Climate Change MA

Climate Adaptation Plans and Reports

2011 Climate Change Adaptation Report

2011

That report was managed by the state environmental agency, bringing together over 300 stakeholders to have input in the report, covering five different sectors. The report was helpful because it defined the problem and made recommendations about what needed to happen, but it wasn’t a plan. It did not say who is responsible, who is going to pay for it, when things had to be done. or who is accountable.
https://www.mass.gov/service-details/2011-massachusetts-climate-change-adaptation-report

Blizzards

2015

Droughts

2016

Coastal Storms

2017

Resilient MA Clearinghouse

2017

The MA Climate Change Clearinghouse (Resilient MA) is a gateway for policymakers, local planners, and the public to identify and access climate data, maps, websites, tools, and documents relevant to climate change adaptation and mitigation across Massachusetts. The website aims to support scientifically sound and cost-effective decision-making and to enable users to plan and prepare for climate change impacts.
https://www.resilientma.org/

SHMCAP

September 17, 2018

This plan comprehensively integrates climate change impacts and adaptation strategies with hazard mitigation planning. It also complies with current federal requirements for state hazard mitigation plans and maintains the Commonwealth’s eligibility for federal disaster recovery and hazard mitigation funding under the Stafford Act.
https://www.mass.gov/service-details/massachusetts-integrated-state-hazard-mitigation-and-climate-adaptation-plan

Municipal Vulnerability Assessment (MVP) Program

The Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant program (MVP) provides support for cities and towns in Massachusetts to begin the process of planning for climate change resiliency and implementing priority projects.
The state awards communities with funding to complete vulnerability assessments and develop action-oriented resiliency plans. Communities who complete the MVP program become certified as an MVP community and are eligible for MVP Action grant funding and other opportunities.
The MVP program is based on a stakeholder process developed by Adam Whelchel from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in CT, called Community Resilience Building.
That process helps the community develop its priorities based on its views about the connection between climate change impacts and social, environmental, and infrastructure resources in the community.
The MVP and TNC have trained over 500 service providers to work with communities to facilitate their vulnerability assessments.

MVP origins

2012

Some stakeholders of the GWSA IAC (TNC, Mass Audubon, CLF, etc) wanted the State to develop an adaptation plan, to make available the science behind it, and to provide technical assistance for cities and towns.

H.4375 Env. Bond

2014

2.2 billion with a minor part allocated to adaptation.
Includes funding for climate vulnerability assessment.
It had a 5-year time frame, and provided authorization for the governor to choose whether or not to use that money.

Amendment S.2372

2015

Asked for a plan, science, and technical assistance from the state. It did not make it to H.4568, so its content was used in the EO 569

H.4568

August 2016

An Act to Promote Energy Diversity

Executive Order 569

September 2016

Called for the integration of the Commonwealth's climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, enacting the SHMCAP and the MVP Program.

MVP first grant cycle

2017 - 2018

The state hired TNC to develop the municipal technical assistance program.
Only Planning Grants were awarded: 71 municipalities (20% of the Commonwealth) received grants ranging from $15,000 to $36,000.

MVP second grant cycle

2018 - 2019

84 Planning Grants awarded (44% of the Commonwealth)
37 Action Grants awarded

H.4835 Env. Bond

2018

Codifies EO 569 into law,
2.4 billion bond with focus on CC resiliency, including further funding for the MVP Program, SHMCAP and CC Clearinghouse.

MVP third grant cycle

2019 - 2020

92 Planning Grants awarded (71% of the Commonwealth)
36 Action Grants awarded
Budget as of Jan 2020:
$1 Million for MVP Planning Grants. $15,000 - $100,000 per plan
$10 million for Action Grants: $25,000 - $2 million per project

MVP fourth grant cycle

2020 - 2021

Adaptation Governance

Governor Deval Patrick

january 2007 - december 2015

Global Warming Solutions Act 2008

2008

The GWSA mandates the creation of an Implementation Advisory Committee (GWSA-IAC) with two working groups of stakeholder: mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
The IAC finally convened in 2012

Legislature requests CC Adaptation Report

2008

GWSA Implementation Advisory Committee

2012 - present

Originally two different subcommittees: mitigation and adaptation.
Current members:
Chair: Davis Ismay, Undersecretary for Climate Change, EEA.
Dr. Christian Hoepfner , Center Director of Fraunhofer CSE
Richard A. Dimino, President & CEO, A Better City
Dr. Steven Barrett, Leonardo Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT
Peter Rothstein, President, Northeast Clean Energy Council NECEC
Marcy Reed, President, National Grid of Massachusetts
Wayne A. Klockner, Vice President/State Director, The Nature Conservancy
Berl Hartman, New England Chapter Director, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2)
Rebecca Davis, Deputy Director, Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Gary R. Clayton, President, MassAudubon
Christopher Cook, Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Space for the City of Boston
Bradley M. Campbell, President, Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) – Massachusetts
Dr. Cutler Cleveland, Professor of Earth and Environment, Boston University
Ken Kimmell, President, Union of Concerned Scientists
Elizabeth Turnbull Henry, President, Environmental League of Massachusetts (ELM)
David McMahon, Commonwealth Green Low Income Housing Coalition
Ronald C. DeCurzio, Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company
Eugenia Gibbons, Green Energy Consumers Alliance

Pavone, P. (2015). The Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act: A Very Shy Statute. Environmental Claims Journal, 27(2), 121-139.

Basseches, J. A. (2019). “It happened behind closed doors:": Legislative buffering as an informal mechanism of political mediation. Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 24(3), 365-388.

Governor Charlie Baker

january 2016 - ongoing

Climate Council

september 2016 - July 2019

It brought together 99 state agencies

RMAT

August 2019 - present