The City of Bethlehem is committed to fighting global climate change. After substantial public engagement and input, the City has developed its first-ever Climate Action Plan (CAP), a comprehensive strategy for addressing climate change in our community. The CAP sets out targeted policies, programs, and projects to reduce Bethlehem’s contribution to climate change while helping the city build resilience and adapt to its effects.
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What is a Climate Action Plan?
A CAP is a comprehensive roadmap that outlines specific activities an agency will undertake to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The principal components include GHG emission reduction and climate risk mitigation strategies, bringing economic benefits to all City stakeholders.
Why is the CAP Important for Bethlehem?
The CAP contributes to reducing Bethlehem’s emissions and increasing climate resilience, which is critical given the projected local impacts of climate change. This is important given the projected local climate change impacts for Bethlehem explained in the following resources:
This tool includes maps and charts that depict impacts of climate change at the city and county level. We can see that Bethlehem can expect to experience warmer average temperatures, more days above 90°F, and potentially more extreme precipitation.
With data at the county level, we can see that the majority of people in Northampton and Lehigh counties are worried about global warming and believe that more should be done to address it.
The Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast, or CCRUN, is a project of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that researches the risks urban communities in the Northeast region face as a result of climate change. They have found that this region will experience temperature and precipitation changes that impact our health and water resources, among other things.
Science of Climate Change
NASA, Climate Change: How Do We Know?
NOAA Climate.gov
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
Additional Resources
Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy
Bethlehem is among more than 9,000 cities and towns globally that are part of the Global Covenant of Mayors, which entails a commitment to following GCoM’s three-year process for developing a climate action plan. GCoM’s website explains how this process works and the role cities and towns play in combating climate change and preparing for its impacts.
Climate Action Planning, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
“A climate change action plan lays out a strategy, including specific measures, to reduce GHG emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.”
Climate Action Plans, Institute for Local Government
“Climate action plans are comprehensive roadmaps that outline the specific activities that an agency will undertake to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate action plans build upon the information gathered by greenhouse gas inventories and generally focus on those activities that can achieve the relatively greatest emission reductions in the most cost-effective manner.”
Guiding Principles for City Climate Action Planning, UN-Habitat
This report lays out some of the typical steps and goals for climate action planning processes and includes case studies of what successful planning can look like from around the world.
CDP Cities
This site includes data and case studies from cities around the world that have engaged in climate action planning and other sustainability efforts.
100 Resilient Cities
This resource describes the efforts of 100 cities around the world leading the charge to become more resilient, including through climate action planning.
U.S. State Climate Action Plans, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
Climate action planning takes place at the state level as well as in cities. This map links state CAPs around the country, including Pennsylvania’s.