The U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 17 governors committed to upholding the targets of the Paris Agreement, is releasing three clean energy and resilience “playbooks” that will serve as implementation resources for states in deploying solar energy, spurring electric grid modernization, and enhancing resilience in the face of climate impacts and natural hazards. These playbooks are the U.S. Climate Alliance’s latest steps to advance interstate policy solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and grow the economy.

“Reports like the National Climate Assessment underscore the urgency to address climate change. The playbooks released today deliver concrete implementation resources for governors committed to lowering their greenhouse gas emissions and making their state more resilient,” said Julie Cerqueira, Executive Director of the U.S. Climate Alliance.

The playbooks are being released as Governors’ policy advisers from California, Washington, Hawaii, and Maryland are participating in COP24 in a series of climate meetings with international counterparts to discuss collaboration on climate solutions. The U.S. Climate Alliance unveiled plans for the Impact Partnership at COP24, which provides technical, analytical, and other support to the alliance from civil society.

The U.S. Climate Alliance has identified solar deployment, non-wire solutions (NWS), and resiliency as key areas to advance in 2019. The following playbooks are released today to help accelerate state climate action:

• The Solar Deployment Guidebook, developed in collaboration with the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), was created to assist states and localities in accelerating solar adoption. In February 2018, the Trump administration decided to impose import tariffs on solar hardware components, which are expected to increase the cost of U.S. solar projects by 10% and reduce installations by 11%. In response, the guidebook provides strategies and tools to reduce non-hardware costs of solar deployment, including permitting, zoning, property taxes, and municipal procurement, so that solar energy deployment can continue to grow.

• The Non-Wires Solutions Implementation Playbook, developed in collaboration with Rocky Mountain Institute, highlights how electric utilities increasingly can reduce their system infrastructure investments and save customers money by employing non-wires solutions—portfolios of distributed energy resources like solar PV, energy storage, energy efficiency and demand response—to cost-effectively meet growing grid needs. The Playbook identifies the key barriers that have inhibited more widespread non-wires deployment and makes practical recommendations for states to overcome them.

• The New Governors’ Resilience Playbook provides information to new governors assuming office in January 2019 on how to minimize climate risk, maximize clean economic growth opportunities and reduce future costs from extreme weather and climate variability. Climate change is bringing increased and more severe extreme weather events like hurricanes and wildfires, with a high human and economic cost. In 2017 and 2018 alone, the U.S. suffered over $300 billion in damages from extreme weather events. The playbook proposes a ten-step strategy for new governors to engage local actors and direct state agencies to enhance resilience.

“As the Trump Administration continues to backtrack on policies and regulations to protect our air, water and climate, these resources will provide states with blueprints to deploy proven clean energy approaches that benefit the environment and the economy simultaneously,” said Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy and Finance, New York State. “The playbooks draw on what U.S. Climate Alliance members are already putting into practice. In New York, non-wires solutions are saving ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars while spurring the deployment of advanced clean energy solutions. It’s the leadership of state governors like Andrew M. Cuomo of New York that enables states to work together to protect our citizens from the harmful and threatening impacts of extreme weather events due to climate change.”

“To achieve deep emissions cuts, it is really important for states to make their power sectors smarter, cleaner, and more efficient,” said Chris Davis, who is a Senior Advisor to Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Energy and Carbon Markets. “By bringing together best practices and a roadmap to follow, the U.S. Climate Alliance playbooks help states accelerate their climate action.”

“States are facing hotter, wetter and wilder weather, threatening roads, utilities, and other critical infrastructure,” said Ben Grumbles, Chair of the Maryland Climate Change Commission, “Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s Cabinet agencies recently partnered with the National Governor’s Association for a two day statewide Resilience Summit to instill a culture of preparedness, taking a page out of the Resilient Infrastructure Playbook and building upon our state’s new Climate Leadership Academy.”

At the Global Climate Action Summit in September, the Alliance made new commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions in a variety of different ways, from reducing short-lived climate pollutants to deploying $1.4 billion to decarbonize transportation. The Alliance is expected to gain new members when a wave of governors take office in early 2019.