Free Resources for Local Government

Free Resources for Local Government

The Resilient Communities for America campaign is designed to rally local leadership and empower local governments with technical resources (at no cost) to meet their own resilience-related goals. Here, you’ll find the latest Campaign tools & resources.

Featured Campaign Resources:

  • ClearPath Emissions Management Tool - ClearPath is an all-in-one suite of online tools to complete GHG inventories, forecasts, and climate action plans at the community-wide or government operations scale. A “Lite” version of the tool is available to campaign signatories and their cities/counties.

  • Carbonn Cities Climate Registry – Carbonn is the official online platform through which RC4A Signatories fulfill their commitment to share success stories with other local governments and the public. Carbonn enables local governments to demonstrate their power and learn from others through the sharing of energy and climate goals, as well as climate mitigation and preparedness actions. By creating a profile in Carbonn, Signatories are then able to compete for grants and recognition through the WWF Earth Hour City Challenge as well.

  • Climate Extremes Communications Guidebook –  A resource to help local governments communicate about weather and climate extremes in the context of climate change.

  • Solar Energy & Resilience Planning Guidebook- This Guidebook provides a practical framework for helping local officials achieve those goals. The guidebook reviews various solar technologies that can be used in climate resiliency and emergency management contexts and dispels some of the most commonly held myths that can be a barrier to using solar to enhance resilience, while also covering finance mechanisms. The guidebook provides a host of examples of communities that have used solar to help prevent disruptions to the grid, improve emergency response capabilities in the event of a crisis, and recover more sustainably from disaster.

  • Recommendations to the President’s Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience - The report calls for modernizing federal emergency management and infrastructure programs to help communities better prepare for extreme weather and other climate change impacts, combining both survey and workshop feedback from local leaders in the ICLEI USA and National League of Cities (NLC) networks as well as signatories of the Resilient Communities for America Campaign.

More Resources from RC4A Partners:

  • Sea-Level Rise and Its Impact on Miami-Dade County (World Resources Institute) - This fact sheet provides information specific to Miami-Dade County, Florida including the local impacts of—and near future vulnerabilities to—sea-level rise and extreme weather events.
  • Impacts of Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Change Connection (World Resources Institute) - This fact sheet highlights the historical magnitude of the storm and estimated losses, plus statements by government officials and leading scientists who view this tragic event as a harbinger of future climate change impacts.
  • City Energy Efficiency Scorecard and State and Local Policy Database (ACEEE) - The City Scorecard ranks America’s largest cities on actions they are taking to save energy and costs in five key areas: buildings, utilities, transportation, local government operations, and city-wide initiatives. The State and Local Policy Database includes comprehensive information on energy efficiency policies and programs being implemented in each state and in dozens of leading localities around the United States.
  • Cool Policies for Cool Cities: Best Practices for Mitigating Urban Heat Islands in North American Cities (ACEEE) - Urban heat islands impose negative impacts on local and global public health, air quality, energy consumption, resilience, quality of life, stormwater management, and environmental justice. But cities are taking actions to mitigate against these impacts. This report profiles the causes, impacts, strategies, and social and institutional context of urban heat island mitigation action in 26 North American cities. 
  • San Diego 2050 Report - (San Diego Foundation) – In June 2014, The San Diego Foundation and a consortium of organizations in Climate Education Partners released a first-of-its-kind report assessing impacts climate change will have in our region and actions underway by regional leaders to address it, “San Diego, 2050 Is Calling. How Will We Answer?”
  • Blasker Miah-Rose Fund for Climate Research (San Diego Foundation) - More than 15 research projects have been funded through our Blasker Miah-Rose Fund to deepen understanding of the likely regional impacts of global climate change, and to both build regional resilience and reduce San Diego regional greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Sea Level Rise Adaptation Strategy for San Diego Bay (San Diego Foundation) - We supported ICLEI to manage a collaborative planning effort led by the Port of San Diego and its five member cities to engage major stakeholders around the 34 miles of San Diego Bay to jointly plan for the shoreline impacts from climate change.
  • Promoting Access to Healthy, Local Food (Mayor’s Innovation Project) - This policy brief looks at bright spots of innovation, where local policies promote and increase residents’ access to healthy food. While there is no single solution to address the problem of unequal access to affordable, healthy food, there are a range policy strategies that can help develop local food capacities, enhance public health, and improve urban economies.
  • Divestment from Fossil Fuels: A Guide for City Officials and Activists (Mayor’s Innovation Project) -  Climate change represents the single greatest long-term threat to our cities and citizens, and divestment can have a serious impact on the fossil fuel industry and send an important message. This report offers the tools to help you get started on a divestment campaign.

Free Climate Adaptation Resources from ICLEI-USA

Free Solar Resources from the Solar Outreach Partnership