Why Should Delaware Care?
Climate change threatens to bring more floods, bigger storms and more intense heatwaves to Delaware. Delaware’s Climate Action Plan outlines how the state will work to face these impacts and reduce emissions for the next five years, and the public now has a chance to ask questions and give feedback.
A new roadmap for how Delaware will face climate change is on the way, and Delawareans still have time to shape it.
Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) will host three community engagement sessions this month to get feedback on its 2025 Climate Action Plan Update.
This plan does not have the teeth of a law, but will guide elected leaders’ efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, produce renewable energy and face the impacts of climate change for the next five years.
DNREC Climate and Sustainability Section Administrator Susan Love, whose team is leading the plan update, said she wants as many people as possible to have a say in what it looks like.
“Climate change affects everyone in this state… and the way in which Delaware addresses it is going to also impact you and could benefit you,” Love said.
The first session will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the Del-Tech Orlando J. George Jr. Campus in Wilmington.
The second will take place on Thursday, Sept. 18, at the Del-Tech William A. Carter Partnership Center in Georgetown.
The last will be on Tuesday, Sept. 23, at the Modern Maturity Center in Dover.
The community engagement sessions will run from 4 to 7 p.m. Residents can join at any time and do not have to stay for the entire three hours.
“You can spend five minutes, you can spend three hours. It’s up to you,” Love said.
Anyone who can’t make it to the feedback sessions can comment through an online questionnaire, which will be available on the 2025 Climate Action Plan Update webpage along with the information presented at the sessions.
The deadline to submit public comment is Oct. 10, and the plan will be published by Nov. 15, Love said.
Building on 2021 plan
DNREC previously published a Climate Action Plan in November 2021, which outlined many different actions the state should take to reduce emissions and become more resilient to climate change.
Some of these actions include conducting studies on how the state’s electric grid can become carbon-free by 2050, expanding state incentive programs for renewable energy and protecting wetlands so they can continue to act as flood control during storms.
State lawmakers passed the Climate Change Solutions Act in 2023, which requires DNREC to update its Climate Action Plan every five years, starting in 2025.
Love said she thinks the five-year timeline works well because technology changes quickly, and the action plan needs to reflect the state’s progress.
“Every five years gives us a good amount of time to be able to take a step back and see, well, where are we? How far have we come?” Love said.
DNREC started the process of creating the plan update soon after and conducted other community engagement sessions last fall.
What will the feedback session be like?
Love said the upcoming community feedback sessions are designed so that people with any level of knowledge in climate action can engage.
DNREC staff have already created a list of strategies and actions that they are considering putting into the Climate Action Plan, Love said. Attendees of the feedback session will be able to discuss them with experts and make comments.
The session will be set up like a community fair, with different tables covering different subjects, like trees and agriculture. Love said attendees can interact with as many or as few tables as they want.
