Climate Ready DC: The District of Columbia’s Plan to Adapt to a Changing Climate
Climate change adaptation means being prepared for a changing climate by taking action today to reduce the potential impacts of climate change to people, buildings, and infrastructure. While the District does its part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we are already seeing the impacts of climate change due to historic carbon emissions.
Climate Ready DC is the District’s strategy to make our city more resilient to future climate change. It is based on the best available climate science and was developed through consultation with leading experts within and outside of the District government.
Read the Climate Ready DC Plan (also attached below).
Read the supporting technical reports:
- Climate Projections & Scenario Development
- Vulnerability and Risk Assessment
- Climate Change Adaptation Recommendations
Additional Climate Adaptation Resources
- The District Department of Transportation released a Climate Change Adaptation Plan in 2013.
- The Metropolitan Washington Council of Government facilitates regional coordination on climate adaptation. Learn more.
- The National Capital Planning Commissions supports federal and local agency collaboration on climate change. Learn More.
- In 2013, DOEE and the Office of Planning partnered with the Center for Clean Air Policy to hold a workshop on Severe Weather and Critical Infrastructure Resilience. Read the report.
- DOEE 2013 Study: Assessing the Health Impacts of Urban Heat Island Reduction Strategies in the District of Columbia
- In 2021 the District released Resilient Design Guidelines. This document provides a methodology for conducting a climate resilient needs assessment and suggests steps for planning, designing, and constructing projects to support resilient outcomes in the built environment.
- In support of Climate Ready DC, DOEE is working to develop Community Resilience Hubs. Learn more >>
Affordable Housing Resilience Assessment Tool
In FY18, DOEE awarded a grant using funds from the Renewable Energy Development Fund to create an analysis tool to determine the climate resilience of the District’s affordable housing stock and to gauge the potential for solar and battery storage to help address the problem. The grantees, Enterprise Community Partners, New Ecology and the National Housing Trust, developed an analysis tool and tested it on 20 affordable housing properties across the District. The tool is now available for public use, while the grant has been extended in FY19 to develop a training and engagement plan.
