Millions of Americans have been impacted by drought, wildfires, flooding, storms, and other extreme weather events. It is predicted that the impacts will become more severe. Cities and other local governments are often on the front lines. As climate disasters increase in frequency and severity, cities with proactive climate policies will be better able to minimize long-term vulnerabilities while delivering near-term benefits.

The Local Policy Lab sees a powerful intersection of climate and democracy, and we are encouraged by the observation that what’s good for the community is often good for the climate: safer streets, more amenities within walking distance, keeping dollars in the local economy, neighbors knowing neighbors, and urban and rural communities recognizing that we need one another. As local communities wrestle with climate change and strive to maintain our core democratic institutions, we look forward to supporting and learning from their innovations.

To that end, by assisting local governments to effectively engage their residents and increase non-partisan civic participation, LPL simultaneously helps them strengthen democratic institutions and respond to climate change.

Globally and nationally, the risks that climate change poses to democracy are clear: as the physical impacts of climate change deepen and spread, global competition for resources like water and food, as well as acute climate disasters like storms, fires, and floods, could lead to social unrest and an erosion of trust in institutions.

Yet even as climate tests democracy, evidence suggests that nations with stronger democratic institutions respond to climate change more effectively and rapidly than less democratic countries.

Climate stressors–both physical impacts and the economic disruption of the transition to a low-carbon economy–have the potential to exacerbate political polarization. But facing difficult circumstances together and with a recognition of our shared fate, this transition also holds the potential to bring us together. An important implication of this is that climate policies cannot leave communities behind as the transition to a low-carbon economy accelerates and as climate impacts fall unevenly. Investing in this protection and transition will require a strong non-partisan civic infrastructure and social cohesion: it will require a democracy that protects the rights of the few while addressing the priorities of the many.

LPL’s Climate and Democracy Toolkit is a useful resource to educate and support local governments. The Toolkit includes tools and templates for all stages of resident engagement. These include an environmental scan of the local landscape, authentic community engagement, stakeholder mapping, power mapping, historical context, tips for messaging, education and more. The Toolkit is available to any city, organization or individual. In addition, LPL is using it to put concrete plans together with cities.

Click here to download the toolkit.