As part of the community engagement efforts of the Climate Resilience Center (CRC), Community Leadership Circle participants discuss key issues the CRC should focus on.
In September 2024, UMass Lowell launched the new Massachusetts Gateway Cities Climate Resilience Center (CRC). Funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the CRC is working with the City of Lowell, the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association (CMAA), and community leaders in Lowell and Massachusetts to use DOE tools to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities to extreme temperatures and energy burdens. The CRC also aims to support Lowell’s communities in cutting their energy costs and accelerating their transition to clean, affordable, and resilient energy systems. Research currently underway includes producing local-scale projections of heat waves and cold snaps, separating the urban contribution to extreme weather, understanding the impact of urban vegetation on extreme cold and heat, and simulating building energy performance under multiple energy transition scenarios. Incorporating local scale projections of extreme weather, city- and state-level policies including heat pump adoption and energy efficiency retrofits will be tested. Changes in energy demand and cost will also be estimated for each scenario. We hope this research will help inform the community and policymakers about the impact of climate resilience actions that cities can make to lower energy costs and protect community members from extreme weather exposure.