Alliance members are working to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping temperature increases below 1.5 degrees Celsius by reducing emissions, accelerating action, centering equity, and tracking progress. 

Explore Colorado's policies and actions across the Alliance's 10 key policy areas. Numbers presented below only reflect the number of policies in this database and thus may not reflect all climate policies pursued.

colorado

GHG Targets + Governance

Just Transition + Equity

Industry

Pricing Carbon + Valuing Damages

Electricity

Transportation

Resilience

Natural + Working Lands

Climate Finance

Buildings

total

SB 23-166: Establishment Of A Wildfire Resiliency Code Board

This act establishes a wildfire resiliency code board in the division of fire prevention and control within the department of public safety for the purposes of ensuring community safety from and more resiliency to wildfires by reducing the risk of wildfires to people and property through the adoption of statewide codes and standards. The board is required to promulgate rules concerning the adoption of codes and standards for the hardening of structures and reducing fire risk in the defensible space surrounding structures in the wildland-urban interface in Colorado. The act also creates the wildfire resiliency code board cash fund, and the department shall use money in the fund to implement the provisions of the act. Governing bodies with jurisdiction in an area within the wildland-urban interface that has the authority to adopt building codes or fire codes to adopt and enforce a code that meets or exceeds the minimum standards of the codes adopted by the board within three months of the date the board adopts its codes.

Colorado’s newly adopted wildfire building code requires that home construction in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) uses materials such as Class A roofing, ember-resistant vents, and tempered glass windows to resist wildfire and wind-blown embers. It also provides guidelines for maintaining landscaping around homes.

Colorado 2025 Wildfire Resiliency Code

buildings

Constitutional Amendment to Create the Great Outdoors Colorado Program

The Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) trust fund was created by a ballot initiative in 1992 when voters approved Amendment Article XXVII to the Colorado Constitution, reallocating Colorado Lottery proceeds to create a permanent fund for conservation. The ballot question approved asked voters:

Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution to create the great outdoors Colorado program; to provide for the permanent dedication of net proceeds from every state-supervised lottery game for the program after payment of certain existing obligations; to specify that the program provide for the preservation, protection, enhancement, and management of the state's wildlife, park, river, trail, and open space heritage; to establish a board as an independent political subdivision of the state to oversee the program; and to create a trust fund for the program?

Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds to preserve and enhance the state’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers, and open spaces. 

GOCO's independent board awards competitive grants to local governments and land trusts and invests through Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Since its creation by Colorado voters in 1992, that’s $1.4 billion invested in 5,800 projects in all 64 counties. GOCO is funded by Colorado Lottery proceeds and receives zero dollars from general funds or taxpayers. Per the constitution, Lottery net proceeds are allocated according to this breakdown: 

-  10% to Colorado state parks through Colorado Parks and Wildlife; 
-  40% to the Colorado Conservation Trust Fund, which allocates funds to eligible local governments on a per capita basis; 
-  Up to 50% to GOCO against a constitutionally mandated cap adjusted for inflation each year. 

The constitution requires GOCO to allocate its funds to four areas—outdoor recreation, wildlife, local governments, and open space—in substantially equal portions over time. Outdoor recreation and wildlife funding is allocated through investments in Colorado Parks and Wildlife programs and facilities, while funding from the local government and open space quadrants is awarded through competitive grant programs.

Great Outdoors Colorado

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HB25-1273: Residential Building Stair Modernization

The act requires the governing body of a subject jurisdiction to adopt a building code, or amend an existing building code, to allow up to 5 stories of a multifamily residential building that satisfies certain conditions to be served by a single exit. The act requires a subject jurisdiction to provide notice of the adopting or amending of the subject jurisdiction's building code to the local International Association of Fire Fighter's affiliate and the Colorado Professional Fire Fighters Association.

Earlier in 2025, Governor Polis announced that he would attend Denver’s first ever Single Stair Housing competition. The competition would judge designers on how they use Single-Stair, or Smart-Stair apartments, to create more housing people can afford, while enhancing the walkability and liveability of neighborhoods. Governor Polis called for Smart Stair reform in his 2025 State of the State address and joined Denver’s first Single-Stair Housing Challenge Awards, a competition of single stair apartment designs that use this strategy to increase housing options Coloradans can afford while enhancing walkability and liveability of neighborhoods.

Regulation Number 22 Colorado Greenhouse Gas Reporting and Emission Reduction Requirements

In October 2024, Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission adopted updates to Regulation 22, Part A, expanding the state’s GHG reporting obligations to include all active municipal solid waste landfills (plus closed landfills with gas collection systems) that were previously exempt. These newly covered landfills must begin reporting emissions by March 31, 2025. The rule updates also align Colorado’s GHG program with federal 40 CFR Part 98: adjusting emission estimation methods, updating global warming potentials, clarifying subparts, and improving data verification procedures.