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This is a change moment.

In nearly every conversation we have, we hear a similar theme: a need to figure out how to evolve climate work, break down silos, and work across boundaries. We all share a hunger for new models that broaden, deepen, and scale up work on climate, which interconnects with every major issue facing communities.

City Scale explores and expands the roles that local government can play on climate change.

We take a step back and make sense of a bigger picture in order to think expansively about what is possible, contribute to new insights, and identify breakthrough opportunities.

After two decades of local government climate efforts, what have we learned? What is emerging? What might the next generation of city climate work look like?

At the local level, we are seeing

  • Thousands of jurisdictions signaling a commitment to climate action
  • Several hundred that are actively engaged in climate work
  • A disconnect between ambition and implementation
  • Variability in context that challenges city-by-city scaling

Zooming out, we see:

  • An uneven patchwork of local engagement that reinforces persistent inequities
  • The criticality of the regional scale and of federal leadership
  • Networks and initiatives organized around likeness
  • Ideas coming out of the environmental justice movement and academia that are years ahead of practitioner adoption
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  • Climate work that lacks connection to core community priorities such as jobs, economic opportunity, education, and housing​
  • Silos among professional fields and public agencies that rarely cross-pollinate​
  • Community leadership as key to driving and sustaining government action​
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  • Continued separation between mitigation and adaptation​
  • Outdated governance models
  • Different frameworks structuring/guiding public and private sector climate action​

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We share our fresh thinking and new work on an occasional basis​

A 2018 Philly Spring Cleanup event in West Philadelphia
Photo Credit: Jen Strickland

We facilitate learning, bridging, and alignment to support a new paradigm for local and regional climate action.

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