The Climate Smart Communities (CSC) grant program provides funding for municipalities to perform inventories, assessments, and planning projects that advance their ability to address climate change at the local level and become certified Climate Smart Communities. The program also supports municipal mitigation implementation projects that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the non-power sector (transportation, refrigerants, food waste, etc.) and adaptation implementation projects (cooling centers, flood plain restoration, emergency preparedness, etc.) that directly address climate change threats or alleviate hazards in the community exacerbated by climate changes.
Funds are available for two broad project categories - implementation and certification. The first project category supports implementation projects related to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions outside the power sector (transportation, methane, and refrigerants) and climate change adaptation (e.g. reducing flood-risk, increasing natural resiliency, extreme-event preparation, relocation or retrofit of critical infrastructure, and improving emergency preparedness). The second project category supports planning and assessment projects aligned with Climate Smart Communities Certification (https://climatesmart.ny.gov/), including projects relating to Green House Gas mitigation, transport, adaptation, and land use.
Applications for the CSC grants are accepted only through the Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) found at https://apps.cio.ny.gov/apps/cfa/.
All eligible applicants must complete a project work plan, budget, and sexual harassment prevention certification form as part of the application process and upload these documents to the CFA.