Mills administration awards $2.4 million to 53 Maine communities for climate change initiatives - WABI
Mills administration awards $2.4 million to 53 Maine communities for climate change initiatives
AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) - The Mills administration announced today 2.4 million dollars in awards to 53 communities across Maine to address climate change.
The announcement was made at the Maine Climate Council meeting at the Augusta Civic Center.
Hannah Pingree, the state’s Director of Policy Innovation and the Future, says the meeting marks the kickoff of Maine’s second climate council planning process.
Pingree says the first report in 2020 outlined eight climate action strategies on how Maine can reach both state and global climate goals.
The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Maine by 45 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050.
Pingree says the new funding announced today will help the state reach that goal.
“53 communities getting grants to do everything from make their public buildings more fuel efficient, install heat pumps, lots of communities are doing climate planning. So, how do they plan for sea level rise? How do they make their infrastructure more ready? So, $2.4 million of grants are going out to 53 communities. We now have over 175 communities now in Maine involved in this program. It’s called the Community Resilience Partnership. It’s one of the many things we’re doing to try to help make communities really take matters into their own hands, decide what’s important for them and take action,” Pingree said.
The awards vary for each community.
Full list of grant recipients available here.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”