Performance Audit of the King County 2012 Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP)

King County has been a national leader in local climate change policy. The 2012 SCAP was a significant achievement that facilitated communication and collaboration among county departments promoting environmental sustainability.

Despite this achievement, King County will likely not be able to reach its ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction goals unless the climate program is strengthened. While the SCAP provides a thorough summary of current county efforts to reduce climate pollution and improve climate resilience, it does not provide a clear roadmap to show what steps are necessary to meet the county’s climate goals. Additionally, the SCAP lacks information about the potential costs and impacts associated with the county’s efforts and how the community as a whole should be engaged to reach the goals.

The upcoming 2015 SCAP update provides an important opportunity to strengthen current efforts and enhance the ability of the County to achieve its goals through improved strategic planning, economic analysis, and community engagement.

Our recommendations focus on improving the SCAP by incorporating best practices in strategic planning such as greater community engagement, clearer linkages between strategies and goals, and increased use of economic analysis to drive decision-making and evaluate performance. In addition, we recommend that policy-makers put a management structure for the plan update process in place and provide sufficient resources and support.

The King County Council requested this audit to help evaluate the effectiveness of the current Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP) and to inform the scheduled plan update in June 2015.