Checklist for a Strong Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience Grant Application

Would the project result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector?  

Transportation projects that typically reduce greenhouse gas emissions include:

• Projects that increase convenience by supporting community design and land-use planning that make it practical to take fewer or shorter trips.  Examples include:
  • Developing and implementing integrated land use and transportation plans that ensure that job centers, shopping, schools, entertainment, and essential services are strategically located near where people live and near public transit
  • Building networks of sidewalks and bike lanes
  • Travel Demand Management strategies, like congestion pricing and parking pricing paired with affordable transit options, car free zones with accessible and safe bike and pedestrian infrastructure, ride sharing promotions, safe walking, biking, and rolling routes to school, transit fare discounts, off-peak goods delivery incentives, and more
• Projects that increase options to travel more efficiently and improve the efficiency of vehicles.  Examples include:
  • Providing high quality public transportation
  • Intercity passenger rail and freight rail
  • Operational improvements (traffic signal timing, optimized profile descent for aircraft, automatic train control, etc.)
  • Optimizing freight logistics, improving intermodal freight transfers, and shifting freight to lower carbon modes such as rail and water when feasible
  • Ride share, electric bikes and scooters
• Projects that help transition to clean options by deploying zero emission vehicles, fuels, and facilities.  Examples include:
  • Installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and alternative fueling stations
  • Transitioning public fleets to low / no emission 
  • Installing solar panels on transportation facilities
  • Utilizing sustainable aviation fuels
  • Eliminating leakages and enabling use of pipelines for clean sustainable fuels
  • Accommodating transmission lines in the right-of-way to facilitate electricity grid modernization and allow for more renewable energy generation, transmission, and distribution

Some types of projects tend to increase greenhouse gas emissions.  For instance, expansions in roadway capacity induce additional travel, counteracting congestion reduction benefits, resulting in increased emissions.  Additionally, capacity expansion generally provides limited-to-no congestion reduction benefits over the long term.  See the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization for more information.

If the project would not reduce greenhouse gas emissions, what actions within the project will you take to reduce emissions relative to standard practice?  

• For instance, include elements in the project such as use of low carbon materials; express lanes that charge a toll for single occupancy vehicles but not for buses or carpools; solar panels; pedestrian facilities; and additional transit service.

What are you including in the application to show greenhouse gas emission reduction?  

• Do you include estimates of greenhouse gas emissions reduction using available tools and analytical techniques?  (See Resources)

Is your project included in the State Carbon Reduction Strategy or State EV Infrastructure Deployment Plan?

• The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law requires States to develop Carbon Reduction Strategies outlining how they will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.  States are also required to have FWHA-approved State EV Infrastructure Deployment Plans in order to utilize their National EV Infrastructure formula funds. If your project is included in or consistent with the State Carbon Reduction Strategy, State EV Infrastructure Deployment Plan, or other plans, that should be noted as it indicates the project is part of a broader state strategy.  See Carbon Reduction Program and EV Infrastructure Deployment Plans.

Resilience, with respect to a project, means the ability to anticipate, prepare for, or adapt to conditions or withstand, respond to, or recover rapidly from disruptions, including the ability to: (A) resist hazards or withstand impacts from weather events and natural disasters; or reduce the magnitude or

duration of impacts of a disruptive weather event or natural disaster on a project; and (B) have the absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, and recoverability to decrease project vulnerability to weather events or other natural disasters.  (23 U.S.C. 101(a)(24)).

Adaptation is the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects.
 

Does your application explain climate change impacts on your community and how your project would improve resilience to these impacts and enable your community to adapt to climate change?

• Does the project fulfill resilience elements in a plan such as a(n):
  • Resilience Improvement Plan 
  • FEMA’s Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
  • Comprehensive or Capital Improvement Plan
  • Metropolitan, Regional, or Statewide Long Range Transportation Plan
  • Asset Management Plan
• Have you included and budgeted for activities that ensure Environmental Justice planning and community engagement is built into the resilience-planning process?
• Does your project describe the climate adaptation strategies that will address the identified natural hazards, including information on each strategy to assist in evaluating the resilience benefits of the project? 
•  Does your project include a suite of resilience and adaptation measures that will be available for incorporation into planning, design, operations, and maintenance programs? The measures can include:
  • adaptive design criteria based upon the best available, forward-looking data:
    • elevate roads
    • enhance structure and bridge design
    • increase hydraulic capacity of drainage system
    • enhance pavement
    • enhance slope embankment
  • physical enhancement measures:
    • flood barriers and levees
    • retrofits and revetments
    • rock slide stabilization
    • slope failure stabilization
    • alternative designs

      

       

  • nature-based solutions
    • marsh vegetation, breakwater, or sill
    • beach nourishment
    • wetland and dune restoration
    • submerged aquatic vegetation planting and restoration
    • living shorelines
    • riverine and fluvial techniques
  • operations, maintenance, and emergency management enhancement measures
  • and other administrative/policy measures.
• Is your project consistent with the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, as appropriate and consistent with current law? 

How will you measure your project's results?

• Does your application include a timeline for tracking, evaluating, and reporting metrics that document project outcomes, especially for innovative elements such as Nature-based Strategies?
• How are you including climate adaptation and resiliency in the project performance metrics?
   

USDOT Resources

• USDOT Climate Change Website - this site includes resources on the DOT Climate Change Center, Sustainability for DOT Buildings and Fleet, the US National Decarbonization Blueprint, the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation the DOT Climate Action Plan for Resilience, and more.
• USDOT Climate Change Center Training and Technical Assistance Website
• U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Guidance

• Council on Environmental Quality Guidance on Consideration of Climate Change in NEPA

Operating Administration Climate Change Websites

Important content related to implementation of climate change actions can be found on the operating administration webpages:

• Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Climate Change Website
• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Environmental Programs Website and Aviation Climate Action Plan
• Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Energy and Emissions Website and Resilience Website
• Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Climate Change Website
• Maritime Administration (MARAD) Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance (META) Program
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Corporate Average Fuel Economy
• Volpe Center Climate Change Resources
• Joint Office of Energy and Transportation