Climate

Oregon's 19 land use planning goals happen to make good climate strategy.

Climate change contributes to an unstable Oregon: It increases the frequency and severity of wildfire, accelerates drought conditions, and affects all sectors of the economy and ways of life. Changing climate conditions require climate action that helps vulnerable populations and impacted communities adapt to climate change. Oregon’s land use planning system is intended to ensure economic, community, and environmental health through comprehensive land use planning, and meaningful climate action using the land use program has been understood to be among the necessary components to protect the health and future of Oregon.

Land use policy IS climate policy.

For nearly 50 years, Oregon’s land use planning program has helped keep Oregon ahead of the curve when it comes to the effects of climate change. Learn more about why land use planning and climate change mitigation go hand in hand.

 

 

More on our climate work
Patches of eelgrass on mudflats appear at low tide in Tillamook Bay
Eelgrass is the biodiversity foundation of Oregon’s estuary health

Eelgrass is essential to Oregon’s estuaries, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. But as seagrasses worldwide decline, Oregonians are taking a proactive approach to protecting them, including supporting HB 3580 in this year’s legislative session.

Troy Jones talks with Peter Kenagy in a field in Harrisburg
Sacrificing farmland isn’t the answer in the renewable energy shift

While sustainable energy sources are a pressing need in mitigating climate change, renewables don’t need to come at the expense of farmland.

White vapor rises from ground level in the distance, looking over an open green field
Intel elbows for #1 polluter position in Oregon

One of the Portland metro region’s largest employers sought a less-admirable top spot by more than doubling their carbon emissions at their Washington County campus. Not on our watch.