Climate shapes our lives and influences the way we build roads, manage businesses and farms, move water and use energy. However, the climate is changing in ways that affect health, productivity, safety and livelihoods. This page offers a series of online training opportunities to educate decision makers and change agents about what climate change means for their region and how to respond.
The Environmental Resilience Institute offers a monthly webinar series, as well as occasional training opportunites in other formats. All opportunities designed for local governments are listed here and in Institute newsletters as they become available.
The Prepared for Environmental Change Webinar Series
Duration: 60 minutes each
Audience: Topics are selected for an Indiana audience, but webinar content is often relevant to a broader, Midwestern audience.
The Prepared for Environmental Change Webinar Series provides cost-free training for local government officials and staff on topics that support local government leaders as they prepare their communities for higher average temperatures year-round, increased precipitation during spring and winter months and all of the impacts that occur as a result. Recordings of past webinars are available.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has developed online, self-guided training to increase the adaptive capacity of its own staff as well as the communities and local governments it serves. Below is training that illustrates how the climate is changing, what services will be affected and how to strengthen climate resilience. All trainings offered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are accessible as defined by Section 508 of the Government-wide IT Accessibility Program.
Local Government Climate Adaptation Training
Duration: 40 minutes
Audience: This training module was developed for local governments and communities. The training was developed in cooperation with USEPA’s Local Government Advisory Committee.
This training illustrates how a changing climate may affect a variety of environmental and public health services, such as providing safe drinking water and managing the effects of drought, fires, and floods.
Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources Training
Duration: 45 minutes
Audience: This training module was developed for those interested in building resiliency of water resources to climate change.
Discusses the causes of climate change, its potential impacts on water resources, and the challenges water resource managers face.
Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) Climate Change Adaptation Training
Duration: 35 minutes
Audience: While originally developed for OLEM staff, other stakeholders – such as states, local governments, and NGOS – may find the information in this training useful for their own climate change adaptation purposes.
This training discusses climate vulnerabilities and methods for incorporating adaptation measures into OLEM programs.
As climate change impacts have become more visible and the need for preparation and response has heightened, nonprofit organizations, universities and other entities have established training programs to support municipal and county officials confronted with challenging issues. Below are training programs offered by mission-driven organizations. The Institute will add information about other training opportunities as we become aware of it.
Security and Sustainability Forum Webinar Series
Duration: 60-90 minutes each
Audience: These webinars are designed for local government officials and staff, industry decision makers, the general public and sustainability, resilience and adaptation professionals.
The Security and Sustainability Forum Webinar Series offers learning events about climate security, which they define as the threats to society from a changing climate and related disruptions to natural systems. These free webinars convene experts on food and water security, public health, economic vitality, infrastructure, governance and other climate adaptation and resilience topics. Recent webinars, which are located in their archive, have included topics such as state and local climate policies, innovative climate solutions, what to know about electric vehicles, identifying data tracking options for sustainability goals and more. Visit the webinar archive at https://ssfonline.org/archives/webinars.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Contribution Analysis Training
Duration: Varies
Audience: Local government officials and staff
The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Contribution Analysis Toolkit is offered by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, and online training is available with the toolkit. Training opportunities include recorded webinars and on-demand, self-guided online training on how to complete a contribution analysis. Topics include mathematical concepts, weather analysis, census data collection, weather data collection, economic data collection, data entry and more. The contribution analysis process is designed to assist communities with identifying the biggest drivers influencing greenhouse gas performance of communities. By accounting for significant sources of noise in the data, this approach aims to provide communities with a more through understanding of the nature of the problem they are trying to solve. [Note - scroll down on the linked page to see the training offerings.]
Global Covenant of Mayors Online Training Course
Duration: Varies
Audience: Local government officials and staff
This is a ten-module course with interactive exercises, infographics, maps, graphs and resources that help enrollees learn about starting a greenhouse gas inventory, reporting greenhouse gas targets, practices for developing a climate action plan, and how to improve resilience and create a climate adaptation plan.
Greenhouse Gas Protocol Standards Online Training Courses
Duration: Varies
Audience: Government officials and staff
These trainings help countries and cities design climate mitigation goals, assess and report progress toward goal achievement, and estimate the greenhouse gas effects of policies and actions.
Supporting Local Food Councils Online Course
Duration: 10-15 hours
Audience: Local government staff and community development professionals
This free, self-paced online course provides professionals with tools needed to engage in the development of local food councils, which can be key organizations for improving local food system resilience.
Finding Food in Your City Government
Duration: 1.5 hours
Audience: Local government and food policy council
This webinar recording from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future features food policy council organizers discussing successful collaborations with local government and how to use data and tools to understand your jurisdiction's food system.
Addressing Food Waste Through Governmental Plans
Duration: 1.5 hours
Audience: Local Government
This webinar recording, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, discusses lessons from more than 90 governmental food waste plans and strategies for local governments seeking to develop and implement their own plan.
Vector Control for Environmental Health Professionals (VCEHP)
Duration: 1-2.5 hours each
Audience: This training is designed for environmental health professionals who are dealing with mosquitos, ticks, and other vectors.
This is an 11 module course focusing on the use of integrated pest management to address public health pests and vectors that spread pathogens. The courses on vector-borne diseases and public health importance, integrated pest management basics, and performance assessment and improvement of vector control services are required with the rest to be taken if desired based on the needs of your community.
Environmental Public Health Online Courses (EPHOC)
Duration: 40-60 minutes each
Audience: Environmental public health professionals
EPHOC is an online/on-demand package of e-learning courses for environmental public health practitioners. The goal is to provide access to comprehensive, worthwhile, and affordable workforce development resources for practitioners in environmental public health. It contains 15 courses that can be taken based on the needs of your community.
FEMA Emergency Management Institute
Duration: Varies
Audience: Emergency management professionals
A wide range of online training opportunities are offered from FEMA in order to prepare governmental emergency management professionals to respond to, recover from, and mitigate potential effects of all types of disasters and emergencies.
