This page provides planning guidance to help Washington counties and cities develop a comprehensive plan climate element. Local jurisdictions should use the planning guidance with Commerce’s climate data and policy tools.
Planning locally for climate change
RCW 36.70.70A requires local comprehensive plans to have a climate element that maximizes economic, environmental, and social co-benefits and prioritizes environmental justice in order to avoid worsening environmental health disparities. A climate element can take the form of a single comprehensive plan chapter or be integrated into several chapters/elements such as housing, transportation, and land use.
Climate element planning guidance
Commerce provides published guidance to assist local jurisdictions in developing their climate elements consistent with Chapter 228, Laws of 2023 (HB1181). The current version of the guidance was published in December 2025 and updated an intermediate version published in 2023.
Cities and counties with a periodic update deadline of 2026 or later should use the 2025 version of the guidance. Cities and counties with a 2025 periodic update deadline should use the 2023 version.
Appendices
- A. Glossary of terms (PDF)
- B. Climate Element Workbook (Excel)
- C. Climate Policy Explorer (PDF)
- D. Climate planning StoryMap (PDF)
- E. Guidance: Hazard mitigation plan approval and integration (PDF)
- F. Summary report: Integrating climate justice in growth management planning (PDF)
- G. Summary report: Pilot testing the climate resilience planning guidance (PDF)
- H. Example: Model RFP for climate planning activities (PDF)
- I. Guidance: Recommended methodology for creating a GHG inventory (PDF)
- J. Core and non-core emissions for counties and cities (PDF)
- K. Federal and state actions affecting local emissions (PDF)
- L. Guidance: Western States Handbook (PDF)
- M. Examples: Multi-criteria analysis methods (PDF)
- N. Guidance: Identify, protect, and enhance natural areas to foster climate resilience, as well as areas of vital habitat for safe species migration (PDF)
- O. Guidance: Coordinating climate planning and shoreline regulations (PDF)
- P. Climate sectors and impacts (PDF)
Translated versions
- Chinese – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
- Farsi – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
- Khmer – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
- Korean – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
- Nepali – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
- Pashto – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
- Russian – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
- Spanish – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
- Tagalog – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
- Ukranian – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
- Vietnamese – 2025 climate element planning guidance (PDF)
Appendices
- Climate Justice (PDF)
- Climate Element Workbook (Excel)
- Best Practices for Integrating Climate into a Hazard Mitigation Plan (PDF)
- Crosswalk Comparison of FEMA/Commerce Guidance (Excel)
- Sample RFP for GHG Inventory (PDF)
- Summary Report: Climate Resilience Pilot Program (PDF)
- Guiding Principles for Climate Planning (PDF)
- Multi-criteria Analysis Examples (PDF)
- Handbook for Analyzing GHG Reductions (PDF)
- Glossary (PDF)
- Menu of Measures (Excel)
- Climate Change Resources (Excel)
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Survey of Small and Mid-sized Cities results (PDF)
Translated versions
Jurisdictions planning under the Growth Management Act must add a climate element to their comprehensive plans in a timeframe based on the periodic update schedule.
A resilience sub-element is mandatory for all fully planning counties and cities under the GMA and is encouraged for all other counties and cities.
A greenhouse gas emissions reduction sub-element is mandatory only for the following 11 counties (and their cities with a population greater that 6,000 as of April 1, 2021):
- Benton
- Clark
- Franklin
- King
- Kitsap
- Pierce
- Skagit
- Snohomish
- Spokane
- Thurston
- Whatcom
Use the search tool to determine whether a GHG reduction subelement is required for your jurisdiction:
- The greenhouse gas emissions reduction subelement applicability (PDF) document provides the same information as the search tool in a text-based format.