Climate Action and Adaptation Plan Progress Reports

For each of the five areas of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, the following reports track actions completed to date.   

• Buildings and Energy
• Transportation
• Adaptation
• Waste
• Sustainable Lifestyle

In the Impact Report 2020-2025, programs and engagement efforts of the Climate Action Division are described in detail.

To help guide its climate action initiatives, the City of Iowa City undertakes two different types of greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories: an annual communitywide inventory that provides an estimate for all emissions generated within city limits and periodic municipal inventories to better understand the subset of emissions specific to government operations.

View Municipal Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2024.

In September 2018, the City Council established its first community-wide greenhouse gas emissions target and created a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan to develop strategies to achieve emission reductions.  

The following August of 2019, the Council declared a Climate Crisis and approved new emissions goals in accordance with those set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): reduce carbon emissions by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, then achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

City staff was charged with creating the Accelerating Iowa City's Action Plan to identify a path toward achieving these emissions reduction goals. It contains 64 actions to be initiated by the City by 2025.

In 2025, City staff and the Climate Action Commission assessed the progress made and created a priority Climate Action Plan based on the previous plans.