For more than 10 years, Climate XChange has strived to strengthen the state climate movement, and 2024 was a year of significant progress and achievement. However, as we continue our mission toward a zero-emissions economy, it is clear that for the next four years, state actors will face a federal government pursuing an anti-climate agenda. In this new national landscape, Climate XChange is uniquely positioned to help states defend their existing climate policies and advance new, more ambitious ones.

States have tremendous power to take swift, impactful action on climate change, and our role is to provide state actors with the technical capacity and policy tools needed to make effective, science-based policy decisions. Decarbonizing the economy is a monumental task, and while some states have long been leaders on climate policy, it’s especially important that no state is left behind and we keep the momentum to face the climate crisis. 

In October 2024, we launched our new State Climate Policy Dashboard, a unique tool powering state-level climate action that has been widely-adopted as the go-to resource for state climate policy by advocates, policymakers, and researchers. The Dashboard addresses the growing need for comprehensive information on the gaps in state climate policy and best practices to fill them, and builds narrative power by equalizing and expanding access to policy data and analysis across sectors. The Dashboard is used extensively by our State Climate Policy Network and covers over 60 climate mitigation policies across seven policy areas and all 50 states. We are excited by the Dashboard’s initial success and we are working on additional policy content and analysis to further empower state actors. 

During  2024, our State Climate Policy Network (SCPN) continued to strengthen as we saw increasing interest in our diverse programming including deep-dive climate policy webinars, meetings with state actors sharing updates from their work, and round-table legislator calls. With more than 7,700 state actors and 200 legislators participating in our events in 2024, we were able to connect attendees with policy experts and facilitate cross-state collaboration. In November, we also launched a series of transmission-focused webinars, allowing us to more thoroughly highlight opportunities for states to transform their energy grids and achieve climate goals. 

We are also very proud to have conducted our first-ever network-wide feedback survey to ensure that we are aligning our work with the needs of the SCPN, as we remain committed to a culture of frequent and timely feedback. We also surveyed our members’ needs after the 2024 elections in order to quickly respond to the changing federal landscape. We are utilizing this valuable feedback to identify new program offerings and series to serve our audience better.

During the past couple of years, we welcomed tremendous climate progress driven by state policy and the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), however it’s clear that during the next four years, states will face an antagonistic federal government. Despite this, we are optimistic that climate action will prevail and states will be the driving force for this progress. At Climate XChange, we remain steadfast in our support to state actors and our mission to achieve a rapid and equitable transition to a zero emissions economy. 

This report summarizes our contribution to state climate action, and I am incredibly proud of what our team has accomplished in the last year. I also would like to thank Climate XChange’s Board of Directors for their continuous commitment and wise guidance, as well as our supporters and funders who have made all of this progress possible. 

With your support, we will move forward!

Climate XChange is a nonpartisan organization with a mission to achieve a rapid and equitable transition towards a zero-emissions economy by advancing state climate policy. Our work harnesses the power of policymakers and advocates from across the country, facilitating cross-state collaboration while cultivating research, resources, and tools that drive policy decisions.

States play a key role in addressing climate change, and our State Climate Policy Network (SCPN) continues providing critical support for actors on the ground pushing to reduce emissions and transform our economy. Our network of 15,000 members demonstrates how community and collaboration can help advance effective and equitable solutions to the climate crisis.

In 2024, we continued providing timely and actionable programming through a variety of events and resources:

We launched a new webinar series aiming to educate and activate advocates on the importance of transmission reform in achieving climate goals.

We hosted 8 Deep Dive webinars, connecting the SCPN with experts on a wide range of topics including overcoming barriers to the clean energy transition, equitable state transportation investments, effective climate communications, and the future of the IRA.

Our 11 National Policy Calls featured monthly updates from policymakers and advocates working on climate policy, presented in a meeting format to foster interstate collaboration.

We convened 3 Legislator Calls, gathering state legislators from across the country to share ideas and connect on challenges that they’re facing in their own states.

A central goal of the SCPN is to adapt to the needs of its members, and in 2024 we executed a network-wide feedback plan to ensure that our programming effectively drives climate action. Through a series of focus groups and surveys, we’re now better-positioned to provide the best support possible to state actors. We also added a new staff member to our SCPN team in 2024, increasing our ability to deliver targeted and actionable services to the Network.

After the 2024 elections, we once again reached out to the SCPN to better understand how the new political context may change the needs of our members. Using the feedback we gathered, in 2025, we’ll provide resources and programming focused on how states can fill the gaps created from federal rollbacks of climate policy and defend their climate policies against federal intervention. We’ll also increase our focus on targeted support for states that lack access to resources, but have ample opportunity to make progress on decarbonizing their economies.