Columbus Climate Action Plan
Sustainable Columbus is taking our climate action planning to new heights!
The Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) is an Environmental Protection Agency program that supports communities tackling climate change and air pollution. This planning grant offers funds to create strategies for reducing greenhouse gasses and other identified pollutants. Sustainable Columbus, in partnership with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC), Power A Clean Future Ohio (PCFO), IMPACT Community Action, and The Ohio State University, has received $1 million to support these efforts in the Central Ohio region. This planning effort will cover 10 counties: Franklin, Delaware, Licking, Fairfield, Union, Pickaway, Madison, Perry, Morrow, and Hocking counties. Our focus is on regional climate action, with a special emphasis on benefiting low-income and disadvantaged communities, in line with federal Justice40 goals.
The CPRG program has two phases. The first planning phase included a Priority Regional Climate Action Plan, due March 1, 2024. The Columbus Region Priority Climate Action Plan on the EPA website. A comprehensive Regional Climate Action Plan will be due in July 2025. The work for the grant's Comprehensive Climate Action Plan will support the 2025 update of the Columbus Climate Action Plan (2021).
As we progress with this effort, we need your input on how to best involve you as community members throughout the project. Please take this survey to stay updated on our climate planning process and help guide our communication and engagement efforts!
Background
In February 2020, Mayor Ginther announced a bold and ambitious goal for the Columbus community to be carbon neutral by 2050.
The City of Columbus, along with community stakeholders and the public, created a Climate Action Plan to impart environmental justice and serve as a roadmap to meet the 2050 carbon neutrality goal set by the Mayor. Community feedback was, and will continue to be essential helping us define and achieve our climate goals and creating a more equitable and just future. We are committed to centering and investing in our BIPOC communities and envision an inclusive, prosperous, sustainable future together. To see how the Plan progressed, you can review slides summarizing changes made by September 2021 to Draft Plan here: CAP Work Group Slides(PDF, 337KB)
Sustainable Neighborhoods
Columbus has a diverse mix of neighborhoods offering residents a unique sense of pride and ownership. Affordable, safe and resource efficient communities are necessary throughout Columbus. Responsible solutions to reduce unsheltered populations, provide equitable access to transportation and services, and connectivity to good job will be required to sustain a thriving community in the face of climate change.
Learn more about water adaptation strategies, equitable access to greenspace, and the Urban Forestry Master Plan.
Buildings
Columbus’ buildings are a major consumer of energy from the local utilities and the largest single source of GHG emissions community-wide; they must be fine-tuned to optimize each kilowatt of energy used. By 2050, buildings must be carbon neutral operating on 100% clean power to achieve the CAP goals.
Learn more about energy and water benchmarking and Clean Energy Columbus.
Waste Reduction
GHG emissions from the waste sector are directly tied to methane emissions, which are 25 times as harmful as CO2e. As the population of Columbus is projected to continue growing, landfill space becomes more constrained. It will be the most efficient use of public dollars to reduce the volume of waste and amount of physical space needed to contain it.
Learn more about Keep Columbus Beautiful, residential recycling, food waste, the Waste Wizard, Recycle Right, Com-Til, and yard waste disposal.
Transportation
Columbus is already setting examples for best practices in large cities that have traditionally been car-centric with the foundational work of Smart Columbus. The transportation sector has many emerging technologies currently under development, and future CAP updates will reflect advancements. Zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) include electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles and allow for technology advances for any other solution that may provide an emission free tailpipe transportation option.
Learn more about LinkUS, equitable electric vehicle adoption, the Columbus Green Fleet Report(PDF, 10MB), and the Bike Plus effort.