Climate and Resiliency
Climate change has arrived, with increasing risks and impacts felt across the County and disproportionately in vulnerable communities. At the same time, the benefits of climate action are clear:
- Better mobility
- Cleaner air
- Growing jobs and businesses
- Safer homes
The County is working to reduce climate pollution from its three most significant sources: solid waste, transportation and buildings. We are also accelerating efforts to help build resiliency in the communities disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis.
Extreme Weather Events in the County
While Baltimore County has a favorable climate, we experience occasional extreme weather events. We have all seen impacts, such as:
- Coastal flooding from wind and high tides
- Extreme cold/heat
- Extreme drought
- High winds from tornadoes, hurricanes and derechos
- Upland flooding from heavy rains or hurricanes
Often several impacts occur during the same event, such as heat and drought, or heavy rain and high winds. Climate change projections indicate that these extreme events are already increasing in severity and frequency. They will become even more severe and even more frequent in the future.
Read the State Spending Series: Climate Change Costs report by the Comptroller of Maryland
Completed Projects
- Renewable energy generation on five County properties.
- The County's Green Fleet—Consisting of 16 electric vehicles, 409 hybrid vehicles, and five electric buses.
- Our robust yard green waste collection system, which composted 22,000 tons of yard material in 2024.
- The pilot Food Waste Compost Project. Learn more about how to compost at home.
Ongoing initiatives
In 2021, the County released its Climate Action Plans, which were designed to:
- Highlight risks of flooding, heat and other impacts worsened by climate change
- Understand the types and quantities of climate pollutions from County assets, as well as the climate change risks and resiliency of these assets and resources
- Identify the ranges and risks of future climate change on the County’s infrastructure
- Propose projects and programming to mitigate these risks
- Recommend adaptation options for County resilience into the future, to 2050 and 2080
The plans consists of two documents, each with a different focus:
- The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory and Climate Action Plan—Focuses on the sources of climate pollutants, and actions to mitigate and reduce them.
- The Climate Action Plan and Resilience Assessment—Focuses on risks to County government buildings, infrastructure and services. It includes actions to protect or adapt them for future impacts of climate change, such as flooding.
Both documents focus only on County-owned facilities and property, and a small number of other structures in the County were included for informational purposes. To explore the data, visit the dashboard below.
View the Flood Vulnerability Screening Dashboard
The Youth Climate Working Group has also provided recommendations about how the County should address the impacts of climate change.
As one of the largest counties in the state, Baltimore County plays a pivotal role in leading the community and helping advance the State of Maryland’s climate goals, such as:
- Reduce state GHG emissions by 40 percent below 2006 levels, by 2030
- Create a path to net zero emissions by 2045
The Baltimore Metropolitan Council (BMC) is a nonprofit organization that works collaboratively with the chief elected officials in the region to create initiatives to improve our quality of life and economic vitality. It consists of cities and counties in Maryland who are working together on issues that stretch across our territories, such as transportation, water quality, air quality and climate change.
This group is pulling together the state, County and city greenhouse gas inventories and climate action plans to propose a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan. This is a guidance document, it is not legally binding on any jurisdiction, but does help the County and our neighbors increase our impact, while reducing costs by working together.