What can a local foundation possibly do about climate change? The scale is overwhelming, and the impacts—melting Arctic icecaps, coastal flooding in Asia—seem far away from the streets of Chicago. But research funded by the Fry Foundation demonstrates that Chicago has already shifted into a different climate zone. In a warmer world Chicagoans could find themselves coping with flooded basements, new diseases, and dying trees. Low-income residents will be the least able to adapt. Now the search is on for local solutions to this global problem.

Nearly everyone understands that the earth's climate is warming as a result of burning fossil fuels, cutting down rainforests, and other human activity. Less is understood about how this vast atmospheric shift will change things on the ground right here in Chicago.

Last year, the Fry Foundation took the lead among local foundations in funding the Global Philanthropy Partnership to provide research to the City of Chicago to outline the potential impact of climate change on the city. This information would help Chicago develop a climate action plan designed to mitigate the impact of climate change on the residents of Chicago. The results of the research, based on scientific scenarios that differ slightly, predict that Chicago will have milder winters but longer and hotter summers, more heat emergencies, more flooding, and an increase in pests and diseases that currently don't thrive in these parts. Termites, for example, could become a real problem if winter frosts are not severe enough to kill them off.

Such impacts will affect all Chicagoans. Those least able to adapt are likely to be poorer residents, who already face higher fuel bills and have less money to invest in energy-efficient air conditioners or new energy-efficient cars.

That insight prompted the Fry Foundation to concentrate funding on improving energy efficiency and public transit. Together, these two strategies have the potential to help low-income Chicagoans decrease their "carbon footprint" and decrease energy bills—and could translate into new green job opportunities in neighborhoods that sorely need them.

Transportation accounts for 21 percent of Chicago's greenhouse gas emissions. Any serious climate change plan must include expanding public transit to provide an alternative to cars. But Chicagoans in recent years have instead seen dispiriting struggles over budgets, threatened service cuts, and infrastructure problems resulting from decades of deferred maintenance. The Fry Foundation's funding supports groups working to turn that bleak picture toward a more hopeful scenario.

Chicago Metropolis 2020, a highly respected civic group, provides research and analysis on regional transit and examines how funding for transit can be targeted to improve the current system and create new services to attract new riders. Currently planning for transit is fragmented among the region's three transit systems. Metropolis 2020 is pushing a "big picture" approach that would consider the capital needs of all three systems simultaneously and investigate alternative financing methods and fare structures that support thoughtful and strategic investments in transit.

Part of making the public case is understanding what other cities are already doing. That is the goal of Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC)'s Peer Exchange program, which brings public officials from Chicago together with their counterparts in New York, San Francisco, and Stockholm to share ideas for reducing congestion and improving transit.

In addition, both the MPC and another group, Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), are working to bring transit solutions to local neighborhoods. MPC is collaborating with the Regional Transportation Authority on plans to increase access to transit in three low-income Chicago neighborhoods. CNT is promoting transit designs and neighborhood planning that makes transit more appealing and efficient, and therefore more likely to be used by local residents.

Fry Foundation support has enabled the CNT to collaborate with the Global Philanthropy Partnership on finding ways to cut energy used to heat and cool buildings. The City's climate change plan calls for reducing energy consumption in 550,000 low- to middle-income housing units. CNT, which has been promoting residential energy efficiency for more than a quarter century, has analyzed energy consumption by type of housing stock and neighborhood location to identify where investment would make the most difference. Meanwhile, with state law mandating that utility companies seek out renewable sources and subsidize their customers' efficiency, the Environmental Law and Policy Center is working with the utilities to design incentives and standards to achieve the greatest impact.

Improving buildings to reduce heating costs, improving public transit, selling energy-efficient appliances: all these investments should create not just energy savings and climate change benefits, but jobs as well. Global Philanthropy Partnership is analyzing the potential "green job" opportunities and seeking to ensure that those jobs become economic opportunities for Chicagoans who need them most. Together, these initiatives should help Chicago shift to a more climate-friendly way of life in ways that make sense, not just globally, but locally as well.