New Southeast Florida climate plan urges greater participation and wider collaboration in advancing climate solutions

By The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact

The organization that coordinates the work of Southeast Florida to address the threats from the warming climate has released an updated plan that calls for a more comprehensive approach to making the region more resilient.

The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact unveiled the third update to the Regional Climate Action Plan (RCAP 3.0) at its 14th Annual Leadership Summit last week, hosted in Broward County.

First developed in 2012 with a five-year planning horizon, the RCAP is a voluntary framework designed to align, guide and support the acceleration of local and regional climate action in Southeast Florida’s four counties. The goal is to create a healthy, prosperous, more equitable and resilient, low-carbon region.

During 2022 the compact engaged with more than 150 experts, as well as regional stakeholders and the public to ensure that the document remains a useful tool to advance coordinated regional climate action. After a decade of existence and three iterations later, what is new about RCAP 3.0 and how does this document remain a foundational framework to support climate practitioners?

Expanded vision of climate resilience

“In plan after plan, you are seeing an expansion of our definition of resilience. You are seeing the integration of environmental justice, housing. You are seeing climate innovation in the private sector,” Broward County Commissioner Beam Furr said during a panel discussion at the summit. The panel included elected leaders from Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties.

While the central focus of the RCAP remains unchanged, RCAP 3.0 is by far the compact’s most comprehensive document. It is arranged into 11 distinct chapters/focal areas for organizational purposes. The authors stressed that the plan’s 120 recommendations and strategies are deeply interconnected.

The revised plan makes clear that we must think of housing, land-use planning and transportation as critical climate change strategies. The transition to a clean energy economy is foundational to climate and economic resilience—both an economic opportunity and imperative for regional competitiveness.

These intersections highlight that climate change is not a siloed issue that can be addressed independently or as an “add-on.” Rather, it is central to the region’s health, economy, and quality of life. Addressing the challenges of the warming climate requires a unified response from governments, civil society, the private sector and the community.

All hands on deck

The new plan includes “implementers” — core stakeholders needed to advance each strategy. The plan also identifies key federal and state partners critical to making the region more resilient.

The RCAP 3.0 identifies 44 implementers spanning government, quasi-government agencies, civil society and the private sector. The updated plan allows a RCAP user to search and find recommendations and strategies relevant to their interests. But it also recognizes that while any stakeholder’s action is critical, it is insufficient to meet the climate crisis we collectively face.

The document calls on all entities and leaders across the region to take part in developing and implementing the plan and to integrate climate change into their own work.

Ratcheting up regional ambitions  

For the first time, the plan explicitly provides a regional greenhouse gas emission reduction target that aligns with national and global commitments to achieve the goal of the Paris Accord: net zero goal by 2050 as compared to a 2005 baseline.

As home to more than 6 million people, Southeast Florida generates a third of the state’s economic activity and a similar share of the state’s emissions. Therefore, every entity within our region must strive for ambitious targets that reflect the urgency with which we are asking the global community, our national and state governments and utilities to act.

This shared goal reinforces that Southeast Florida is part of the global community working to solve a problem that is both global and local.  It also acknowledges that regional leadership is critical. Climate mitigation and adaptation cannot be divorced, and advancing a low-carbon future is of equal importance to adaptation advancements.

People-centered

RCAP 3.0 renames the chapter previously called “Public Outreach and Engagement” to “Informed and Engaged Communities” to better reflect the mutually beneficial partnerships among governments, the communities they serve, and the myriad of private and civil society entities involved in advancing a resilient future.

The recommendations within this chapter, along with the equity chapter, reinforce that people must be at the center of this work. They posit that participatory governance, increased collaboration and sustained community engagement will result in more effective, accepted, creative and durable climate solutions.

The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact is a decade-old partnership among Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties, to work collaboratively to reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions, implement adaptation strategies, and build climate resilience within their own communities and across the Southeast Florida region.

“The Invading Sea” is the opinion arm of the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a collaborative of news organizations across the state focusing on the threats posed by the warming climate.