Had a super productive day getting ready for our next LCAP cohort, taking @iclei-usa.bsky.social ClearPath 2.0 for a spin. This is a game changer for making it easier for local govs to engage in climate planning. The future is local. 🌎

Met three of my Energy and Sustainability Policy students who journeyed to Happy Valley after completing their degrees online. All three of these fine students were also in my Local Climate Action Program this year. Excited to see all the ways they continue to make the world a better place now. 🌎💕🌎

It's been a pleasure having the City of Allentown in our LCAP this year! www.psu.edu/news/impact/...

Final LCAP presentation to Upper Providence Township on Monday. Carlin and Michael drafted a climate action plan complete with emissions forecasting and case studies of example actions from other communities.

Humbled and honored to receive Penn State's Community Engagement and Scholarship Award this year for our Local Climate Action Program. It might be my picture in that thumbnail, but it takes a village to save the climate. Colleagues, students, gov partners and more! Thanks for helping LCAP shine.

Local Climate Action Program spring semester presentations to local govs are off to a great start! Grant Rowe and Ashley Curry presented to the Centre Region Climate and Sustainability committee just now and knocked it out of the park! 🌎💕🙂 The future is local.

Friday night I had the honor of presenting Energy and Sustainability Policy graduate, Kate Robeson-Grubb with our Distinguished Alumni Award. Kate has gone on to a career in sustainability in local government and ik so glad we work together now in the Local Climate Action Program.

Disgusting, reckless, misguided, cruel. I am sad for our children and grandchildren who will shoulder a larger burden of climate impacts so that wealthy people can get wealthier.

Kelli is one of only a handful of students who did both her undergraduate and graduate degree work with us through Penn State World Campus. I had the honor of being her adviser for both undergrad and grad and supervising some awesome local climate projects she did!

Women will save the climate, one community at a time. Ashley - citizen volunteer on Kennett Twp EAC Alison - Penn State World Campus student; Kennett resident Brandi - Penn State teaching faculty; co-director Local Climate Action Program

Look for the good news when you can. ☀️

What your feed needs is a little lop eared bunny soaking up some February sun.

On the heels of the hottest year on record, we're scrubbing any mention of 'climate' and 'GHGs'. We're choosing to ignore impacts as we anticipate future infrastructure needs. Soooo...is this the great again part?

"Hunkering down at the local level" is exactly my plan too.

Tomorrow's the day! Stop by EES Building on campus and have pizza with us, or warm up your own lunch and tune in via Zoom.

A tiny sliver of good climate news this week.

Learn more about our Local Climate Action Program. Everyone wins - students gain transferable skills in GHG accounting and climate policy, the local govs get project support, and @peterdbuck.bsky.social and I? Well, we just get to be a small piece of it all and help our neighbors around PA.

Join us next Wednesday 1/29 to learn more about COP29 in Baku.

I'm in.

Yes. Subnational climate action has always been a necessary component of meaningful emissions reductions in the US. Before the IRA, federal action to lead on climate was woefully inadequate, so in some ways we're used to relying on local and state efforts. Doesn't make this sting less, though.

We all knew that executive action on the Paris Agreement was coming. Did not make it hurt less. I'll roll up my sleeves and get to work tomorrow. But I just can't with today. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Things are still moving in the wrong direction.

When Alison Bucher-Rubilar presented her LCAP GHG inventory results to Kennett Twp last month, a reporter was in the audience. We talked about why no matter who is in the White House, local climate action will continue.

Great work by my World Campus students, Amanda Theodorson and Lauren Moylan, who just presented the findings of their communitywide greenhouse gas emissions inventory for Haverford Township to the Haverford Board of Commissioners. Excited now to help implement some of the township's CAP strategies!

Thinking of all of my Penn State World Campus students trying to take my human dimensions of climate change class (GEOG 438W) from Southern California right now. Climate impacts getting in the way of learning about climate impacts.

Excited to start our spring semester today at Penn State where students in our Local Climate Action Program will work with municipal govt partners from around the state to advance local climate policy and planning initiatives. The future is local, friends!

Another year, another broken record. The top ten warmest years on record have all occurred in my middle schooler's lifetime. What sort of future are handing our children?

As climate change increases the risk of dry conditions and fire weather, fires across western NAm are bigger, more dangerous, and burning greater area. It’s the difference between accidentally dropping a match into a pile of green, wet wood versus dropping it into a stack of bone dry kindling.

Turns out 18 inch doll accessories are also New Holland Lop accessories.

Subnational efforts will pick up US slack.

My incredibly talented student, Kelli Volkomer crocheted this stunning climate stripes shawl for me. 🤯 Congratulations on your graduation, Kelli! The climate is lucky to have students like you! #showyourstripes

This semester's crop of Back to the Future assignments to imagine our climate reality of 2050 trends largely hopeful but pragmatic. Most students think we're going to make meaningful progress to avert the worst impacts and they're feeling hopeful about the future. Not bad considering the election!

So proud of my student, Alison Bucher-Rubilar for her excellent presentation last night to the Kennett Twp EAC. She walked them through the GHG inventory she's done for the township, talked about our next steps, and answered their thoughtful questions so well. The future is local, friends!

I'm on my way home from Baku, hoping that the final texts come closer to what's needed to address the climate crisis and gross inequities it's already created.

Lidy Nacpil of Demand Climate Justice: We will not accept a bad deal here. We can't commit to climate action without finance. Finance from the global north is necessary for reparations of historical emissions that have caused this crisis.

Every year we say that next year is the year we need decisive action. 2030 is around the corner and the window for 1.5 is closing.

Yes. This. It's not about whether we have the money. It's whether we have the ambition to spend the money wisely. It's 1% of annual GDP. It's not *that* much when you think of it that way. Discontinue fossil fuel subsidies, and that certainly frees up some pennies.

Working with cities and small local communities offers hope in a changing climate.

The world waits for the NCQG.

This session is exploring the role of the new collective quantified goal (NCQC) to unlock NDCs for phasing out fossil fuels. Joseph Sikulu, 350.org reminds us that the values of stewardship and care central to indigenous knowledge is the framework from which climate strategies should *start*. #cop29

Another day in the Blue Zone at #COP29. Tensions are high as the world wonders what the finance commitments will be by the end of this week. The moral imperative is clear.

Climate finance commitments and ambitious NDCs are needed. Tim is up, we must act now.