County launches 18–24 month climate action plan process, seeks public input through June

Arlington County launched a formal process on May 28 to develop a comprehensive climate action plan (CAP) called Arlington Climate Together, an 18–24 month effort to update and expand the county’s Community Energy Plan and set integrated mitigation and resilience actions.

Rich Douly, director of climate policy, said the CAP will broaden the prior focus on energy to include resilience measures, circular economy and healthy ecosystems, and will incorporate a desktop vulnerability assessment this summer focused on extreme heat, drought and extreme precipitation. "The CAP sets out what the county as well as all Arlingtonians can do together to cut polluting emissions that cause climate change while adapting and becoming more resilient," he said.

Public engagement: staff opened a feedback form and said the visioning survey will be available through June 26 and invited residents to an open house on June 1 at Central Library. The county will run a mix of virtual and in‑person engagement events, focus groups and targeted outreach to advisory boards and community organizations.

Why it matters: staff said 97% of the county’s greenhouse‑gas emissions come from community activity rather than government operations, so the CAP aims to align county policy and community actions to reach greenhouse‑gas reduction goals. The CAP team will use tools including C40’s action selection and prioritization tool to rank and prioritize actions consistent with the county’s resources.

Next steps: staff said a draft CAP will go before advisory groups and the public for feedback, with an anticipated County Board consideration in 2027–2028 depending on the process timeline.