The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency provides technical assistance to communities to support them in advancing the vision of Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework for the state to be carbon-neutral, resilient, and equitable. Technical assistance is the process of providing specific support to local, regional, and tribal governments, and community organizations in Minnesota to connect them with current climate adaption, mitigation, and resilience resources.
The MPCA can provide climate change technical assistance to Minnesota communities. This can include requests for one-on-one consultation with staff or organizations, advising in small group facilitation, or other technical inquiries.
Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework
Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework includes a summary of the climate actions the state must take to cut our greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the impacts of climate change.
Resources
Climate planning
- Regional climate summaries offer a high-level summary of the projected changes (including temperature and precipitation changes), as well as key climate impacts to sectors such as agriculture and tourism, for each of the nine geographic regions in Minnesota. (University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership)
- Funded grant projects: The MPCA has awarded hundreds of grants to communities for climate action resilience work, including both implementation and planning projects. This tool offers the location and details for past projects across Minnesota, with a growing set of deliverables from completed projects.
- Technical assistance (MN TA Collab) is a directory with organizations and technical assistance providers that offer (at least in part) no-cost, direct technical assistance to develop projects and/or apply for or manage funding related to climate, clean energy, and environment in Minnesota.
- Local Action Framework: A guide to help communities achieve energy and environmental goals is based on best practices identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
- Climate Adaptation Framework menu of climate adaptation strategies is an excerpt from a series of population vulnerability assessments developed by paleBLUEdot for 23 communities throughout Minnesota in 2017 and 2018.
- Community resilience building is an “anywhere at any scale,” community-driven process, rich with information, experience, and dialogue. Participants identify top hazards, current challenges, strengths, and priority actions to improve community resilience to natural and climate-related hazards today and in the future.
Action and implementation
Minnesota GreenStep Cities and Tribal Nations are voluntary challenge, assistance, and recognition programs to help communities achieve their goals for sustainability and quality of life. These programs provide a menu of best practices.
Minnesota Gold Leaf Challenge focuses on pathways for communities to take local climate action. Using GreenStep program resources, this new program aims to challenge, assist, and recognize your efforts for completing any actions from climate mitigation, climate planning, climate adaptation, and community connectedness for Minnesota's changing climate.
Funding
MPCA-administered funding for climate-resilient communities and local climate action:
- planning grants to assess risk, identify options, and develop plans for resiliency of stormwater systems, wastewater systems, and overall community resilience to the impacts of climate change
- implementation grants for construction of priority projects that are designed to increase resilience to conditions caused by climate change
- local climate action grants to develop and implement plans of action that increase resilience or reduce local contributions to the causes of climate change
Federal direct pay: The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offered significant funding and tax incentives to support community-led climate initiatives. Through “elective pay” (also called “direct pay”), tax-exempt entities such as schools, local governments, and nonprofit organizations can access 30% clean energy investment credits.
Minnesota climate and clean energy grants tracker (MN TA Collab) is an online resource to search for federal, state and philanthropic grants that fund climate, clean energy, and environment projects in Minnesota.
Federal funds resources (MMB) include a suite of zero-cost technical assistance services to Minnesota entities as they pursue and manage federal grant funding.
Useful tools
Minnesota CliMAT is an interactive online tool that provides highly localized climate projections for Minnesota. Users can view climate projections down to the 4-km/2.5-mile scale across the state, visualizing how even specific towns will likely be impacted in the coming decades.
State of Minnesota Hazard Mitigation Plan 2024 evaluates and prioritizes the major natural and human-caused hazards affecting the state government agencies as determined by frequency of events, economic impact, deaths, and injuries.
Regional Indicators Initiative (RII) provides GHG emissions data to local government elected officials, staff, and community members with city-wide data and tools to inform their climate planning and action.
Understanding environmental justice in Minnesota: MPCA is committed to protecting the environment and public health in low-income, Tribal, and other overburdened communities by integrating environmental justice in all programs, policies, and activities.