Review and comment on the 2023 Climate Action Plan Update between October 1 and October 31, 2023. Click here to learn more and submit your comments.
Baltimore's first Climate Action Plan (CAP) was written in 2012. Ten years later, we are starting the community engagement process to create a new CAP that addresses climate inequities in our city while setting new greenhouse gas emissions goals and strategies.
An update to the 2012 Climate Action Plan (CAP Update) is underway. It will focus on integrating equity and resilience lenses. The CAP Update will strengthen the planning and policy connections between climate, flooding, adaptation, and resiliency in Baltimore and evaluate new and ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets. Following deep community input process that educated and elevated the visions of traditionally underrepresented residents of Baltimore City so the new Plan can be as relevant, actionable, and inclusive as possible, the draft plan will be released for public comment in October 2023. Visit the update page here.
What is a Climate Action Plan?
Climate Action Plans set goals to reduce cities' greenhouse gas emissions, and outline strategies to reach those goals. Reducing emissions mitigates or slows climate change, lessening its negative impacts. Climate Action Plans also include strategies for the City to adapt to the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather (heat and cold), flooding, decreased air quality, and many more.
Our Climate Action Plan update has a particular focus on addressing climate inequities, as many neighborhoods and communities in Baltimore are disproportionately affected by climate change due to decades of systemic racism. Climate inequities appear in many ways, from lack of tree cover and hotter average temperatures in lower-income neighborhoods to differences in the quality of infrastructures like sewer systems that may be affected by flooding, or a neighborhood's environmental health due to proximity to dangerous pollutants from industrial sites.
How can I get involved in Baltimore's Climate Action Plan Update?
Climate challenges impact many aspects of our lives in Baltimore, and we want to learn from your experience so that we can create an effective and equitable plan.
There number of ways for residents to get involved with the CAP Update.
- Attend the virtual public meeting on October 4, 2023
- Review the draft plan and submit tour comments online (October 1-31, 2023)
- Sign up for our mailing list for the CAP update or have any questions, please email us at climate@baltimorecity.gov.
Previously, we engaged with thousands of people to hear their ideas and priorities through workshops and surveys. The data help the Office of Sustainability draft a plan that benefits all Baltimore residents. Workshop participants were compensated for their time at a rate of $25/hr.
You can visit the City of Baltimore Climate Action Plan Update website for more information on the update in addition to an array of resources. If you are interested in being added to our mailing list for the CAP update or have any questions, please email us at climate@baltimorecity.gov.
Meet Our Advisory Council
The Climate Action Plan Advisory Council is made up of 16 residents, 3 of whom are Sustainability Commissioners. The Advisory Council's interests in the Climate Action Plan stem from their backgrounds in community beekeeping and urban farming, youth and community organizing, accessible design, and crime prevention. The Advisory Council will provide feedback on the engagement process and plan development, ensuring that we are meeting our equity goals.
Taylor Smith-Hams
Taylor Smith-Hams is a Baltimore-based advocate, organizer, and artist committed to advancing environmental and social justice. She is passionate about community-driven equitable and intersectional policy and views art as a critical component of social change and movement building. Taylor holds a BFA in Painting & Humanistic Studies from MICA and an MPA in Sustainable Infrastructures & Public Policy from UCL.
Naadiya Hutchinson
Naadiya Hutchinson is a legislative associate to Congressman Donald McEachin. In her role, she oversees policies related to public health, the environment, and agriculture. Key policies Naadiya has advised on include, but are not limited to the Environmental Justice for All Act and the Environmental Justice Legacy Pollution Clean-Up Act.
Naadiya got her Masters of Health Science from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Environmental Health. While pursuing her Masters, Naadiya also received three certificates in health communications, global health, and risk sciences & public policy.
Naadiya serves as the Communications Lead on the Circle of Wise Counsel for the Black Yield Institute. Naadiya is a trained meditation and yoga teacher, with an additional certification in Psychological First Aid.
In her academic, professional, and personal life, Naadiya approaches every situation with a holistic lens, recognizing that there is often more to a person or situation than what meets the eye. When Naadiya was mentoring a teenager, he told her that “he wanted to be free, he just didn’t know how.” Naadiya seeks to help Black youth and broader pan-African and indigenous communities achieve freedom by advancing youth education, improving health outcomes, demanding a cleaner environment, and ensuring a just future through our current climate catastrophe.
Inez Robb
Inez Robb has been a home owner in the Sandtown Winchester Community for 30 plus years. She retired from the Federal Government after 42 years. Inez has been a community leader for 27 years. She is active with Western District Community Relations Council, the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, the Baltimore Good Neighbors Coalition, the Community Law Center and the Johns Hopkins Community Research Advisory Council. Inez is a captain with the Baltimore Energy Challenge and certified as part of Baltimore’s Community Emergency Response Team.
Don Halligan
Don Halligan has 37 years of experience in the public sector at the local and state and regional levels, holding a variety of planning positions. Ten years of his career were in Cecil County, Maryland overseeing, land use, transportation and environmental planning areas. He spent over twenty-one years at the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), retiring in 2015 as Director of the Office of Planning & Capital Programming. During his state career he served for a short period as Assistant Secretary in the Maryland Department of Planning, running a wide range of planning functions there before returning to MDOT.
After retiring from the State, he took a position at the Baltimore Metropolitan Council as Senior Transportation Planner for Strategic Initiatives. He spends his days producing reports and data bases, providing technical support to local governments in the region, and most recently managed the Transit Governance and Funding study as a special projects for the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board and the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.
He lives in the Lake Walker neighborhood in north Baltimore with his wife and dog and has two adult children running wild in NYC and Philadelphia. He volunteers at the Station North Tool Library where he can be found making furniture, household items and teaching knife making.
Michael Anthony Farley
Michael Anthony Farley is an artist, curator, drag performer, writer, adjunct professor, and activist who lives between Mexico City and their native Baltimore. Recent projects include a proposal for green transportation infrastructure that addresses stormwater management issues in Mexico City, which won first prize when that city hosted the Foro Internacional de Infraestructura Verde y Cambio Climático. A dedicated car-free Baltimorean, they are currently in the midst of a DIY conversion of a vacant building snuggly between the Lexington Market subway station and Maryland Ave Cycle Track into a mixed-use live-work art space using mostly recycled materials. Hobbies include vegetarian cooking, fire escape compost bins, and sheepishly asking friends who drive if they want to go to thrift stores in the suburbs.
Lisa M. Ferretto
Lisa M. Ferretto, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, has been committed to sustainability throughout her life, since her first “eco-city” designed at 8 years old. Since 2005, she has been with Hord Coplan Macht, as a Sustainability Director, Principal and Architect. She describes herself as an “urban scientist” studying the interconnected systems of people with each other, nature, and cities. Ms. Ferretto is a frequent lecturer and has volunteered with AIA COTE, Portland’s City Repair Project, Baltimore’s Green Building Task Force, and previously served on the MD Green Building Council. She is a Climate Reality Climate Leader, SEED Accredited, a Green School Leader, an Eco-Charrette Accredited Facilitator, and also the founder of GREEN events | Baltimore.
Dick Williams
Dick Williams has retired from career work in real estate lending, urban planning, public/private venture development and green building consulting. In September, 2020, he became certified as a Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional (CBLP), and is now working part-time as a sustainable landscapes consultant.
Dick was the co-originator/project manager of the Mount Royal E/M School 2,160 sq. ft. pollinator micro-habitat/outdoor classroom, dedicated in November, 2018. He remains its steward. Dick co-founded what became known as BALTIMORE ● Blue+Green+Just in May 2019 and serves on its Steering Committee as Treasurer. He is co-lead of GreenGrace, the environmental ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.
Since May, 2020, Dick has been a contributing member of the “Reimagine Middle Branch” Public Planning Advisory Committee. In the fall of 2020 Dick retired his 10-year LEED AP accreditation. That work included the LEED Silver certification of “The Fitzgerald,” a transit-oriented mixed-use $75M apartment building in Midtown Baltimore.
Dick is a U. S. Navy veteran.
Zoe Metker
More information to come.
Richard "Farmer Chippy" Francis
More information to come.
Ashley Esposito
Ashley Esposito is a mom, local artist, community advocate, and bee friend living in Southwest Baltimore. She works for the State of Maryland as a tech professional with a background in data analysis and database development. Originally from Southern Arizona, she has always been environmentally conscious. She is a graduate of the Baltimore City's Planning Academy. She is also a member of Baltimore City's Trash & Illegal Dumping Coalition along with several environmental advocacy groups.
She is a co-founder and current board member of Village of Violetville, Inc., a neighborhood wellness association. She is looking forward to sharing ideas to bring community, youth, and families into the climate change conversation. She is passionate about crafting outreach and meeting people where they are.
Kimberley Fleming
More information to come.
Lisa Molock
More information to come.
Bridgette Acklin
More information to come.
Matthew Lewis
More information to come.
Margaret Epps
More information to come.
