Mass. Climate report card: State, Cape Cod progressing toward net-zero. Work still ahead.
When it comes to tackling the subject of climate change, Massachusetts is an achieving student, but its assignment to zero out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is an honors-level challenge with difficult questions to solve before it can make the grade.
That's the message of the state's first-ever Climate Report Card, which the Healey-Driscoll Administration released on Dec. 1 — a comprehensive evaluation of progress Massachusetts is making on emissions reduction and its ultimate goal to ensure communities are protected from the effects of climate change.
According to state Climate Chief Melissa Hoffner, head of the Massachusetts Office of Climate Innovation and Resilience, the report card evaluates the state's efforts in several areas, including environmental justice, transportation, buildings, power, natural and working lands and climate resilience efforts.
Overall, the report finds, Massachusetts has made significant progress since adopting the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2008, and the Road Map for Massachusetts Climate Policy in 2021, both of which made the commonwealth a trailblazer in pursuing clean energy, "but a strong policy response to existing and emerging challenges will be needed to meet the state’s ambitious 2030 targets."
The Massachusetts Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2050 calls for significant emissions reductions between 2025 and 2030.
"Burning fossil fuels is responsible for about three-quarters of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. To avoid more dangerous levels of warming, we must rapidly reduce reliance on fossil fuels — for heating homes, schools, and businesses, powering electric generation, and fueling vehicles — and protect our natural and working lands that help draw down and store carbon," Hoffner said in a statement about the climate report card.
Hoffner said the report card "shows us exactly what we need to do and it’s a call to action."
"We need to weatherize our homes and schools and businesses, switch to clean heat, use cleaner appliances; create better, more affordable ways for people to get around without a car if they choose, and for those who drive, get more people into new or used EVs when they are in the market for a new car," she said.
A key is expanding clean energy sources, from wind to solar, geothermal and hydropower. The chief challenges to meeting their goals are inflation, supply chain issues and workforce shortages.
Just as Massachusetts is at the forefront in the nation of meeting the challenges of climate change, Cape Cod is at the forefront in the state. Here, work is well underway to adapt through projects such as the Herring River Tidal Restoration, the regional Low Lying Roads effort led by the Cape Cod Commission, and an increasing number of former cranberry bog conversions back to natural wetlands, such as one planned in Marstons Mills by the Barnstable Cleanwater Coalition.
Andrew Gottlieb, executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod said in many respects the state, and the Cape Cod region, are attempting "an uncommonly wide metamorphosis" to reach climate-related benchmarks, "and it's hard," but necessary.
The climate report card, he said, paints a good picture of where the state is at, and where it needs to go.
"A lot of it has implications and meaning to Cape Cod," he said Monday.
One aspect of the report that stood out to him, he said, was the portion addressing natural and working lands, "particularly the finding that open spaces are responsible for absorbing more carbon than they emit, and their protection is an important aspect of meeting overall strategy."
Protecting Cape Cod's undeveloped acreage will be important to the overall ability to meet climate-related goals. Connected to this, as Cape Cod towns work on addressing their housing needs, he said it will be important to focus on already disturbed areas that are underused or underdeveloped.
The state's first climate report card, and its implications for Cape Cod, has also caught the attention of the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative.
“The Cape and Islands region is probably the most vulnerable area of Massachusetts to the devastating effects of climate change," said Dorothy Savarese, board president of collaborative.
The organization, she said, appreciates the sense of urgency the Healey-Driscoll administration shows.
"We commend the transparent accountability of this comprehensive report, to address not just reducing pollution from burning fossil fuels that are overheating our state, but also how coastal areas like ours can build resilience to dangers like rising sea levels," she said.
She added the collaborative is privileged to work with many organizations in the region that are working on climate-related issues, including among them the Cape Cod Commission, the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, and the Cape Light Compact.
Janet Williams, vice president of the Collaborative also highlighted the natural and working land section of the report card. The report, she said, "indicates that the state is more or less on track to meet the goal of conserving 28% of natural lands by 2030."
Since Cape Cod only has 14% of natural lands, according to the APCC, she said, "This means it will be incumbent on Cape towns to strive to protect every square foot of undeveloped land to prevent our percentage from falling."
"The Cape Cod Commission’s Climate Action Plan highlights the need for towns to align protections for undeveloped land by adopting land use and wetland protection bylaws and regulations," she said, noting the commission has already developed model bylaws for both zoning and wetlands aimed at accomplishing this.
"The collaborative will work to develop a process for towns — or citizen groups in towns — to move ahead with this level of protection. That’s a key goal of a local plan strategy, and a really challenging one," Williams said.
On the topic of resilience, she said, "The Cape is doing pretty well, with all 15 towns participating in the Municipal Vulnerability Planning process. All towns have undergone vulnerability assessments and some are now working on developing their action plans.
"On the Cape, towns are working together, where watersheds encompass multiple municipal jurisdictions, to develop joint plans, a strategy that will serve us well," Williams said.
The efforts of the Pleasant Bay Alliance working with the towns of Brewster, Chatham, Harwich and Orleans, she said, "is an excellent example of this strategically smart approach." She added that the state’s newly released ResilientCoasts initiative will be an important source of regulatory and financial support for the fast-track development of resilience plans.
Some of the key takeaways identified in the climate report card include:
Transportation: Action is needed to achieve the rapid decarbonization required between 2025 and 2030. This includes ramping up electric vehicle adoption and charging infrastructure, increasing public transportation use and alternatives to single-occupancy vehicle travel.
Power: Supply chain, inflationary and commercial obstacles are delaying the deployment of clean energy, especially offshore wind. Significant interventions are needed to remain on track for 2030. The upcoming offshore wind procurement, recommendations of the Commission on Clean Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting, further clean energy procurements, strategies to reduce electric load and addressing interconnection issues will be central.
Natural and working lands: Interventions are needed to slow, stop and reverse the loss of undeveloped land, particularly forests, and its carbon storage and sequestration capacity. It will be crucial to balance competing land use needs, secure additional funding for conservation and expand climate-oriented land management and restoration.
Heather McCarron can be reached at hmccarron@capecodonline.com, or follow her on X @HMcCarron_CCT
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Mass. Climate Report Card shows progress. Still work ahead on Cape Cod
