Lindsay Ex is the policy director with Colorado Communities for Climate Action. Erick Shambarger is the director of environmental sustainability for the City of Milwaukee and board president of the Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition.
2023 was the hottest year ever recorded on the planet, and scientists globally recognize that current national and subnational commitments are insufficient to address the climate crisis. We also know that extreme weather and polluted air are not bound by lines on a map.
It is increasingly clear we need a cohesive climate strategy where people organize across political boundaries and levels of government to make real progress. Communities in Colorado and Wisconsin are demonstrating how local governments can seize the initiative and organize to accelerate action that is responsive to what people need.
Communities in Colorado are already experiencing climate change impacts, from diminishing snowpack to destructive wildfires. However, these impacts vary depending on where in Colorado you live. So when local officials from all across the state testify in support of or against an issue, it carries more weight than support that comes from communities just in a single part of the state or one community alone. That’s the idea behind Colorado Communities for Climate Action, or CC4CA, which started with nine communities in 2016 and has grown to 42 local governments.
In the eight years since its launch, the coalition has delivered significant policy results. Three years ago, thanks to the coalition’s advocacy and an extensive partnership with environmental justice organizations, Colorado passed a law requiring state agencies to engage with and design solutions for communities that have been disproportionately impacted by pollution. Last year, Colorado became the ninth state to adopt a clean cars standard based on California’s clean car rules. The Colorado standard requires 82% of all new light-duty vehicles sold in the state in 2032 to be electric. The coalition also supported nearly 100 local officials who testified in 27 regulatory hearings and 10 legislative hearings last year.
CC4CA represents one in four Coloradans across member communities that range from rural towns, cities and counties of less than 5,000 people to upwards of 500,000 people. The coalition decides what it will advocate for based on the unanimous adoption of policy statement updates. In other words, every community that joins the coalition commits to a shared set of priorities that guide CC4CA’s work.
Colorado Communities for Climate Action board members and staff at the team’s 2023 retreat in Vail, Colorado.
Permission granted by Barry Eckhaus
CC4CA members shared the group’s work via the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, which inspired some Wisconsin communities to build their own statewide coalition to see if they could have a similar impact.
The Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalition has grown to 22 cities and counties since it was established in 2020. The coalition collectively recognizes it cannot slow the worst effects of climate change without effective state climate policy. That’s why the member communities have banded together to advocate for climate-centered policy at the state’s Public Service Commission, which regulates the state’s electric and gas utilities.
Over the past four years, the Wisconsin coalition has provided unified comment on 15 cases before the commission and other state agencies. Members are also coordinating energy efficiency and renewable energy programs with the statewide Focus on Energy program and developing unified systems for collecting climate data.
What’s happening across Colorado and Wisconsin is needed elsewhere. It may sound like a cliche, but when it comes to climate coalitions like the ones in Colorado and Wisconsin, it holds true: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
