Annual MI Healthy Climate Plan report shows progress - The Michigan Daily

Annual MI Healthy Climate Plan report shows progress

In April 2022, Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy released the MI Healthy Climate Plan outlining the state’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition toward economy-wide carbon neutrality. Eighteen months later, the 2023 annual report revealed many of the goals had been achieved through legislation and executive action, though many others remain in progress.

The plan budgeted $1 billion in 2023 toward reaching Michigan’s goal of 100% carbon neutrality by 2050 and 100% renewable energy by 2040. According to the report, 16% of Michigan’s current electricity use comes from a renewable source, although it plans to reach 50% renewable energy by 2030 and 60% by 2035. The University of Michigan has a similar climate plan that aims to eliminate all carbon emissions from direct, on-campus sources by 2040. The city of Ann Arbor also adopted a climate plan in 2020, A2Zero​ aiming for carbon neutrality by 2030.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Shana Weber, U-M associate vice president for campus sustainability, told The Daily that climate policy at different levels allows for a more effective approach to addressing climate change.

“We’re all recognizing the problem, the global issue, and we’re all pulling in the same direction,” Weber said. “Each scenario, each scale is going to have a different situation to build goals around. So I don’t see these as anything but additive, even though there might be some variation in dates and approaches. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution here.”

As of this month, seven bills have been passed by the Michigan State Legislature to help achieve the goals of the MI Healthy Climate Plan. These bills address a variety of issues, including cleaning the electric grid, protecting farmers’ rights to host solar projects, expanding energy waste reduction leadership and creating a Community and Worker Economic Transition Office. According to the Healthy Climate Plan 2023 report, all of these bills help make Michigan a better candidate for private-sector investment and federal funding.

The plan and legislation work to center environmental justice, with 40% of climate-related funding to be allocated to communities disproportionately impacted by air pollution, water contamination and other harmful environmental exposures.

For Tony Denton, U-M Health senior vice president and chief environment, social and governance officer, social justice and environmental justice are two pieces of the same puzzle. Currently, Denton is working on projects to provide better health care access for underserved communities.

“We’re working on ways to reduce the social barriers related to access and transportation,” Denton said. “We’ve made a significant investment in Ypsilanti, Michigan, as an example, that reduces the economic challenge of moving back and forth by putting more care closer to where people live.”

Sarah Wells, Public Policy and Environment and Sustainability graduate student, worked with EGLE on renewable energy projects for her SEAS capstone project. In working with EGLE, Wells said she became familiar with the MI Healthy Climate Plan and grew interested in the plan’s ability to improve building efficiency.

The MI Healthy Climate Plan allocated $312 million to reduce emissions from homes and businesses by 17% by 2030. This money will also go toward upgrading school buildings and weatherizing homes to allow for clean energy updates while lowering costs for working families and small businesses.

In an interview with The Daily, Wells said she believes improving building efficiency is the most realistic part of the plan because most people want to see their electricity bills decrease.

“For residential and commercial and industrial sectors, there’s a lot of ways to increase building efficiency that are not expensive and that are very feasible for all people to do,” Wells said. “A lot of it just comes with public education, teaching people ways to maintain their building systems better.”

Wells also said a crucial part of the plan is to distribute and allocate federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act and state funding to reduce building electricity load.

“That’s one of the most beautiful parts of this plan is just getting that money out to people, helping people improve the efficiency of their homes or businesses,” Wells said.

Business junior Sophia Samson, an Erb Institute fellow, highlighted the plan’s goal to support production of two million electric vehicles in Michigan by 2030. She also said prioritizing sustainable private and public transportation options while addressing renewable energy is important so that the electricity fueling the cars is clean.

“Having a bunch of electric vehicles is great and all, but it’s only good if the energy grid has renewable energy sources,” Samson said. “If we build all this infrastructure and can’t switch to renewables and we’re sticking with coal-powered energy, then it’s just as bad as us just having gas in our cars.”

Since the implementation of the MI Healthy Climate Plan, EGLE has hosted six in-person meetings and three online webinars to receive feedback on the plan. From May 16-17, EGLE will host a second annual conference to engage stakeholders and get community feedback on the plan’s progress.

While these engagement programs are state-wide and not on campus, there is data to suggest that students at the University want to engage with climate action. According to U-M’s Sustainability Cultural Indicators Program survey, 83% of students surveyed reported they were at least somewhat committed to modifying their behavior in support of the University achieving carbon neutrality.

Weber said she wants to capitalize on the student and faculty willingness to contribute and believes there is always room for more communication and awareness. To fully solve the problem, the culture must change, according to Weber.

“It’s so important to engage the human spirit and heart in all of this work,” Weber said. “If we only approach it from the technological solutions lens, we aren’t actually solving the long-term problem. Technology comes from us, right? So while we’re problem-solving together and learning together, we’re also really relearning how to inspire each other and engage in this work in a regenerative, fun community-building way.”

Daily Staff Reporter Eva Bard can be reached at evabard@umich.edu.