The Municipal Emissions Reductions Playbook
A Planner’s Toolkit for Reaching Zero Emissions
The Municipal Emissions Reduction Playbook (MERP) is an interactive dashboard designed to make addressing climate change in an uncertain future as easy as possible for local governments. The MERP is designed to aid in this by helping you locate the CPRG strategies for emissions reductions that are most effective at stopping the production of greenhouse gases.
The PCAP and CCAP are a collection of strategies that Impact 2050 developed as part of the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant. While these strategies are each proven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some are more effective than others, and different cities may or may not be already using them. As our research has found, some strategies can’t be executed at the municipal level. We developed the MERP to help navigate our strategies in the context of an individual city’s climate planning, enabling them to make high-impact plans for reducing emissions.
MERPs will help you…
Identify the the best strategies for your community
MERPs provide local governments the ability to assess current planning around GHG emissions and decide which policies to implement (or to pause) depending on their level of overall impact on GHG reduction. They do so by answering the following:
- Which sectors contribute the most to regional GHG emissions?
- Which strategies will provide the greatest benefits?
- How do local conditions determine relevant strategies?
Recommended strategies will be limited to those that local governments have the authority to implement according to our Authority to Implement.
Plan for an uncertain future
Evolving local, regional, and global forces bring new opportunities and challenges. Each MERP has functions to let you update it over time and meaningfully engage with your community members and stakeholders.
Find next steps to implementation
A strategy needs clear and actionable next steps in order to make it happen. Each strategy in the MERP will contain a direct link to its entry in the Authority to Implement that explains methods for making it happen.
Town Specific MERPs
Below each municipality has a MERP Dashboard with the spreadsheet filled out relating the current status of the municipality in regards to each strategy. Using information gathered for the spreadsheet in conjunction with research about towns accessible through online sources, and interviews with local officials are included in the municipal specific reports to layout a potential pathway for reducing carbon emission in each municipality. The reports are based on data available in 2025, thus the MERP spreadsheet may be a more useful tool if conditions and sentiments in the town have drastically changed. Additionally if you would prefer there is a Blank MERP Dashboard which can be completed according to your own knowledge.