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We’re leading an all-out national mobilization to defeat the climate crisis.

Join our work today to help us build a thriving and just clean energy future. 

A Comprehensive Guide to the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants Program

What you need to know about this important program—in just four minutes.

What to Expect in this Guide

This guide breaks down one of the Inflation Reduction Act’s most important programs that channels federal funding into states, local governments, Tribes, and territories: the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program. You can scan through to get a quick overview or take a deeper dive in the linked resources.

 

Who Is This Guide For?

This resource hub is for advocates, state-level policymakers, and members of the climate movement who want to better understand and champion state climate action. Click on the links below to navigate between different sections, which range from introductory explainers to deeper analyses of the program.

Familiar with the program? Jump ahead to read our latest analysis on the Implementation Grant awardees, announced in July 2024 →

 

Table of Contents

  1. What Is the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants Program?
  2. What Did States Put in Their Proposed Climate Plans?
  3. What Made for Strong State Climate Plans?
  4. Which States Were Awarded Funding and What Comes Next?
  5. More Resources

 

 

What Is the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants Program?

 

The CPRG program provides $5 billion to states, local governments, Tribes, and territories to tackle climate pollution and deliver clean energy to communities—their way. This program is intentionally flexible to empower local leadership to address their communities’ unique climate and clean energy challenges and needs.

Infographic breaking down the funding distribution of the CPRG program. $250 million goes to planning, $4.6 billion goes to implementation, and $142 million does to administration

Learn more about: 

  • What the CPRG program is
  • Why it is important
  • The grant and funding stages for applicants and awards

Introduction to the CPRG program →

Est. read time: 10 minutes

 

What Did States Put in Their Climate Plans?

 

Nearly every state, along with D.C. and Puerto Rico, participated in the first stage of the CPRG program by creating a plan to cut climate pollution using IRA funding. Evergreen, RMI, and Climate XChange reviewed all 47 climate plans (also referred to as PCAPs) to identify themes, assess ambition, and better understand state-level strategy. 

Bar chart showing the most popular criteria used to prioritize strategies. Equity came in first at 18/47 plans. The least popular were resiliency and existing authority, which both came in at 3/47.

Get an overview of:

  • What strategies were included in state plans
  • What sectors states focused on
  • Themes and insights across state climate plans

High-level summary of climate plans →

Est. read time: 12 minutes

Access the Data From All State Climate Plans

State climate plans give us insight into how states aim to cut climate pollution in the short and long term. We compiled the key data from states’ plans and organized it into an accessible, manipulatable spreadsheet for advocates and local leaders to use.

How to use the spreadsheet:

  • First, make a copy to manipulate the data
  • The first tab shows the data methodology
  • The second tab lists information on the content of each PCAP
  • The third tab focuses on the strategies for pollution reduction within each PCAP
  • Content can be filtered by several fields, like state and sector.

View the spreadsheet (Google Sheets) →

 

What Made For Strong State Climate Plans?

 

State climate plans show us which areas states need to focus on the most in cutting climate pollution and allow states to identify how to prioritize those emissions reductions. Implementation Grants, awarded through the CPRG program, help put these plans into action. The second stage of the program unlocks $4.3 billion for state and local governments, and now it’s up to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to decide how to award these funds. 

EPA Administrator Michael Regan listening to Pennsylvania officials talk about their CPRG plans.

Get analysis on:

  • What qualities made for the strongest state plans
  • What EPA should consider when awarding grants to states

Analysis of states’ climate plans →

Est. read time: 10 minutes

Which States Were Awarded Funding?

In July 2024, EPA awarded $4.3 billion in funding to 25 states, municipalities, and coalitions for the pollution reduction strategies they proposed in their Implementation Grant applications.

Deepen your understanding of:

  • Who won the awards, for what programs, and at what tier level
  • Which states rose to the top for their ambition and impact
  • Opportunities for states that did not win an award

More on EPA’s Implementation Grant announcement →

A clean energy future is possible, and these grants will help make that future a reality, faster.

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