Key Messages:
- As the country strives to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, it‘s increasingly crucial to advance opportunities for community-centered engagement and fact-based dialogue around carbon management.
- To support this, the Carbon Action Alliance (CAA) has developed the Carbon Management Civic Toolkit to equip local communities and organizations with the knowledge and confidence to effectively engage around the topic of carbon management.
- The Civic Toolkit is a hub for essential carbon management information, featuring interactive tools and action-oriented resources, like tailored presentations, messaging guides, and educational flyers for local distribution.
Over the last several years, carbon management technologies have taken center stage in the effort to reduce emissions and slow climate change.
Leading experts agree that reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and removal efforts. Scientists and policy makers alike have made significant efforts to advance these technologies, making them increasingly safe and cost-effective. The Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 boosted federal investment in both carbon capture and storage and direct air capture infrastructure. As a result, private companies across the country are now embracing carbon management to reduce their emissions.
However, despite the expansion and deployment of carbon management technologies, there’s still a gap in resources to help community members understand how they work and what benefits they bring.
This gap not only allows misinformation about carbon management to spread, but it also contributes to a disconnect between community stakeholders and decision makers. Community engagement and support is a cornerstone for success with any significant infrastructure project, and that is especially true for the deployment of carbon management technologies.
The Carbon Action Alliance (CAA), an initiative of the Great Plains Institute, recognizes the critical importance of advancing civic engagement around carbon management. For the last several months, CAA has been working to address this crucial resource gap. After collaboration, research, and engagement with stakeholders, CAA launched its Carbon Management Civic Toolkit.
The toolkit is intentionally designed for communities, developers, decision makers, environmental advocates, and anyone with a stake in the future of carbon management. Its resources aim to support education, communication, and engagement around the deployment of carbon management technologies.
The online resource bank is divided into four key sections:
- Identifying Carbon Management Stakeholders
- How to Educate about Carbon Management
- How to Communicate about Carbon Management
- Communities and Carbon Management
Section one, ‘Identifying Carbon Management Stakeholders’, gives users information on how to successfully identify their audience. Seeking consultation, support and assistance from diverse members of their community is best practice for project leaders as they advance programs and development. In this section, users can find a comprehensive list of stakeholders with ideas and information on how best to bring them to the table.
Section two, ‘How to Educate about Carbon Management’, contains materials to educate stakeholders about the crucial role carbon management plays in addressing climate change and how they can participate in new project deployment. Toolkit users will be able to access various outreach resources, including a powerpoint presentation introducing the audience to carbon management, and a host of handout materials breaking down key components of the technologies.
Section three, ‘How to Communicate about Carbon Management’, provides best practice resources for communicating about these technologies. Using reliable research, the section helps users navigate these important conversations about carbon management in a fact-based way that both informs and builds trust.
Section four, ‘Communities and Carbon Management’, focuses on intentional engagement principles aimed at advancing collaboration between project developers, decision makers and communities. This section walks users through strategies to develop effective community benefits plans and outreach strategies. Users can also access several examples of successful community engagement to guide their work. These include:
- An overview of an initiative in Vernon Parish, Louisiana that provides high school students with career training to increase their ability to access future jobs in the carbon management sector, and
- Access to the Louisiana Decision Support Tool; a tool developed in collaboration with community members across the state that helps provide equal, user-friendly access to key data in the carbon management siting process.
As we collectively work to achieve the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, it’s more important than ever to foster collaboration and partnerships to thoughtfully and equitably advance carbon management technology. The Carbon Action Alliance’s Carbon Management Civic Toolkit will move us closer to that goal by advancing accessible, community-focused, fact-centered education, outreach and conservation about carbon management.
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The Carbon Management Civic Toolkit is a living resource that will continue to be updated with the latest information and resources. If you have any feedback on our materials or suggestions for future editions, please get in touch!