Trump is rolling back climate solutions. What can cities and states do?

Local initiatives provide critical pathways for climate action, especially when federal policies stall or backtrack on environmental regulations. While global and national strategies remain essential, city-level projects offer tangible, immediate results in emissions reduction and climate adaptation. Denver is re-engineering its aging steam-based infrastructure into a more efficient, water-based network that utilizes geothermal energy and heat recovered from wastewater to regulate building temperatures. Simultaneously, communities are adopting the Miyawaki method to plant dense, small-scale "pocket forests" that mitigate urban heat and manage flood risks from increasingly intense rainstorms. NPR climate solutions correspondent Julia Simon highlights these grassroots efforts, demonstrating that individual and municipal actions effectively address climate change through innovative, scalable solutions that bypass federal inaction.