emergency management and response, infrastructure maintenance, and public health.

Next, consider existing community goals, efforts, policies, or plans. Review existing community plans and policies to identify their overlap with climate change adaptation. Common plans that might influence community adaptation include Comprehensive and Master Plans, Climate Action Plans, Hazard Mitigation Plans, and Land Use Plans. Mainstreaming your community’s planning with existing plans and policies could help you leverage limited resources to deliver on climate adaptation benefits, as discussed further in  Milestone 4 .

Showing leadership in climate adaptation can build momentum and legitimacy for your efforts. Ways that local governments can commit and show leadership include:

• communicate internally,
• pass a council resolution,
• commit to leadership campaigns (such as the  Cities Race to Resilience) ,
• Create a Climate Vulnerability Assessment aligned with the  Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures  (TFCD), and
• connect to global city networks and working groups (examples include  ICLEI Resilient Pathway ,  CityFood Program ,  CitiesWithNature , and  Making Cities Resilient 2030  initiative).

• During public engagement, meet your community or stakeholders where they are. The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication’s  quiz  and  climate opinion maps  help determine your community or stakeholder’s perception of climate change.
• The  Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures  provides guidance on the types of information that companies should disclose to appropriately assess and price climate-related risks.

Mayor Bhalla Commits to Climate Adaptation While Showcasing Community Co-Benefits in Hoboken, NJ

Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla of Hoboken, NJ has been instrumental in solidifying Hoboken’s commitment to climate action. Mayor Bhalla officially adopted Hoboken’s Climate Action Plan in 2019 through an Executive Order, solidifying the City’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, and net-zero energy by 2030. In addition, Mayor Bhalla has overseen multiple initiatives, including replacing 17 City fleet vehicles with hybrid and electric vehicles, expanding the City’s residential composting drop-off programs, and banning single-use plastic bags and styrofoam containers with an ordinance in 2020.

Mayor Bhalla has also established himself as a leader in building community resilience. Since taking office, Mayor Bhalla has overseen the creation of three resiliency parks that mitigate harmful flooding while providing valuable green space to city residents. Northwest Resiliency Park, the newest addition, includes athletic fields, playgrounds, gardens, a pavilion, a stage, lawn and small forested areas, restrooms, seasonal amenities for an ice rink or farmers market, and spaces inspired by histories and landscapes of the City. Resilient design elements include shaded and sheltered meeting spaces, solar energy production and use, gardens that promote biodiversity, and flood mitigation and water conservation systems. The City is currently designing its fourth resiliency park at 800 Monroe St. “Few cities have any resiliency parks, this will be our fourth to combat flooding that regularly impacts residents of West Hoboken,” said Mayor Bhalla. “I thank the residents who have provided valuable input into the latest designs, which will be incorporated into the park’s amenities.”

First, you will want to record your current knowledge about how climate change affects your community. Note any knowledge gaps or areas that need additional research. Reference community, county, regional, or state plans or reports. Explore datasets, modeling, and scenario planning.

Keep organized notes during your research phase to easily refer back to important findings while making decisions and drafting your plan.

Consider how the climate changes you researched will impact, positively or negatively, the systems in your community. Examples of community systems include energy, emergency management, environment, housing, parks and recreation, education, and transportation.

It is important to understand the metrics and establish criteria and rules to classify and quantify what risk and vulnerability mean in your community. Overall, these steps will help create a consensus about highest risk areas and support decision making around effective actions.

Differentiate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity

Exposure: The presence of people, assets, and ecosystems in places where they could be adversely affected by hazards

Sensitivity: The degree to which people, systems, or community assets are or might be affected by hazards

Adaptive Capacity: The ability of people, systems, or community assets to adjust to a hazard, take advantage of new opportunities, or cope with change

Risk = Hazard Probability x  Magnitude of Impact

• Hazard Probability: The likelihood that a hazard will occur in a given area.
• Magnitude of Impact: The severity of damage on life, health, safety, built and natural environment, and economy.

The Basics of Vulnerability

Characteristics of vulnerability include sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity.

• Sensitivity: The degree to which people, systems, or community assets are or might be affected by hazards.
• Exposure: The presence of people, assets, and ecosystems in places where they could be adversely affected by hazards. This is often considered as a factor of sensitivity.
• Adaptive Capacity: The ability of people, systems, or community assets to adjust to a hazard, take advantage of new opportunities, or cope with change.

• The FEMA  National Risk Index  (NRI) tool is another useful resource to help calculate risk, social vulnerability, community resilience, and expected annual loss.
• EcoAdapt’s  Rapid Vulnerability & Adaptation Tool (RVAT)  is a free resource that coaches cities, counties, and other regional planning authorities through evaluating risks and vulnerabilities and identifying adaptation strategies.
• ICLEI USA Member Resource - The ICLEI USA Vulnerability Assessment Toolkit guides and supports U.S. cities, towns, and counties in creating Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessments as part of their commitment to the Cities Race to Resilience initiative.

A Look At Risk and Vulnerability Assessments within City Plans in Blacksburg, VA

The  Town of Blacksburg Climate Vulnerability Assessment  took a comprehensive approach to analyzing hotter summers, warmer winters, and changing precipitation patterns as the main climate-related threats to the town. For each threat, the team compiled data, identified vulnerable populations and community systems, and prioritized risk areas by mapping the risks based on potential impact against adaptive capacity (see figure below). This was a helpful tool for recommending strategies for adaptation and resilience. Check out this exemplary plan to review their methods and recommendations, clear and digestible infographics, approach to equity, communication strategy, and data sources.

What does the future of the community look like? Now, you should consider the steps needed to achieve this vision. These “stepping stones” are your adaptation goals.

There are many possibilities when it comes to actions for adaptation. As you explore actions, keep in mind that each community may benefit differently based on unique needs and characteristics. There are many possibilities when it comes to actions for adaptation. Solutions with co-benefits often hold the highest value. See the  case study for Hoboken, NJ  for a project with notable co-benefits.

Use your goals and objectives to establish a framework and criteria by which to assess, compare, choose, and prioritize actions. Share these criteria and options across sectors for collaboration and to avoid maladaptation, or actions that unintentionally increase vulnerability.

There are multiple methods to analyze potential actions. One method is the Steps to Resilience Stoplight Matrix, which compares specific criteria for each adaptation strategy. Another method is a cost benefit analysis (CBA). However, the social, economic, health, and environmental benefits of climate adaptation actions are often difficult to quantify with traditional CBAs. NOAA’s  Ready-to-Fund Resilience  resource provides an innovative approach to CBAs relevant to climate adaptation projects, with guidance, tools, and resources to help you quantify and communicate social and environmental benefits, equity, and appropriate timeframes.

Indicators and metrics are essential components of your adaptation process because they enable: 

• Communicating progress toward vision and goals;
• Making strategic decisions to mainstream adaptation projects; 
• Justifying investments in adaptation projects to tax-payers and funders; 
• Demonstrating accountability and equitable governance; and
• Supporting learning and continual improvement of climate adaptation work.

NOAA’s  Resilience Metrics Toolkit  gives comprehensive information, tools, and resources to appropriately and successfully use indicators and metrics in your adaptation process.

Gathering baseline data for your metrics and indicators is important so that you can track how your community changes in response to adaptation actions and progress. Ideally, you should collect baseline data that is timely and specific to your community. 

Estimate a timeline for each adaptation action to be initiated and implemented in the community. Consider who will be responsible for completing each step.

Start to consider financial resources needed to accelerate adaptation projects. This includes making an inventory of financing and budgeting options, noting existing resources, and identifying key decision makers. Incorporating budgeting and financing into your plan with as much detail as possible will make implementation easier in  Milestone 4 .

Create a draft of your Climate Adaptation Plan. Adaptation and resilience plans may need to be revised or updated as climate conditions, guidance, and goals change. Keep this in mind while you’re drafting and make it possible to come back to review and amend as needed.

Avoid using jargon or technical language. This plan should be easily read and understood by the general public. Also note that the drafting process is often more efficient with one person or small group rather than the entire committee. The draft plan can be submitted to a larger team or committee for review and comment. 

Upon completion of the draft, and after review and comment from the larger team, schedule time for questions, comments, approval, and support from council, community, and other stakeholders. It’s important to be transparent with the vision, actions, funding, and implementation schedule. Take time to acknowledge and address questions and comments and incorporate feedback into the plan where applicable.  

Ensure that you have approval and support from the council, community, and stakeholders before publishing your final plan. Reconnect with key players and departments to remind them of their roles. Again, keep in mind that adaptation and resilience planning is an iterative process that will likely need to be revisited as new data and priorities emerge, so make it easy to review and amend later.

Indicators: An attribute or characteristic that suggests the status (e.g., effectiveness, progress, success) of a particular element of adaptation.

Metrics: A variable that can be measured or tracked that represents the indicator.

• As you research adaptation actions, inventory the actions that seem like they could be beneficial for your community. Steps to Resilience provides an  Options Inventory  resource to help you stay organized.
• Visit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)  Community Resilience Toolkit  for a more comprehensive list of resilience actions that considers planning, buildings and infrastructure, environment, and people, case studies, and funding.
• Another list of adaptation strategies is available as part of the  Climate Adaptation Toolkit for Marine and Coastal Protected Areas  hosted by EcoAdapt on the Climate Adaptation and Knowledge Exchange (CAKE).
• Additionally, the  Adaptation Actions Table , created by EcoAdapt and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, contains a list of climate adaptation actions. Access the full toolkit, which includes the latest version of the Adaptation Actions Table as well as additional resources, on the CAKE platform.
• NOAA’s  Ready-to-Fund Resilience  is a technical resource paper that provides an innovative approach to CBA, with guidance, tools, and resources to help you quantify and communicate social and environmental benefits, equity, and appropriate timeframes.
• NOAA’s  Resilience Metrics Toolkit  gives comprehensive information, tools, and resources to appropriately and successfully use indicators and metrics in your adaptation process. This resource can help begin your approach and guides you through exploring, selecting, tracking, and using indicators and metrics.
• If you feel that a CBA might be beneficial, see Ready to Fund Characteristic 7 in the Ready-to-Fund Resilience technical paper for more information, or visit the Climate Adaptation Support Tool for additional  guidance on approaches for preparing a CBA .
• Another valuable resource for economic considerations is  Chapter 17, Economics of Adaptation  of the IPCC Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability report.
• For additional information and guidance on avoiding maladaptation or unintentional consequences, visit the  Climate ADAPT Climate Adaptation Support Tool  from the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, Europe.
• The Colorado Resiliency Office’s  Community Resilience Assessments & Actions Guide  has a  Printable Tracking Sheet  to keep track of baseline and monitoring data for indicators and metrics, which is a great template to begin tracking your baseline data.
• ICLEI USA Member Resource - ICLEI USA’s Resilience+ Strategies Matrix contains a list of strategies that local governments can take to advance resilience and sustainability.

Discuss the plan with internal stakeholders through trainings, workshops, informal lunch sessions, or cross-departmental communications. Connect with elected officials through efficient messaging of the process, plan, and expected outcomes tailored to their values and interests. Communicate with external stakeholders, including community based organizations, educational institutions, nonprofits, governments at different scales, and peer learning networks. Communication with these various groups can take different formats, such as blog posts, articles, videos, brochures, media campaigns, reports, webinars, and web products.

Mainstream implementation efforts with other government initiatives. Coordinate with different departments (e.g., comprehensive, land use, public safety, emergency management, and public works, and stormwater planning) to integrate adaptation into the policy and planning processes, reduce risk associated with the projects, and enhance co-benefits. 

The type of project will dictate the funding and financing opportunities available. Looking for partners, such as other departments, academic institutions, and special interest groups, can also increase funding opportunities. It is important to seek a variety of funding and finance types, referred to as blended finance. Combinations can be commercial debt and equity, grants, concessional loans, subsidies, and other public support.

As of 2023, an unprecedented amount of federal grants exists for local governments to fund climate adaptation projects. The section titled  Federal Funding Guidance  provides an overview of federal funding opportunities and guidance for how to navigate the immense amount of information available.

Make sure baseline indicators are measured and accurate. Pilot-scale or demonstration projects can help you understand strengths and weaknesses of the strategy, identify lessons learned, improve cost estimates, and evaluate outcomes of the strategy.

• ICLEI USA’s  Spectrum of Community Implementation Readiness Assessment Tool  can help local governments understand their existing agency and capacity to determine if they should start with foundational (smaller) projects or if they are ready for transformative (larger) projects.
• The  Ready-to-Fund Resilience Guide  from NOAA and  Toolkit  from the American Society of Adaptation Professionals lay out characteristics of projects that are considered “ready-to-fund” to help governments secure funding for climate adaptation.

Mainstream implementation with other government initiatives by using existing decision-making frameworks and funding sources to execute adaptation projects. This can help get buy-in from important stakeholders and use government resources more efficiently.

Pilot-scale demonstration projects can help you understand strengths and weaknesses of the strategy, identify lessons learned, improve cost estimates, and evaluate outcomes.

Green City, Clean Waters Initiative and PowerCorpsPHL Co-Deliver Quantifiable Benefits with Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Projects in Philadelphia, PA

The City of Philadelphia launched their 25-year stormwater management plan, called  Green City, Clean Waters (GCCW) , in 2011 to address the pollution from combined sewer overflows. The program boldly called for a green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) focused approach, in addition to significant traditional infrastructure upgrades, to maximize environmental, economic, and social benefits while reducing overflows.

Complementary to this plan, the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Water Department are partnering with a local organization called PowerCorpsPHL to train local, underserved people aged 18 to 30 in green infrastructure jobs. The program simultaneously invests in the development of a green workforce, while giving local residents, many of whom were formerly incarcerated, the opportunity to learn valuable professional skills, all while delivering projects that improve the sustainability and resilience of the City.

Some of the successes of PowerCorpsPHL include:

• Over 90% of graduates move into career-track employment.
• The program sees a 4% recidivism rate, compared to 45% for the city overall.
• 40% of the program’s budget goes to direct benefits for participants, such as stipends, transportation, training, and certifications.
• Approximately 850 people have participated in the programs to date.
• Program participants have planted over 10,000 trees and treated over 6,000 acres of land.

Based on the success of PowerCorpsPHL, the organization has started offering technical assistance to other cities who are looking to build similar workforce development programs but who may face different place-based challenges.

Revisit indicators and metrics determined in  Milestone 3  to evaluate how baseline data have changed over time. Evaluation of this data can help inform your progress.

Evaluate how natural, economic, social, or political conditions and underlying assumptions have changed since the development of your climate adaptation plan. 

After evaluating new information, decide if you need to update individual adaptation actions, the implementation schedule, or the entire plan. A reasonable schedule for evaluating and updating your plan includes:

• Annually, report progress on adaptation actions to internal and external stakeholders;
• Every 3 years, revisit and update the hazards that pose risk to your community, and reconsider focal community systems and assets;
• Every 5-10 years, update your Climate Adaptation Plan to account for your community’s latest social, environmental, and economic conditions. 

Use communication tools (e.g., annual progress reports, press releases, issue briefs, website updates, workshops, awareness campaigns, celebration events, and advertisements) to celebrate successes and build momentum for ongoing implementation. 

• Refer to the Colorado Resiliency Office’s  Community Resilience Assessments & Actions Guide  and  Printable Tracking Sheet  for a template for evaluating baseline and monitoring data for indicators and metrics.
• For guidance on engaging youth, refer to the  Unlocking the Power of Youth  checklist from ICLEI Global.

Annual Progress Reporting in Tallahassee, FL

The City of Tallahassee created an ambitious Climate Resilience Plan in 2019 to address underlying stresses (including job, food, and housing insecurity) and shocks (including flooding, extreme temperatures, and significant storms) that their community faces. The City aims to initiate or complete each initial action laid out in the Plan within 5 years since adoption to align with the timeline of the 2024 Strategic Plan. The City publishes an Annual Progress Report to document actions taken toward the goals and strategies outlined in the Plan. The Annual Progress Report includes a progress bar to visually communicate the phase of progress (early, moderate, or significant) of each strategy. The Annual Progress Report is an example of easily accessible documentation that holds the City accountable to their community for making progress on resilience and sticking to the Plan’s timeline. 

There are unprecedented levels of federal funding for climate resilience projects available to local governments in the U.S. due to the passing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in 2021 and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022. These acts provide much needed funding for the U.S. to address the climate crisis. Coupled with the Justice40 Initiative, these investments have the power to benefit disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution. Additional funding may be available through your state government. This appendix gives an overview of federal funding that is available at time of publication, as well as resources to discover and learn more about new opportunities. 

The IIJA of 2021 (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, or BIL) provides approximately $550 billion in new federal investments in transportation, water, internet, energy and power, environmental remediation, and resilience. While approximately $50 billion is explicitly dedicated to funding resilience projects, the Georgetown Climate Center points out that all infrastructure projects funded by IIJA have the opportunity to address resilience; infrastructure is intended to last for decades, so it will need the resilience to withstand vulnerabilities and risks that are exacerbated by climate change. Georgetown Climate Center also provides a summary of IIJA resilience funding by sector: transportation; energy, buildings, development; natural resources, ecosystems, agriculture; water infrastructure; coastal protection; preparedness and emergency response.  The IIJA designated additional funding to the Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities (BRIC) grant program, administered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). BRIC will support hazard mitigation projects that increase community resilience. The program has an added focus on projects that provide benefits to disadvantaged communities, invest in nature-based solutions, and account for climate adaptation.

The IRA of 2022 contains approximately $500 billion in new federal spending and tax breaks related to clean energy and healthcare. The IRA enables tax-exempt entities, including local governments, to receive payment equal to the full value of certain tax credits for qualifying clean energy projects through a provision called “direct pay” (also known as “elective pay”). Twelve tax credits in the IRA qualify for direct pay, including credits for generating clean electricity, installing electric vehicle charging infrastructure in low-income and rural areas, and purchasing clean vehicles for fleets. The White House maintains a  website  with information summarizing how local governments can access direct pay credits. The IRS website also contains the  full list of credits eligible for direct pay  and  guidance for how local governments can access these credits , which is being finalized as of 2023. 

Executive Order 14008, passed by President Biden in 2021, establishes the goal of directing 40% of federal investments in certain categories (climate change, clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, and development of critical clean water and wastewater infrastructure) to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution. This commitment is commonly referred to as the Justice40 Initiative. The White House has released a  list of programs  covered under the Justice40 Initiative. Local governments can leverage this initiative to provide climate justice to underserved communities in their jurisdiction.

Aligning climate adaptation and resilience projects with the Justice40 Initiative will not only help to deliver benefits to disadvantaged communities, but also may increase the likelihood of the project receiving federal funding. One way to do this, based on guidance issued by the Council on Environmental Quality, includes using the Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) to identify disadvantaged communities and demonstrate how projects will benefit them. While this tool can not replace the need for meaningful community engagement during project planning, it can be used as an initial step for identifying disadvantaged communities. 

In addition to CEJST, some federal agencies have created mapping tools to identify disadvantaged communities specific to the agency’s area of expertise. For example, the Department of Transportation created the  Equitable Transportation Community Explorer , which explores the cumulative burden that communities experience due to underinvestment in transportation infrastructure based on indicators in five categories: transportation insecurity, climate and disaster risk burden, environmental burden, health vulnerability, and social vulnerability. The Department of Energy also created the  Energy Justice Mapping Tool , which considers cumulative burden based on indicators in four categories: fossil dependence, energy burden, environmental and climate hazards, and socio-economic vulnerabilities. Local governments can use these agency-specific tools in conjunction with CEJST to identify disadvantaged communities.

Many resources exist to help communicate the immense amount of funding opportunities available to local governments. A few helpful resources are summarized below. These are in addition to the Guidebooks to the  IRA  and  IIJA  published by the White House and information available on  Grants.gov .