A reliable, resilient power grid is one that can "keep the lights on" through extreme weather events like hurricanes, wildfires, or blizzards. But the grid today is woefully unprepared to meet our current climate reality—and that leaves communities facing perilous, sometimes deadly, outcomes.
Achieving a climate-resilient power grid will take rigorous planning. And because the electric transmission system investments we make today will be in operation for a half century or more, the time to act is now.
Planning that incorporates community voices and integrates science-based climate risk assessments will ensure a power grid that is more resilient, more cost-effective, and does not perpetuate the inequities in climate-burdened communities that the status quo would unjustly ignore.
In this report
Planning For Climate Change Isn’t Happening. It’s Putting Communities At Risk
Strength in Numbers: Why We Need More Climate Science in Power System Planning
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Citation
Gomberg, Sam, Rachel Licker, Sital Sathia, and Pamela Worth. 2025. Keeping Everyone's Lights On: How to Build an Equitable, Climate-Resilient Power Grid. Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists. https://doi.org/10.47923/2025.15855
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Statements on Climate Change from the US National Academy of Sciences
UCS: What We Do
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