Councilmembers Charles Allen and Mary Cheh have co-introduced a bill to create a Commission on Climate Change and Resiliency, which would be responsible for assessing just how screwed prepared D.C. is for climate change and disastrous events.

The commission would be made up of 16 voting members of the public who are appointed by the mayor and the Council, as well as members from multiple District agencies, including the Department of Health, DC Water, and the Department of the Environment, among others. They would be responsible for assessing how prepared the city is to handle the effects of climate change, as well as creating an action plan for how to move forward.

The idea is to look at both major disastrous events and the wide variety of day-to-day realities that come with a warming planet. Allen’s office notes, for example, that more than 10,000 children and 45,000 adults in D.C. have asthma and are vulnerable to the deterioration in air quality.

“Poor air quality, extreme weather, and flooding are already here. The District needs to assess our vulnerabilities and create a plan to address them effectively,” Allen said in a release. “I welcome Pope Francis’s call to action on climate change and believe we need to start working now to protect District residents from preventable harm.”