What is happening with state policies or actions?

Once you have a general understanding of the climate change landscape in your state, encompassing both emissions sources and projected impacts, you are in a better position to examine your state’s current response efforts. This includes looking at key policies and initiatives, stakeholders, and potential resources currently addressing climate change. In doing so, you can identify priority topics that require support. For example, if your state has set a 100% renewable energy target, that may define a priority for support. Or, if your state has defined specific resilience programs related to flooding, that might also define a priority. You can also identify agencies leading the work both in terms of planning and implementation. This information is critical for the design of a state climate corps, because your corps should ideally align with statewide goals and reflect and support state programming. Familiarizing yourself with the statewide policy and action landscape positions you to identify opportunities for service as well as potential resourcing and support.

While understanding climate risk in your state is more of a scientific assessment, understanding climate policy and action is an inherently political assessment. Each state has its own unique approach to addressing climate change, both in terms of priorities and how climate change impacts are framed. State responses can take many forms from high-level, resourced, and aspirational, to highly sophisticated, well-resourced, and very active. Existing state level policy can provide direction on what a climate corps in your state should look like and how it might be structured to maximize its impact. It is important to locate and understand your state’s climate priorities. If a state is reluctant to address climate change directly or overtly based on your research, that does not mean there is no space for climate service programs.

A good starting point is to look at your state’s climate action plan or equivalent state-level plan that may include climate priorities. Depending on the state or type of plan, the plans are updated annually and in some cases after multiple years. Some states such as Colorado, Wisconsin, and North Carolina have titled “Climate Action Plans” whereas other states such as Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Tennessee have embedded their greenhouse gas reduction targets and related climate priorities into separate state level plans. For example, Tennessee does not have a formal climate action or adaptation plan, but climate related threats are outlined in their Hazard Mitigation Plan. For some states lacking statewide plans, check out universities in your state for climate action reports.

The federal government is requiring climate action by states. Therefore, it is helpful when looking for state climate responses to review federal programs and requirements. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides official policy on hazard mitigation planning requirements. Other examples include State Forest Action Plans (required by the United States Forest Service) and State Carbon Emissions Reduction Plans (required by the United States Department of Transportation). These state plans include climate response related activities within them. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), there is also new funding flowing to states to act on various elements including climate change prevention, disaster response, and recovery. However, in the absence of a comprehensive national climate response effort, states have been left to build and implement their own climate action response efforts.

Looking at key policies and the responsible agencies is crucial in identifying the nexus of climate risk and state action. This process allows you to build a program that is aligned with your state’s goals, connect with key actors to learn more, and ideally secure resources and support to move forward. For example, in Michigan the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy developed and implemented their 2022 [MI Healthy Climate Plan] This plan includes a commitment to 40% of the benefits of climate-related funding going to disadvantaged communities. In South Carolina, the 2008 Governor’s Climate, Energy, and Commerce Advisory Committee developed the Climate, Energy and Commerce Action Plan which included a voluntary economy-wide goal of reducing emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2020. And in Louisiana, Governor John Bel Edwards’ Climate Initiatives Task Force developed their Louisiana Climate Action Plan with a goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and includes 28 strategies and 84 actions.

Another avenue to examine is identifying legislative champions. While a climate action plan may provide a depth of policy and planning guidance that are critical to your development, looking at legislators behind climate-related policy may provide insights into priorities and possible support in different ways. The national dialogue around the Civilian Climate Corps highlighted that the hope and vision of a climate corps is about much more than just addressing climate change. It is tied to issues of equity, workforce development, and community engagement. From a legislator’s perspective, the non-climate benefits may be more of a priority than the more obvious climate ones. So looking for the legislators who are authoring bills related to issues such as public health, environmental justice, or clean energy workforce development may help you identify legislative champions who can see the broader potential of a state climate corps. While this approach may be useful, we recognize that an overtly political strategy such as legislative engagement may not be viable in certain contexts.