Strategic Climate Action Plan

Progress

Climate action is an ongoing, decades-long effort in King County. Each "focus area" in the 2025 SCAP includes information about past progress on the issue, what work lies ahead, and a roadmap to get there. View the plan to read each of those items.

Recent Achievements

2020

• Wildfire Smoke Protection: Launched box fan filter distribution program to help residents protect themselves against the harmful health impacts of increasingly frequent wildfire smoke events. The County has distributed more than 3,700 filters in high-impact areas.
• Urban Heat Mapping: Partnered with City of Seattle to measure heat throughout the county, and demonstrated inequalities in the impacts of heat in different neighborhoods. This work informed future heat mitigation planning and investments in public health.

2021

• $20 million in Climate Equity bond funds: Launched one-time capital pool that funded community-driven projects, including infrastructure for farmers to grow culturally responsive food and park lighting improvements to ensure safety in underserved green spaces.
• Energy-efficient building codes: Developed and integrated new green building codes into the 2021 Washington State Building Codes to meet energy-efficiency targets. This was achieved through advocacy with cities across the region, as part of the K4C.
  
  

2022

Image of the new Georgetown Wet Weather Treatment Station. 

• New Wet Weather Station: Opened a new combined sewer overflow control station in the Georgetown neighborhood to prevent stormwater and sewage overflows into the Duwamish River and Puget Sound during heavy rains.
• Green Building Ordinance: Strengthened requirements for County-owned or lease-to-own capital projects to meet certain green building requirements that encourage energy efficiency and resource conservation. The County also set up a team to provide resources to help department and project teams meet the requirements.
• $150,000 to protect land & prevent displacement: Awarded a $150,000 building grant to the Community Land Conservancy, a BIPOC-led organization that acquires land for parks in underserved communities. The group works to ensure community voices are centered during land use decision-making.
• C-PACER Program: Allows owners of eligible commercial properties to seek long-term financing from a private capital provider for qualified improvements related to energy and building resiliency. The program empowers work to use energy efficiently and promote water conservation.
• Free Youth Transit Pass: Allows youth to ride transit for free, empowering more young people to get familiar with public transit and encouraging use of lower-emission travel.
• Climate Justice Learning Series: Administrated learning series for County staff and community about topics within the climate justice space. This helped increase understanding of challenges within frontline communities and the importance of an equity-centered resilience approach.

2023

• South Seattle Community Food Hub: Opened space to increase food justice by connecting farmers, distributors, and community under one roof. It is designed to address systemic gaps in the local food system through community-led solutions.
• “Ready, Set, Go!” wildfire evacuation messaging campaign: Partnered with counties to simplify language regarding wildfire evacuations and educate communities on how to prepare for evacuation in the event of a wildfire.
• Transit-oriented development: Expanded projects to reduce carbon footprint by putting housing near public transit options, including adding 232 affordable housing units at Northgate.
• Reinvented region’s waste system: Launched Re+, a new initiative to return valuable materials to the economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions created by the region’s waste system. It provides actions and services to ensure more materials are reused, recycled, or composted rather than buried as waste.

Heat pump Installation as part of the Energize program.

• Energize heat pump program: Created program to install heat pumps in low-to-moderate income homes in South King County, targeting areas disproportionately impacted by poor air quality and extreme heat.
• Executive Climate Office: United and empowered County’s climate action efforts under one team. The Office has since grown to include more than 25 staff members and connects with team leads in other departments and within partnership organizations.
• Transit improvements: RapidRide H line launched with transit improvements spanning 12 miles from downtown Seattle to Burien with upgrades to the speed, reliability, and customer experience for more than 6,000 daily riders. Project achieved Envision Platinum certification in 2024.

2024

• $50M building decarbonization grant: Awarded an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) to empower building decarbonization work across four counties.

Image from a JumpStart workshop.

• New clean energy workforce program: Launched JumpStart, a clean energy workforce training program equipping people aged 18–24 with training, paid work-based learning, and mentorships to begin careers in the growing industry. More than half of the first class of graduates secured full-time jobs upon finishing.
• $2M Climate Resilience Grant: Secured a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to facilitate regional collaboration for better resilience outcomes in the Puget Sound Basin via the Puget Sound Climate Preparedness Collaborative, a network of local governments, tribes, agencies, and other groups hosted by King County.
• Expanded Energize program: Secured funding from Washington State’s Climate Commitment Act to expand Energize program, installing heat pumps and offering other weatherization upgrades for adult family homes and family home child cares.
• $9M for vehicle charging: Secured $9 million grant to empower vehicle charging across the region. The grant came as King County continued work to transition to more electric and zero-emission vehicles in its own fleet.
• Climate & Health Dashboards: Published new set of data dashboards exploring impacts of climate change on health in King County. It allows for tracking of impacts year-to-year based on data from emergency room visits.
• $150,000 to prepare for sea level rise: Secured $150k grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce (Commerce) to conduct a coastal hazards assessment for Vashon-Maury Island inclusive of sea level rise and related changes in coastal flooding.
• Grants for community-based work: Awarded inaugural Community Climate Resilience Grants totaling $150,000 to five community groups. The grants assisted community-based organizations in continuing or expanding current climate resilience work.
• Coalition for Climate Careers (C3): Partnered with other public and private organizations and frontline communities to overcome silos and establish an inclusive and prosperous green workforce in King County. The Coalition offers policy guidance, promotes career opportunities, and fosters cross-community collaboration.