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About COG's Climate Change Program

What is COG’s Climate Change Program?

The COG Climate Change Program is one of the nation's first initiatives to address local greenhouse gas emissions on a regional level. While a growing number of individual cities and counties are moving forward to address climate change, this is one of the first programs to involve localities over an entire metropolitan area. The elected officials of the National Capital Region view this approach as one that will provide a catalyst for improving the environment.

The COG Board of Directors established the Climate Change Steering Committee (CCSC) to develop this new regional strategy. The CCSC will reflect input from an interdisciplinary body of existing policy boards and committees, including the COG Board of Directors, the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee, the Transportation Planning Board, the Chief Administrative Officers Committee, the Chesapeake Bay and Water Resources Policy Committee, the Human Services Policy Committee, the Public Safety Policy Committee, the CAO Energy Advisory Committee, and the Intergovernmental Green Building Group. The CCSC reports to the COG Board of Directors and provides it with bi-monthly briefings. Visit the committee page to view the committee calendar, membership, current documents, and archived committee information.

What will the COG Climate Change Program do for the region?

The heart of the new program is the Steering Committee. During its one-year tenure, the CCSC will consider a wide range of actions designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The committee is charged with pinpointing the local impacts of the emissions, and helping local governments decide how best to address the problem. Because members were appointed to represent a broad range of jurisdictions and agencies, the committee will combine the efforts of all the region’s key stakeholders. See the COG Climate Change Resolution for more details.

Regional Catalogue/Best Practices Report

COG staff, with the assistance of participants in COG’s Institute for Regional Excellence (IRE), conducted a member survey and prepared a report cataloguing climate change, energy conservation, and sustainable development best practices among COG’s members and affiliated local, state and federal agencies and school systems.  The report, entitled National Capital Region: Best Practices and Policies to Reduce Greenhouse Gases was prepared for members and others seeking tools that can support sustainable growth and development.