America’s new governors and mayors: This is your Day One climate to-do list

The next eight years represent a critical window to prevent catastrophic climate impacts, and climate change will serve as the defining issue for officials across the country, including governors and mayors.

Climate is not a stand-alone social issue amid a long list of concerns; it represents the biggest economic opportunity state and local officials will face during in the coming years. 

To help these officials make the most of this moment, we’ve compiled a climate “to-do list” for the first 100 days of their new terms in office:

Personnel is policy

Appoint climate leaders to the helm of obvious agencies, relating to the environment, energy and natural resources, but also ensure that senior officials with climate expertise are spread throughout departments such as tax, education and transportation — and that the leaders of every single department understand they will play a major role in economy-wide decarbonization and resilience.

• To-do list: Ask every candidate for a cabinet role what their vision for achieving the state’s or city’s climate goals is when they are interviewed. To lead climate efforts, hire a dealmaker with a finance or development background to unlock private (and federal) financing. Appoint one or two climate advisers to drive accountability and unlock cross-department collaboration.

Choose projects that solve multiple problems

Climate doesn’t need to be your headline, but it does need to be your through-line. Climate now crosses every single issue. Is public safety your top concern? An energy efficiency project that includes LEDs saves emissions and tax dollars and can increase safety and brighten neighborhoods. Are you wrestling with increased flood and storm protection? Microgrids with solar and storage can pay for themselves in a lot of markets, leading to cheaper energy bills and resilience for critical services without paying upfront.

• To-do list: Add two elements to the agenda of every cabinet meeting: 1) A 5-to-10 minute “climate spotlight” that educates your team about what’s going on and how they can weave climate into their work, and 2) A 5-minute rotating update from cabinet members on how each is integrating climate into their priorities.

Enlist talent from your community 

We know good energy and climate people are in high demand right now — and are increasingly expensive. But more federal funds are requiring community engagement and benefits be part of the package, so why not lift up your own local climate expertise?

Community and industry leaders want to partner with the government when the result is to advance collective goals that grow the clean energy economy and improve neighborhoods. You’ll attract climate tech innovators and federal funding where projects truly solve community problems, multiple voices are respected and projects result in local hiring.

• To-do list: Create a kitchen cabinet of business leaders (unpaid) and community voices (paid a stipend — more here on our philosophy on that). Convene them frequently to 1) create content for your climate spotlight, 2) highlight federal funding and other opportunities, 3) serve as a sounding board for early feedback about potential projects in your state/city and 4) rally support for the projects that should be advanced for climate and social impact. Local and state leaders don’t need consensus from the group to move forward, but should hear all voices and facilitate healthy debate. 

Focus on time, not just money

Time is money, but harder to come by. This is especially true for clean energy entrepreneurs and project developers who often lose time andmoney having to navigate a maze of red tape.

State and local leaders have the power to save everyone time — to make your state or city a more appealing place to do business and create jobs, before having to dish out tax incentives. Fresh governors and mayors can take a birds-eye view of these issues and then rally your team to knock them down. 

• To-do list: New leaders can ask staff to make a list of barriers to federal funding they’ve experienced, and ask local entrepreneurs where they see bottlenecks in working with government agencies. For example, are outdated building codes holding up Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) dollars? Are obsolete procurement requirements keeping you from accessing federal funds for electric school buses? If you are really committed to attracting new investment, expedite permitting for renewables and resilience builds — and create a dedicated customer-service unit to help companies navigate and compete for funds waiting to be spent in your communities. 

Dollars follow leadership

State and local leaders must set an overarching climate goal for the next four years. Do you want to reduce emissions by 25 percent? Add a climate resilience element to all major public infrastructure projects?

In Hawaii, we set a goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2045, and it aligned all of the departments and efforts accordingly. 

• To-do list: New leaders should consult with top advisers and their kitchen cabinet to set climate goals. They can be powerful rallying calls and attract investment from across the country to help meet your climate goals. The entrepreneurs we work with are looking for clear policy signals and a serious commitment to scale.

Whether or not incoming officials decide to make the climate crisis a top priority, the issue will inevitably shape their time in office, and their legacy. New state and local leaders will likely be the most influential climate executives their state or city has ever had: The future is in your hands.

Aimee Barnes is the founder and CEO of Hua Nani Partners, a small woman-owned advisory practice that helps seed and scale the next-generation of climate solutions. She is a board adviser to Elemental Exelerator and served as senior adviser on climate change to former California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) from 2017-2019.

Dawn Lippert is the CEO of Elemental Excelerator, a non-profit investor on a mission to redesign the systems at the root of climate change. Lippert also serves as the director of innovation and community at Emerson Collective. She is also a board member of Climate Real Impact Solutions II, a climate-focused special-purpose acquisition company.