Greater Cincinnati now has a playbook to reduce the region’s contributions to climate change.
The Comprehensive Climate Action Plan was developed by several local organizations, including the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, the City of Cincinnati, Green Umbrella and Southwest Ohio Air Quality Agency. They received a $1 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2023 to make a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Project manager Andy Meyer says greenhouse gas emissions worsen the effects of climate change like extreme heat and severe storms, and hurt local air quality.
“The emissions not only affect climate change, but [they] also have an acute effect on public health,” Meyer said. “The air we breathe is a big determinant of all of our health ... and Cincinnati's air quality has been very poor.”
The plan outlines dozens of actions the Tri-State could take over the next few decades to cut down those emissions.
It sets a target of reducing the region’s emissions 50% by 2050, compared to 2022 levels.
“There is no one silver bullet to this, and that's why the plan addresses, very comprehensively, multiple sectors,” Meyer said.
Where do emissions come from in the Tri-State?
Buildings and equipment are the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Greater Cincinnati based on their subcategory, making up 68% of total emissions. That’s primarily due to their use of electricity powered by fossil fuels.
Meyer says another significant source of emissions is cars burning gas.
“Just our location, with the highways that traverse our region, we're on major east-west and north-south corridors in the country,” Meyer said.
The highest-polluting localities in the region are Hamilton, Butler and Boone counties, which are also the most populous. They produce 70% of the region’s emissions.
More electric vehicles, building efficiency upgrades and tree canopy
The plan recommends dozens of measures for communities to take to reduce the region’s climate pollution.
They include expanding public transit options, improving energy efficiency in buildings, building out charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and increasing tree canopy.
Meyer, who works for OKI, says the agency is focused on several of the transportation-focused actions.
“Getting older, less efficient busses off the road in favor of new or hybrid and electric technology busses; building out the region's pedestrian network so people have choice beyond driving so they can bike and walk more easily to places; and roadway improvements that reduce congestion so people are spending less time sitting in traffic,” Meyer said.
The plan is opt-in, not binding. Meyer says there’s no government agency that covers all 16 counties in the Tri-State that could formally adopt the plan.
So, OKI and other planning partners are working with communities in Greater Cincinnati to increase awareness of the regional plan and help with implementation.
Several cities in Greater Cincinnati already are working on climate action with their own plans, like Cincinnati, Oxford and Fairfield.
What’s next?
After publishing and submitting the plan to the U.S. EPA in December 2025, Meyer says now the focus is on implementation and measuring progress.
The organizations are set to submit a status report to U.S. EPA in 2027.
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