City of Columbus

Sustainable Columbus is taking our climate action planning to new heights, and we need your input!

Sustainable Columbus is taking our climate action planning to new heights, and we need your input! 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 requires both a Priority Climate Action Plan, due March 1, 2024, and a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan, due two years after the planning grant award, 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). A second phase of implementation grants through the CPRG will be available on a competitive basis for all entities who completed a Priority Climate Action Plan, with a total of $4.6 billion allocated nationwide for climate action implementation programs. 

As we begin this planning process, we need your input on how best to involve you as community members throughout the project. Please take this survey to help guide our communication and engagement efforts over the next two planning years.

• Columbus Climate Action Plan 
• Appendix 
• Columbus CAP Executive Summary 
• Columbus CAP Social Media Toolkit 
• Comprehensive Energy Management Plan for Municipal Buildings

Now comes the hard work of implementing, which has already begun in many respects, but will truly kickoff in 2022. Updates on progress toward the goals in the plan will be disclosed to the public on at least an annual basis to provide transparency and accountability to the community. The Plan is a living document, with an update planned for 2025 to ensure further accountability and ability to stay aligned with the latest climate science.
Thank you again for engagement and partnership!

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)