Global warming is a massive challenge and opportunity because it invites us to transform our systems of energy production and use, our ways of moving around and the design of our communities. Many of those changes can create more livable, interesting communities! Solutions to global warming include clean, smaller-scale and renewable energy systems combined with greatly increased efficiency... high performance public transportation and communities that are pedestrian and bike-friendly... and the ultimate CO2-gobbler: green plants in the form of forests, parks, gardens, green roofs, and healthy working landscapes. Cool communities bring people together from government, business, institutions and neighborhoods to re-shape themselves with projects large and small that reduce global warming pollution while enhancing quality of life.  We coordinate the Municipal Climate Action Partnership - bringing together local government representatives, technical assistance agencies and funders to work toward a joint strategy that will:

• educate a critical mass of local leaders;
• help at least 20 communities measure their carbon footprint and begin reductions of at least 2% per year;
• help at least 20 communities begin planning for adaptation to unpreventable climate change impacts including floods, storms, and changing plant and animal populations; and
• leverage funding and other resources to support these efforts. 

 With seed financing from the Fund for Environment and Urban Life and community supporters, our work includes:

• Coordinating the Ulster County Legislature’s Global Warming Advisory Committee which has recommended a comperehensive new energy policy and outreach program;
• Participating in the steering committee for Rising Waters, a major scenario planning initiative led by The Nature Conservancy, to wrestle with priorities in adapting to unpreventable climate change in ways that protect people, nature and economic assets;
• Offering a teacher training for regional K-12 educators in the summer of 2008, produced by Putnam/ Northern Westchester BOCES’ Center for Environmental Education;
• Coordinating a Cool Kingston Initiative as a replicable model for citizen/government partnership to respond to global warming in ways that improve quality of life; 
• Helping to set the agenda for greener development through our annual conference, Cool Communities/ Living Economies,  set for Sept. 19 - 20, 2008 in Ulster County. 

Launched at the August 24, 2007 Municipal Leaders' Summit on Climate Protection at Norrie Point Environmental Center, the The initial partners were SHV, the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Program and the NYS Climate Policy Office, the New York Department of State's Division of Coastal Resources, NYSERDA's green buildings program, Mid-Hudson EnergySmart Communities, Historic River Towns, Scenic Hudson, the Nature Conservancy, the Garrison Institute's Hudson River Project and the Omega Institute.  The partnership is now working to develop and fund a broad program to help the Hudson Valley's cities, towns and villages slash their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt effectively to the climate changes already underway.