Be Green Climate Change Pod EP1: The Montgomery County Climate Action Plan with Adriana Hochberg
Listen to the Podcast: Spotify | Anchor
In this Episode: Montgomery County, Maryland released their Climate Action Plan in the Summer of 2021 with the goal to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2027 and reach zero emissions by 2035. We sat down with Adriana Hochberg, the Assistant Chief Administrative Officer for Montgomery County at the time, to learn more.
Interview (Recorded August 2021)
Could you share a little about yourself?
I grew up comfortably in a large city in southern Brazil, but I noticed a lot of poverty around me. The city government was not successfully improving the quality of life, evident through the major pollution of the river, the overflowing waste on the streets, and a failing public education system. The local government had a responsibility to their citizens, but there wasn’t any initiative to change. That stuck with me throughout my life, and so I find myself now focusing on private communities in climate governance, leading efforts to combat climate change and coordinate the development of the climate action plan.
What do you do in your current role as the Assistant Chief Administrative Officer of Montgomery County?
My two main goals are generally organizing county climate work and fostering a cooperative work environment. I prioritize issues and create the organizational backbone of county climate action. In addition, I expedite specific climate actions. An important part of organizing is being able to identify and solve challenges, to take issues to the next level, and to identify and find resources. Besides organizing, I lead a climate team and work towards creating the most efficient workforce by developing training and awareness activities and facilitating ideas.
Briefly, what is the Montgomery County Climate Action Plan?
The MoCo Climate Action Plan consists of plans to reach ambitious goals of 80% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2027 and 100% reduction by 2035. Generally, it is a blueprint of prioritized actions to reduce emissions and become more resilient to a changing climate. It used global climate change scenarios, downscaled them to the local county, and then identified the primary climate hazards that are of most concern: increased heat, increased precipitation, high winds, and drought. The plan has sections on clean energy, buildings, transportation, carbon sequestration, climate adaptation, climate governance, public engagement, and partnerships and education.
How did the climate action plan come to be? Which stakeholders did you get input from? Who did you talk to to put together the plan?
The county executive recognized that there is a lot of expertise in the community, so we included the community in the planning process from the start. The first step was to convene a multitude of climate planning work groups, about 150 community volunteers, over a 7-8 month period, who developed over 900 recommendations for the county to consider. Then we turned it over to a team of technical consultants to review the recommendations, who then synthesized and prioritized the suggestions. Questions like “What are the most high priority actions?”, “Which ones are most feasible”, “Which ones do we have the most authority to implement”, and “Which ones do we need to get the authority to implement?” centered our review.
What were some of the climate actions that the county determined to be higher priority?
One of the foundational actions is creating a building energy performance standard because 50% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the building sector. It is crucial to develop a policy to target and and improve energy performance for the existing building structure. The launching of BEPS (Building Energy Performance Standard) will develop long term energy performance targets for existing large commercial and multi-family buildings in the county. If implemented, it will be a key policy in meeting emissions reduction targets.
What are some of the ways the Climate Action Plan incorporates racial equity and social justice?
The plan acknowledges that climate change affects everyone, but it does not affect all equally; these issues affect communities of color more so than they impact their community at large. Especially since communities of color are already primarily impacted more by climate change, it is important to center them in the planning process so that actions support them rather than make conditions worse.
One of the ways we center these communities is by identifying equity enhancing measures in each policy. We recognize that when we put out a call for county climate workgroups, those volunteers did not fully reflect the incredible diversity of the county. In spite of this, we felt that it was important to supplement the plan with insights from those who were not involved in the process. As a result, we launched the Resilient Ambassadors, a group with 5 young members of the community who have used their social networks to conduct about 130 conversations with diverse members of the community. They have provided us with more insight and information on how to support communities of color in the plan. We know that there is much more to be done, particularly in the public engagement section, to ensure that diverse members have a seat at the table early on in the policy and developmental process, so we can build programs with their needs in mind.
What is an example of an Equity Enhancing Measure?
One action in the clean energy section is to launch a Community Choice Energy program, which would give the county the opportunity to purchase electricity on behalf of our residents. In this way, we would be able to have a greater mix of renewable energy than what the utilities provide through their regular offer service. Over the next several years we will be working to launch it because as of right now, there might be a cost premium associated with taking part in this program. We have to find financial incentives or subsidies to make sure residents will not have to incur any additional costs. Overall, we need to make sure the entire community is aware of the program, what is involved, how they can opt out; making that information available in many different languages and formats is imperative to ensure that this action is equitable.
Can you share some of the economic benefits that are included in the Montgomery County Climate Action Plan?
The life cycle cost of implementing green solutions is lower than the conventional fossil fuel solution. For example, electrical vehicles overall cost less because they require less maintenance and run on electrical charge instead of gas. However, the initial upfront cost creates a challenge, which is why we are working towards creating incentives to push people over that initial hump.
Are there any specific incentives or programs that listeners can take advantage of?
There is an electrical vehicle group buy program that consists of deeper rebates and discounts if people buy their vehicle with the program. Similar to the solar co-op program, by bringing people together at the same time, more discounts will be offered. The program launches this fall, so stay tuned for updates on the county climate website.
How does the county plan to fund the programs discussed above, and more generally the climate actions outlined in the plan?
It is primarily funded by the county taxpayers, but we are utilizing grants from state and federal levels and working towards gaining more resources from the private sector through the local level Green Bank. The bank aids in leveraging private sector resources for cross sector collaboration on climate policy.
What are the next steps for the county in terms of implementing the climate action plan?
When we released the climate action plan, we also released the fiscal 2022 climate work plan. It identifies 75 of the 86 climate actions that we are moving forward with this fiscal year. Our focus right now is reorganizing ourselves for climate action implementation and working across all the sectors involved with climate action this year.
Can you give us an example of something that you are particularly excited about?
One of the actions in the plan is to launch the Community Justice Academy, which is a way to connect with diverse members of our community and bring them on board in a cohort manner. They procreate the projects and support them in the implementation in addition to helping us identify key issues facing their communities. It will give us an opportunity to put in place projects that place emphasis on local needs. For more information about the Community Justice Academy, read the Racial Equity and Social Justice section in the Montgomery County Climate Action Plan.
Is Montgomery County collaborating with other governments, whether local, state, or federal, to move forward on climate action?
We are developing a Maryland climate coalition of local municipalities and county governments throughout the state. The goal is to come together and identify the climate energy issues that we are commonly interested in and advocate for those issues together before the Maryland General Assembly. While we are early on in those efforts, we already have colleagues on board from 9 other counties and will hopefully be ready to advocate during the upcoming legislative session in January of 2022.
What is some of the work that might be required in terms of collaboration between state government and local government?
Even though Montgomery County is initiating many climate actions, we will not see change collectively because of the lack of uniform policy. Maryland has a reduction of emissions timeline that is 10 years behind our target, but if they were more aggressive with their timeline, our state would become more resilient and leave less of a footprint; we would see change on a higher level. In addition, if the state takes more initiative with reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, it will allow the county to work on other specific issues.
How has your experience working in the DC Department of Energy and the Environment as the chief of staff informed the work that you are doing now on the Montgomery County Climate Action Plan?
DC is a leader in climate work, doing a great job on both of its climate plans: Climate Ready DC and Clean Energy. Climate Ready DC is its climate adaptation plan while Clean Energy is their greenhouse gas mitigation plan. I recognized that both efforts were critical to creating a resilient and clean community, so when I joined the Montgomery County government, I was determined to make a plan that involved both major issues.
What do you see as the larger policy trends related to climate action that are being implemented throughout the country?
Montgomery County is the first county in the nation to have a policy like BEPS, and its importance in the switch to renewable energy sources signals that it will become a major trend. Besides this policy, municipalities all across the country are looking at activities and actions that are outside their jurisdiction borders to advocate for. We collectively have the power to influence the policies in other counties when we take an advocacy approach, which is currently a trend with climate action. Whatever we do, it is always important to center racial equity and social justice.
What can people do on an individual level to support the county’s ambitious climate goals?
Combating climate change takes all of us; all of us have to take action to combat climate change, which can be done through reducing energy use. Examples of how people can reduce their energy consumption are to only upgrade the HVAC system every 10 years and to only change cars every 10 years. Some other small steps in general people can take to reduce their impact on the climate are reducing the amount of meat consumed, especially red meat. There is more information in “What can I do?” section of the climate plan; it lists about 45 different actions people can implement in their own lives, pertaining to their households, workplaces, and commute.
What opportunities are available to businesses to collaborate on the plan and help move the county forward?
Through Empower Maryland, anyone who pays a utility bill has opportunities to reap benefits by ordering low charge energy audits and getting rebates on a variety of different energy efficiency retrofits. The Montgomery Energy Connection gives information to residences and businesses on how to become more energy efficient, how to switch to renewable energy, and how different assistance is available in paying utility bills.
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About Adriana Hochberg
Adriana Hochberg serves as the Climate Change Officer for Montgomery County, Maryland and as Acting Director for the Department of Environmental Protection. She leads Montgomery County’s efforts to combat climate change while building a healthy, equitable, and resilient county. Ms. Hochberg coordinated the development of the Climate Action Plan, a strategic roadmap for the County to cut community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2027 and reach zero emissions by 2035. Ms. Hochberg previously served as an Assistant Chief Administrative Officer for Montgomery County. Ms. Hochberg previously spent eleven years with the Government of the District of Columbia, serving in the Office of the City Administrator and as Chief of Staff in the Department of Energy and Environment. Ms. Hochberg has also served as Presidential Management Fellow at the US Environmental Protection Agency and as Coordinator for International Relations at the Konan Town Hall in Japan. Ms. Hochberg is passionate about creating sustainable, equitable, and walkable communities. She is a graduate of the Walking College Fellowship from America Walks and developed and implemented an action plan to make her community safer for pedestrians. Ms. Hochberg earned a master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s from Williams College. She speaks multiple languages including Portuguese and Japanese.
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Episode Credits
Kim Goddu-Alexander, Producer
Jordan Lee, Host
Meera Schroff, Intern
Alessandra Faccone, Intern
