MIAMI (AP) — A shift in the political conversation on climate change will come from engaging local communities seeking solutions to the problems they’re already experiencing, the Environmental Protection Agency’s regional administrator for the Southeast said Wednesday.

While some politicians remain skeptical or even silent on the issue, local communities understand the effects because they see them already in increased energy costs, crop production hit by rising temperatures, extreme weather events, rising sea levels and smaller fish catches, Heather McTeer Toney said before touring a South Florida plant that processes waste into energy.