ClimatePlan’s 2019 Strategic Direction provides the vision and path forward to create a healthier, more sustainable, and equitable California. This Strategic Direction was developed through close collaboration with our partner organizations across California. To all who helped create this plan: thank you! We are excited to work together to turn this plan into reality.
The Challenges
Right now, California is facing immense challenges. In 2016, the state set a goal to reduce its climate pollution 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. However a 2018 report from the California Air Resources Board showed that emissions from the transportation sector continue to rise because Californians are driving more, not less.
California’s affordable housing crisis is further exacerbating this problem by displacing people, especially those with low-incomes, to the urban fringe at an alarming rate. With development occurring at the urban fringe, California’s wildlife habitats, iconic landscapes, and natural and working lands are at risk. And as housing costs rise, the lack of tenant protections further accelerates displacement—forcing those with the least resources to drive the most.
California’s history of red-lining and segregation continue to deepen inequities. As wealthier people move into urban areas and lower-income people are pushed out, more California cities are experiencing re-segregation, perpetuating the essential feature of segregation: unequal allocation of land, resources, and political will.
California will not meet its climate goals unless we make meaningful and dramatic changes across housing, land use, and transportation.
The Opportunity
The ClimatePlan network is at the forefront of climate change, housing, land use, and transportation. We envision a healthier, more vital California that creates sustainable and equitable communities, preserves iconic landscapes, and significantly reduces climate pollution. To achieve this, we need to advance powerful policy solutions at the local, regional, and statewide level that leverage cross-sector collaboration and reach across geographies.
The Path Forward
From 2019 – 2022, ClimatePlan has three Strategic Priorities:
- Drive Transformative Policy Change
- Amplify Community Voices
- Build Bridges Across Issues and Geographies
Drive Transformative Policy Change: The ClimatePlan network will advance ambitious policies to reshape California’s housing, land use, and transportation systems. These policies will address historic inequities, promote public health, advance sustainability, and conserve natural and agricultural lands. ClimatePlan commits to the following actions to drive forward transformative policy change:
- Invest in data-driven solutions that advance environmental and equity goals on housing, transportation, and land use.
- Put California on track to achieve climate goals.
- Ensure transportation spending aligns with climate, equity, conservation, and health goals.
Amplify Community Voices: The ClimatePlan network will work at the local and regional levels to increase community engagement and power at the intersection of climate, housing, land use, and transportation. ClimatePlan will provide community-based organizations and resident leaders, especially those representing underserved populations, with tools and resources to shape their communities’ future. ClimatePlan commits to the following actions to amplify community voices:
- Provide technical assistance to empower communities in housing, land use, and transportation decision-making.
- Fundraise to provide seed grants to community organizations to grow their own resources to engage in land use and transportation planning.
- Focus on replicating successes from community-led partnerships in San Joaquin Valley and Southern California to address historic inequities.
Build Bridges Across Issues and Geographies: Since its inception, the ClimatePlan network has embraced its role as a learning network: a space where advocacy organizations and leaders from other sectors can come together to find common ground. By working across issue areas and geographies, partners amplify their work and achieve greater impacts on policy and systems change. ClimatePlan is building a thriving movement that connects housing, land use, and transportation, all the way from towns to cities to the state. ClimatePlan commits to the following actions to build bridges across issues and geographies:
- Connect advocates across the state to share lessons and build a stronger, smarter movement.
- Address the hard issues to build a united coalition.
Join us
We encourage you to look at our Strategic Direction to see the full picture of this important work that we are moving forward. If you aren’t a part of ClimatePlan, please partner with us. This critically important work – and a vision of a California that works for all of us – will only advance if we move forward together.