Charting Indiana’s Future with a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan
ClimeCo has been instrumental in supporting the CPRG program by offering valuable climate insights and expertise in stakeholder engagement. IDEM has delivered climate strategies that promote sustainability and protect Indiana’s natural resources through this collaboration. Thanks to ClimeCo’s contributions, we successfully launched Indiana’s first-ever climate action plan, strengthened by their quality technical analysis and meaningful public engagement.
Jessica Murray
Project Manager at IDEM
Problem/Challenge:
As part of the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act, the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program allocated $3 million to each state to develop a climate action plan. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) was awarded the planning grant funds in the summer of 2023 and was tasked with developing a Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP) by March 2024.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had strict requirements for the PCAP and its subsequent deliverable, the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan. The grant required a plan that contained a statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, quantified high-priority emissions-reducing measures, benefits analysis, investigation of workforce shortages, and clearly documented conclusions. In addition to the extensive list of requirements, IDEM was tasked with orchestrating comprehensive community, interagency, and partner engagement through multiple rounds of in-person meetings and surveys to effectively incorporate diverse perspectives from the people of Indiana. To meet the PCAP requirements efficiently and effectively, IDEM required a skilled team capable of swift organization and execution.
Solution/Approach:
ClimeCo was chosen as IDEM’s contractor to assist with planning grant requirements from the PCAP development through the final deliverable, a 2027 Status Report. The ClimeCo team promptly began working on developing Indiana’s PCAP by researching existing climate action planning efforts statewide to identify the GHG reduction measures that best fit into Indiana’s plans. Once these measures were identified, IDEM leaned on ClimeCo’s collective decades of decarbonization planning experience to model resulting GHG reductions.
As the GHG reduction actions included in Indiana’s plan were identified, a robust stakeholder engagement campaign was taking ClimeCo’s team to six different locations statewide to gather feedback on the proposed approach. The meetings welcomed all interested participants and encouraged dialogue on opportunities and requests. A statewide survey was also issued, bringing the total engagement to over 1,500 individuals and over 10,000 comments. Feedback from this engagement helped to inform the benefits and workforce analyses.
Benefits/Results:
Once initial community engagement and quantitative analyses were completed, ClimeCo and IDEM developed a draft of the PCAP and conducted one final round of community engagement to solicit feedback on the proposal. The PCAP was submitted in February ahead of the EPA’s March deadline.
ClimeCo’s work helped Indiana organize and prioritize project applications for the competitive Phase 2 Implementation Grants funding round using the actions laid out in the PCAP. These project inputs also proved valuable as Indiana began work on the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan in 2024.
Through ClimeCo and IDEM’s collaboration, all PCAP requirements were met, and the submission of the plan was received with praise from the EPA. The PCAP forged a clearer path through the upcoming climate transition for Hoosiers throughout Indiana and laid a foundation for the comprehensive plan to follow.
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