News

Over the course of 2020, the Compact worked in partnership with nearly a dozen municipalities and an equity advisory team composed of non-profit and community leaders to develop a new tool to support local and tribal governments called the Climate Assessment Tool (C-CAT). Released to local governments in early July, the C-CAT identifies 11 priority mitigation and adaptation actions that provide a clear roadmap of the most critical climate and resilience actions to be pursued in the region. Through an annual survey process administered by the Compact, local and tribal governments will have the opportunity to report on annual progress, share their advancements with the communities which they serve, and build the case for increasingly ambitious climate action. 

Further, in response to an identified need from many local governments in the region for additional guidance on ensuring equitable climate action, a group of local equity advisors developed a comprehensive guidance document elucidating concrete ways to embed equity for each priority action identified. 

Local and tribal governments are invited to report on progress made on mitigation and adaptation priorities, through an annual self-assessment survey that is open until September 17, 2021. In its first year, reporting will be used to establish a baseline of what major climate actions have been advanced across the region to date. In subsequent years, local governments will report on annual progress in order to better track regional advancements over time. Following the close of the survey, the Compact will aggregate the data and develop a regional climate action snapshot published on its website, which will visualize data results at the regional and county level. 

Local and tribal governments in the four-county region can learn more and respond to the annual survey here.