In June 2017, 392 Mayors of U.S. cities pledged to adopt, honor, and uphold the goals of the Paris Accord after the United State Federal Government withdrew from the agreement (Climate Mayors, 2017). The mayors who signed on to this pledge recognized the importance of addressing climate change. Prior to 2010, climate adaptation and mitigation efforts were sparse. In the Eastern U.S., only eight adaptation or resilience plans had been completed up that time. Since then, at least 39 other cities or counties have completed adaptation plans . Similarly, CDP has reported a tenfold increase in the number of cities reporting GHG emissions since 2011 (CDP, 2017).
For the purposes of this paper, any city planning activity that employs these methods is considered a climate planning activity. “Climate action” includes the implementation of planning strategies.