Capital Region Climate Action Plan

CDRPC is leading the development of the first-ever climate action plan for the Capital Region. In March 2024, the creation of a Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP) was completed. The next phase is the development of a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP), which will be completed in September 2025. The CCAP expands on the PCAP to include GHG mitigation measures for all economic sectors. 

This Climate Action Plan is being developed through a newly formed Climate Action Collaborative that includes a consortium of regional agencies, partner organizations, and municipal climate action leaders covering  Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga, Rensselaer, Columbia, Warren, Washington, and Greene Counties.

The Capital Region Climate Action Collaborative

This Climate Action Plan is being developed through a newly formed Climate Action Collaborative that includes a consortium of regional agencies, partner organizations, and municipal climate action leaders covering  Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga, Rensselaer, Columbia, Warren, Washington, and Greene Counties.

The Collaborative currently includes: 

Regional Agencies:

• Capital Region Transportation Council
• Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA)
• Affordable Housing Partnership of Albany
• Center for Economic Growth

Municipal Climate Leadership Steering Committee: Albany County, City of Albany, City of Cohoes, Columbia County, City of Glens Falls, Town/Village of Lake George, City of Saratoga Springs, Town of Clifton Park and Schenectady County

Additional Partners: Troy Architectural Program, Solarize Capital Region, Capital District Community Energy, South End Community Collaborative, Zero Waste Albany, Albany County League of Women Voters RADIX Center, Albany County Soil and Water Conservation District, Cornell Cooperative Extensions of Columbia/Greene and Albany Counties.

Contact Todd Fabozzi, CDRPC Director of Sustainability at todd@cdrpc.org if your municipality or organization would like to join the Collaborative.

Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP)

Completed March 2024, the PCAP is a narrative report that focuses on near-term, high-priority strategies to reduce GHG pollution from across the economy in six key sectors:

The PCAP includes a GHG inventory, Quantified GHG Reduction Measures, Low Income/Disadvantaged Communities Benefits Analysis, and a review of authority to implement.

The PCAP document can be found here:

  Capital Region Priority Climate Action Plan

Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP)

Since the completion of the PCAP on March 1st, 2024, CDRPC has been working to expand the PCAP to include all sectors and will consist of a fully updated GHG inventory, GHG Emission Projections, GHG Reduction Targets, Quantified GHG Reduction Targets, Benefits Analysis (including LIDAC Analysis), Review of Authority to Implement, and Workforce Planning Analysis. The CCAP process will include broad municipal and stakeholder outreach and engagement. Contact todd@cdrpc.org if your organization or municipality would like to contribute input toward the plan.

The CCAP will be completed by September 2025 and will be here, when completed.

2010 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory

In 2010, the CDRPC commissioned the development of a GHG inventory that covers all major GHG sources in the eight-county Capital District Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) region. It was developed to support communities participating in the Climate Smart Communities (CSC) program. It also serves as the baseline for the Capital District Regional Sustainability Plan developed under the Cleaner Greener Communities (CGC) Program. The inventory was developed for the year 2010 and is based upon methods, data sources, and protocol established by the CSC and CGC programs. The report is primarily a GHG baseline and is not intended to cover the options available to reduce GHG emissions in the region. However, it does include policy scenarios to show how alternative fuels and vehicles may reduce emissions from the transportation sector. It also includes a detailed study of how household energy use varies across the region to help planners identify strategies to engage households in local sustainability efforts. CDRPC is now updating the Capital Region GHG inventory with the most recently available data. The new inventory will be completed in early 2025.

Click the image or this text to access the 2010 Regional GHG Inventory document

2010 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory Dashboard

The CDRPC has created a GHG inventory dashboard that updates the 2010 data to provide easily accessible detailed information on the region’s communities.

Click the image or this text to access the 2010 Regional GHG Inventory Dashboard

Take our Citizen Input Survey

We are interested in obtaining public input for this effort and would like to know what you think about some key actions that residents can take to help the region reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG). This survey takes only a few minutes to complete and your answers will be anonymous (unless you provide your contact information at the end of the survey for us to contact you – your contact information will not be published).

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CapRegClimateActionPlan

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If you want to learn more about our Climate Action Plan process or provide input on the Plan, please contact the CDRPC Director of Sustainability, Todd Fabozzi at todd@cdrpc.org