The Climate Smart Communities (CSC) Grant program provides funding for municipalities to address greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation and climate change adaptation at the local level.
Donor Name: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
State: New York
County: All Counties
Borough: Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island
Type of Grant: Grant | Reimbursement
Deadline: 07/31/2025
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 5 Years
Details:
Projects are divided into three categories:
- Implementation – There are three subcategories of implementation projects:
- GHG Mitigation (non-power sector, e.g., from transportation and food waste).
- Climate Adaptation (reducing risks to residents, infrastructure, and/or natural resources from changing climate hazards).
- Engineering feasibility studies for flood risk reduction and climate friendly HVAC and refrigeration equipment replacement
- Certification – Projects in this category include inventories, assessments, and planning projects that move municipalities toward designation as certified Climate Smart Communities.
Funding Information
CSC grants are reimbursement-based.
- Implementation Category
- Funding available – $21 million
- Minimum grant award – $50,000
- Maximum grant award – $2,000,000
- Certification Category
- Total available – up to $1,000,000
- Minimum grant award – $10,000
- Maximum grant award – $200,000.
Grant Period
The start date for all contracts awarded through this RFA will be March 15, 2026, and the contract end date will be March 14, 2031.
Eligible Expenses
The following expenses are eligible for reimbursement:
- Personnel Services: Salaries of staff, including fringe, directly devoted to project implementation. Grantees will be required to document dates and hours worked and tasks completed via time records.
- Contractual Services: Tasks completed by professional and technical consultants or contractors, e.g., engineering, planning, construction, and legal services, directly related to the project. Costs for the installation of alternative energy systems, such as solar panels, geothermal systems, and heat pumps as long as electricity is not returned to the grid for sale to customers.
- Equipment: Purchase or rental of equipment, e.g., backhoe, directly required to implement the project.
- Travel: Project related travel costs for municipal staff and/or volunteers assigned to the project only. Mileage will be reimbursed at the current federal rate and lodging at current state per diem rates for the location. Note that consultants should include travel in the overall cost proposal and not bill the grantee separately.
- Supplies and Materials: Supplies and materials are defined as consumable products needed to directly implement the project, e.g., printing, copying, paving material, crushed stone.
- Real Property: The cost of fee simple land acquisition and associated legal fees, filing fees, closing costs, and transactional costs, provided they result in the final acquisition of land in New York State necessary to facilitate a climate adaptation or mitigation implementation project. Transactional costs can be submitted for reimbursement as incurred throughout the contract term, but grantees may be required to return payments to New York State should the land transaction not successfully close. Transactional costs are limited to property surveys, appraisals, certified appraisal review, map and GIS/remote sensing data, phase I environmental assessment, title reports and title insurance, prorated property taxes, and State or local real estate transfer taxes, that are directly related to the project.
Eligibility Criteria
- All municipalities, defined as a county, city, town, village, or borough (referring only to Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island) within the State of New York are eligible to apply to the CSC Grant program. Political subdivisions such as municipal corporations, school districts, district corporations, boards of cooperative educational services, fire districts, public benefit corporations, industrial development authorities, and similar organizations are not eligible to apply, however, may apply in partnership with an eligible lead municipality. See request for application for details.
- Municipalities need not be a registered or certified as a Climate Smart Community to apply for a grant.
- Applicant municipalities must be registered in the New York Statewide Financial System Grants Management System.
For more information, visit NYSDEC.
