The Commitment for a Resilient Bay Area is a collective recognition of the threat that the climate crisis poses to our lives and livelihoods and a call to action to address immediate challenges and opportunities facing the San Francisco Bay Area. It reflects the principles of the Resilience Playbook that, if implemented, will accelerate our region’s adaptation to multiple climate risks.

The Commitment for a Resilient Bay Area signatories share a common vision of vibrant, thriving, and resilient Bay Area communities made stronger by embedding equity and climate resilience in policies and plans for the future. By signing, you are joining a community of leaders creating shared accountability for our region’s future and resolving to make a difference together.

The Resilience Playbook offers a platform to engage community members, local organizations, elected officials, and city staff in collaborative climate action, and this Commitment for a Resilient Bay Area is a living affirmation to undertake the critical work ahead.

COMMITMENT

Recognizing our responsibility to our common home, the Bay Area region, we affirm that:

- The well-being of our region is rooted in the vitality of our communities, economies, experiences, and health of our surrounding environment.
- Climate change is a real and present danger that threatens our region’s ability to thrive today and tomorrow.
- Frontline communities, such as low-income, communities of color, and Indigenous Peoples, are disproportionately affected by climate change impacts and, thus, should be at the center of decision-making.
- Everyone, across geographical boundaries, political parties, and sectors has a vital role to play in contributing to climate solutions.
- Those solutions must pursue environmental justice to ensure that the outcomes of policies and strategies prioritize the resilience of the most vulnerable communities.
- Climate adaptation calls for embracing uncertainty in our policies as well as our implementation.

Joining together in care for our communities, ecosystems, and the planet, we commit to:

• Design healthy, resilient communities that are equipped to thrive in the face of climate hazards, and provide fire- and flood-safe infill development.
• Harness the power of nature through nature-based strategies that better prepare communities for natural disasters and address long-term climate stresses that Bay Area communities face now and in the future.
• Advance coordination and collaboration at a regional, multi-city level to effectively and efficiently undertake climate adaptation actions in ways that do not perpetuate geographic inequities.
• Enact policies that operationalize equity by embedding environmental justice considerations into policy design and implementation and ensure outcomes rectify historic disenfranchisement.
• Pursue new funding mechanisms to support climate resilience through the development of innovative permitting, financing, and administrative practices at the local and regional level, aligning incentives to achieve multiple benefits.
• Hold elected leaders, institutions, communities, and ourselves accountable for immediate and effective action to mitigate climate change and increase community resilience.

As a signatory of this Commitment for a Resilient Bay Area, I resolve to take action by identifying and adopting efforts to address the impacts of climate change and advocating for or enacting programs and policies—like those in the Resilience Playbook—that create transformative opportunities for realizing a healthy, thriving, resilient Bay Area.