The Regional Planning Commission is preparing Southeastern Louisiana for the future!

In 2024, we completed a Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP) that covers all nine regional parishes: Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, and Tangipahoa. Now we are building on that framework to create a more detailed plan called the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP).

The CCAP will help get the region ready for future opportunities and challenges by identifying ways to improve our health, reduce the damage from natural disasters, improve our ability to respond to extreme weather, and prepare for new jobs in the process.

The CCAP is paid for by money from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that was awarded by Congress in August 2022.

The development of the CCAP will help us to understand:

• where we are today with problems like air pollution and greenhouse gas how these problems impact our communities
• what actions we can take (individually, locally, and as a region) to make things better for our environment and people.

The CCAP will also address how our environment impacts other challenges we face, like high living costs and low job growth. The plan will offer multiple ideas that will help guide decision-makers in preparing the Greater New Orleans region for the coming years. These ideas will include actions that will improve community health, reduce damage from natural disasters, grow the regional economy, and train workers for future jobs.

Over 200 communities, including states, cities, regions, tribes, and territories, are developing these plans through the EPA. In addition to creating regional opportunities, with the support of CCAP, communities and states across the country will be able to join forces in confronting our common environmental and economic challenges.

 The environment is changing faster than ever. As our communities use energy for industrial purposes and drive cars for personal use , heat-trapping gasses called greenhouse gases are released into the air.  These gases are turning what used to be extreme weather events, like heatwaves, heavy rain, and strong hurricanes, into our new normal weather patterns. However, our cities and communities are not set up for this new normal.

The CCAP can help address these challenges by guiding decisions and actions such as:

Taking action now will help reduce risks to the region in the future.

The CCAP will build on the work already started by cities and parishes in the region and the planning done for the PCAP, which was finished in early 2024. The PCAP was the first part of this EPA planning process, and the CCAP will continue this effort. The CCAP will add more details to the PCAP’s actions, plan for the future, and create new actions for the region. The CCAP will take most of 2025 to develop. The PCAP is available here.

This planning process has already created positive impacts in our region. For instance, the City of New Orleans was one of 25 locations in the country to get early funding from the EPA based on the PCAP. The City was awarded nearly $50 million to:

• Increase Transportation Access – add 148 new bike share stations, 2,500 electric bikes, and incentives for 3,000 electric bikes
• Cut Energy Costs – upgrade 50 local government buildings to reduce energy costs
• Plant Trees – plant 7,500 trees to cool the region, cut energy costs, and clean the air
• Increase Solar Energy – launch programs to increase solar panels on private properties
• Improve Buildings – create programs with energy goals for large buildings.

Other local governments will be able to use the data collected from these test projects to support replication and funding for similar projects in their cities and parishes.

The first few months will be spent on research, meeting with community leaders, and talking to the public. Based on what we learn, we will identify the most important actions to prepare for the region’s future. These findings will be written into the plan and shared with the public by December 2025.

Getting the Greater New Orleans Region ready for the future means working together. Government leaders, business leaders, non-profit leaders, and community members all need to team up. Working together, we can make our region strong for the future. There are multiple options for getting involved in the project.