The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) brings fresh opportunities, but many cities still lack the right know-how and resources to fully use them. This is where businesses, local government and communities can collaborate on climate action together to achieve their shared goals.
During NYC Climate Week 2024, CDP, C40 and Climate Mayors gathered stakeholders from multiple sectors – ranging from local governments to financial institutions and private sector companies – for a discussion on Pipelines & Partnerships: Accelerating City Climate Action Through the Inflation Reduction Act.
This event aimed to facilitate conversations highlighting successful collaborations and provide a platform to talk through challenges with peers. A panel discussion featured Laurel Blatchford, Chief Implementation Officer for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) from the U.S. Department of Treasury; Mark Chambers, Vice President of Partnerships at Elemental Impact; Mayor Melissa Logan from the City of Blytheville, Arkansas; and Sarah O’Keefe, Chief Sustainability Officer from the City of Cleveland, Ohio.
This was followed by table discussions hosted by leaders across the public and private sector including Sam Jung, Vice President for Renewable Energy Industry Development from the City of New York Economic Development Corporation; Qiana Mickie, Executive Director of City of New York Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture; Zach Baumer, Chief Sustainability Officer from the City of Austin; Lauren Moss, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer from Vornado Realty Trust; Kyle Gilley, Vice President of Government Relations at Carrier; and Patricia Gomez, Interim Chief Resilience Officer from County of Miami Dade, Florida.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Partnerships can fill the implementation gap. Partnerships offer mutual benefits – cities gain access to technical expertise, while businesses tap into new market opportunities. By leveraging each side’s contributions – whether it’s technical expertise, funding or local knowledge – they can help ensure that a partnership is successful. Cities cited issues with funding integration, especially smaller cities navigating compliance with federal funding programs like the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). They may need assistance figuring out how to comply with regulations, especially with the significant opportunity presented by the elective pay tax credit. As Shaun Roberts, Sustainable Finance Integration Specialist at Wells Fargo, noted, “Banks understand tax credits and finance,” highlighting the importance of partnerships at this stage. Regional partners and organizations that can offer pro-bono technical assistance or workforce up-skilling, such as Lawyers for Good Government who attended the event, offer proposal templates and free federal funding resources.
2. Create accessible spaces to bring together diverse voices. Cities like New York and Cleveland are fostering cross-sectoral collaborations and convenings. In the summer of 2023, Cleveland’s Mayor's Office of Sustainability hosted a Decarbonization Summit in which over 300 community organizations, local businesses and national sustainability leaders participated. The city plans to use the insights to develop “decarbonization pathways” to update and strengthen the Cleveland Climate Action Plan. With 40% of Inflation Reduction Act funding dedicated to benefit overburdened communities through the Justice40 Initiative, equity and resource distribution was a relevant topic at each roundtable discussion at our Climate Week event. It is necessary to be proactive to ensure that marginalized communities are included in the conversation, especially in the deployment of new technologies and resources.
3. Identify experienced intermediaries. When the public and private sector join, they can pool resources, share technical support and explore innovative funding solutions – especially when it comes to federal opportunities. An important element in this process is bringing in trusted intermediaries, which can help reduce projects risks, a point emphasized by Benita Hussain, Chief Program Officer at American Forests. With corporate partners providing matching funds, American Forests is channeling over $1.5B into urban and community forestry, directly benefiting local communities.
4. Working collaboratively to support workforce development. One major barrier? The workforce. With the increasing number of new projects, there just aren’t enough skilled workers. As partnerships grow, cities and companies are working together to train people for jobs in green energy, fleet conversion and more. This not only gets projects off the ground faster, but also strengthens the local economy.
“Most importantly, the workforce needed to get these projects done doesn’t currently exist, so we need workforce development.” Mark Chambers of Elemental Impact, which recently opened a US$100 million fund as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, commented on scaling climate technologies with community impact.
5. Building trust to create lasting partnerships. For partnerships to keep thriving, all parties need to bring trust and transparency to the table. This is something that both Mayor Melisa Logan of Blytheville Arkansas and Sarah O’Keeffe, Chief Sustainability Officer from Cleveland, Ohio stressed in the panel discussion. “How do we know where to start? How do we verify which companies we can trust?”
One approach is to learn from the experience of other cities and to seek guidance from city networks to navigate the ever-changing landscape. Local governments can also leverage resources like the City-Business Climate Alliance and CDP’s Business Scan data tool. While there’s a lot of work to do, the potential for progress through public-private collaboration is significant, and meaningful work is already underway.
- City of New York’s Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and Equinor Wind are building the nation’s largest dedicated offshore wind port at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT) in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. This partnership is expected to power 500,000 New York City homes, create thousands of clean energy jobs and procurement opportunities with a focus on Sunset Park, an environmental justice community.
- City of New Orleans, Finance New Orleans and Elemental Impact is partnering with Microsoft, Capgemini and Bouygues to fund low-carbon building material solutions. They hosted a similar Innovation challenge in 2023 with the City of New Orleans and Finance New Orleans.
Cross-sectoral collaboration is vital to fully realize the potential of the IRA. There needs to be continued dialogue between public and private sectors to ensure climate action goals are met effectively. As shared by Laurel Blatchford from the U.S. Treasury, the IRA is in the “adolescent phase”. And as we move forward towards implementation with the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Implementation Funding estimated to be released in Fall 2024, we urge the conversations to continue.
CDP, Climate Mayors and C40 and communities near you have available resources that can help catalyze, innovate and further climate action. If you’re looking for more resources about US Federal Climate Policy, you can find them in the C40 Knowledge Hub and the Climate Mayors resource page for more on direct pay and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF).