Sponsor: County Manager's Office
Title
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Adoption of the Climate Equity Action Plan
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Recommendation
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Adopt the Climate Equity Action Plan.
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Background and Rationale
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From extreme heat and poor air quality to changes in precipitation and more severe storms, climate change impacts everyone in Ramsey County. Climate change affects physical and mental health, natural environment, and the economy. Stroke and heat-related illnesses increase during periods of extreme heat. Both extreme heat and poor air quality worsen existing physical and mental health conditions such as asthma, heart disease, depression and anxiety. Nobody is immune to the impacts of climate change but underrecognized and climate-vulnerable communities tend to face more severe impacts.
In recognizing the growing needs of the community, the Climate Equity Action Plan (CEAP) positions Ramsey County to pursue new opportunities and approaches to address climate change that can improve shared infrastructure, advance local economy, and expand life-sustaining career pathways that will build community resilience. The plan uniquely emphasizes opportunities for the county to address the inequitable impacts throughout service areas. The county’s climate priority team is in the process of convening an Equitable Climate Action Resident Advisory Team (ECARAT) to provide continuous equity-focused feedback on CEAP-aligned work. The ECARAT’s guidance will be shared with the county’s Climate Change Governance Team in a continuous manner so that department directors prioritize CEAP-aligned projects with community member guidance in mind.
In a board workshop on March 5, 2024, the county’s first CEAP was presented to the board of commissioners. The board’s formal adoption of this plan will reaffirm the county’s commitment to respond to climate change and increase community resilience using actionable, measurable, community-informed methods.
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County Goals (Check those advanced by Action)
☒ Well-being ☒ Prosperity ☒ Opportunity ☒ Accountability
Racial Equity Impact
Nobody is immune to the impacts of climate change but underrecognized and climate-vulnerable communities tend to face more severe impacts. This includes Black/African American, American Indian, Latino/a/x, Asian and other racially and ethnically diverse people due to compounding climate stress with the social, health and economic impacts of structural racism.
The CEAP outlines a wide variety of strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change, ranging from prioritizing multi-modal infrastructure projects that increase connectivity for underrecognized and climate-vulnerable populations to continued engagement with these groups to ensure future action aligns with evolving needs to training businesses to hire and retain individuals who identify as under-recognized and climate vulnerable in life-sustaining careers that advance climate solutions.
Public Health is also hiring a climate change focused outreach and engagement lead to implement engagement strategies tailored for underrecognized and climate vulnerable community members to ensure that underrecognized and climate-vulnerable individuals are aware of and encouraged to weigh in on this work as it moves forward.
Community Participation Level and Impact
Community members were invited to participate in seven online listening sessions in 2022, respond to a virtual survey and participate in two in-person community conversations as part of the planning process for the CEAP. Through these opportunities community members identified impacts, unintended consequences, benefits, solutions and outcomes. Members of the HWST RECEAT team helped facilitate both community conversations. Each event was attended by racially diverse community members. Many of the actions outlined within the CEAP call on the county to provide more opportunities for community-informed and participatory decision making with underrecognized and climate-vulnerable groups.
In order to ensure greater engagement around the CEAP with underrecognized and climate-vulnerable groups Public Health is hiring an outreach and engagement lead to implement tailored approaches to sharing information and learning from these communities. This health educator will share summarized feedback from all outreach efforts, including the ECARAT, with the county’s Climate Change Governance Team in a continuous manner so that department directors prioritize CEAP aligned projects with community member guidance in mind.
☒ Inform ☒ Consult ☒ Involve ☒ Collaborate ☒ Empower
Fiscal Impact
Adopting the CEAP does not have a specific fiscal impact. Taking actions outlined within the CEAP will have a fiscal impact and funding for those actions will be sought/allocated as separate projects by department leads. The county’s Climate Change Governance Team, composed of deputy county managers and department directors (including Finance), will collaboratively prioritize CEAP-aligned actions and determine how to allocate existing funds and identify additional funds to support this work.
Last Previous Action
On March 5, 2024, the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners held a board workshop on the Climate Equity Action Plan.
Attachments
1. Climate Equity Action Plan