Revisiting Armond Budish's Cuyahoga County climate action plan

State of play: Key tenets of that plan continue to be implemented as the city and county work to slash their carbon footprints and mitigate the impacts of extreme weather, often with the help of outside dollars.

Zoom in: Budish's plan called for planting thousands of trees, installing EV infrastructure and solar panels on a much larger scale and prioritizing development projects along transit routes.

• It also proposed creating a green bank to invest in clean energy initiatives.

The latest: The county wound up working with Growth Opportunity Partners — Ohio's first green bank and the country's first Black-led green bank — on solar projects this year, including the installation of solar power systems at suburban school districts.

Zoom out: Cities across the U.S. are receiving tens of billions of dollars for climate-related projects from President Biden's federal infrastructure bill.

What's next: County Executive Chris Ronayne followed in Budish's footsteps and made climate action a key component of his 2022 campaign.

• He has since secured funding to launch the Fresh Water Institute, a pet project to nurture a "blue economy" by promoting a workforce around maritime activities and by luring companies from areas of the country without access to fresh water.
• The county intends to update its climate action plan next year.