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today the next slide has our agenda for today we are in the introduction and logistics phase right stage right now I will tell you a little bit more about that in a moment and from here we will go into presentations from members of each of the working groups of the main climate Council you'll have about a five minute overview of each of those working groups and then we'll share some opportunities for engagement in the process over the next couple of months and give you some instructions about how to get into some breakout sessions so you can dive a little more deeply into two of the working groups the technical notes for today you are all muted right now many of you have already identified the chat function as a great way to ask questions and get responses I also want to let you know can you we're not quite up to that slide yet so you can email Abigail Bradford with any questions there we go to stop there perfect and just want to let you know that today's webinar is being recorded and the video will be shared by co-hosts later this afternoon alright next slide perfect answer a little bit of background on how we got here after years of climate change denial from the Blaine House mean elected a climate champion in 2018 climate was the first thing that Governor Janet Mills mentioned in her inaugural address and it was more than just a talking point last year Governor Mills introduced landmark legislation establishing the main climate council and charging that body with development of an ambitious climate action plan next slide mean now has a statutory requirement to reduce climate change missions at least 80% over 1990 levels by 2050 with mandatory benchmarks to keep us on track including carbon neutrality by 2045 meeting these mandates will be an all-hands-on-deck endeavor requiring transformative change from every corner of our state and every sector of our economy next slide the main climate council is structured to bring representatives from those corners and sectors together the council itself includes commissioners from all state agencies representatives from business and industry environmental labor public health and community advocates and more in addition to the 39 members of the council itself there are more than 200 Maine people serving on sector specific working groups and the science and technical subcommittee these working groups are charged with developing recommendations that will help mean meet those statutory emissions reductions and enhance the resilience of Maine communities the recommendations will be delivered to the council in June and you'll hear progress and updates on where they stand from members of the working groups today next slide all right when it comes to climate action the what in terms of what we do isn't the only thing that matters how is vitally important to and I'm really pleased to to let all of you know that the community resilience and equity and diversity elements of our climate action plan are specifically called out in the legislation so we aren't just looking at the mechanics and the logistics of emission reductions we're really looking at building a stronger and more inclusive an equitable mean I am going to hand it over to my colleague David Costello from the Natural Resources Council of me to play a little bit more about the progress and the timeline for this work David you we have a fight on the line David is having technical difficulties so I think that we should circle back to this after care about you do you want me to walk through the time line a little bit or if you um alright even if you you figure out how to interrupt me please do what you see here is the timeline of a very aggressive and rapid reaction here so the climate council kicked off last fall the working groups have been holding regular meetings I believe that in the month of April there were 30 working group meetings in 30 days so we have been working hard and many of you have participated and unattended those meetings the working groups will deliver their recommendations to the full climate Council in a 2-day remote participation kind of meeting June 16th and sorry 17th and 18th and will share information on how to participate in that when it's available and then the summer will really include a pretty robust public education and input process so again as those details are available we will share opportunities to the weigh-in and to let the council know what you think of the recommendations there will be another full council meeting in September and we can we'll definitely keep you posted on that additional public listening sessions and then the big deadline is that the climate action plan is due to the legislature on December 1st next slide so the climate action plan is really intended to lay out a bold path for Maine's climate future and you see here a number of the goals that we are pursuing together I think I'm gonna let David come back if he wants to say a little bit more about this and is Jeff ready do we want to go all right Jeff marks is a senior policy advocate and main director of Acadia center he's also a member of the building's infrastructure and housing working group and is gonna walk us through what that group is up to and what recommendations we can anticipate Jeff okay well I want to thank you twice Kathleen one for running this webinar and second for being one of the co-chairs for the building's infrastructure and housing working group along with Michael Stoddard with efficiency Maine trust these working group chairs have done a tremendous job really compiling a lot of information bringing a lot of people together and really moving this work forward even during the challenging times that we have here so thank you to the working group chairs as well as the members so why are we here why are we focusing on this particular sector well the transportation buildings and powers sectors are there's really the largest opportunities for greenhouse gas emission mitigation from these sectors and in Mike Williams we'll talk a little bit about transportation and Greg on energy a little bit later but this particular sector with buildings infrastructure and housing takes up really 39 percent of Maine's total greenhouse gas emissions now the residential sector is second to transportation in the highest carbon emissions overall second to transportation which is 54 percent residential makes up about night % so that's the first reason we're looking at this particular sectors second is you know Maine has some of the oldest housing stockin in the country and as this slide mentions 56% of Maine homes were built before 1980 so you can just imagine how leaky they are how not well insulated they are they probably have old heating systems in a lot of cases so this this sector is really ripe for opportunity and reduce of emissions and the third reason we're looking at this is it has one of the highest reliance on fossil fuels for their heating needs with 61 percent of homes still heated with oil and granted that is better than about five or six years ago I think it was a up to about 75 or 80 percent heated with oil so we've come a long way in the last decade but we still have a ways to go next slide so where are we going what where does this work in group want to get us and I think if you read down through these these are all very positive results that would like to see from the solutions that we put together as a working group and hopefully are adopted by the full main climate Council in December of course improved efficiency and we want people to be comfortable in their homes and buildings we want to work on building codes and I'll get to that in a little bit and make sure the buildings are Net Zero renewable ready going forward a new construction we want to make sure that the materials that we used are not only low global warming potential materials but that we can tap into materials that have less embodied carbon in steel and cement really long lifetime carbon content in those but we happen to be a 90 percent forest and stay why not tap into wood to build build on our buildings going forward as I mentioned before we want to get off fossil fuels as much as possible and go over to clean heating and cooling systems of course we all want reduced energy costs for running our homes and buildings and we want our industries to be cleaner as well next slide so who is the working group I used to work for a large technology company in we used to approach buildings in a systems way we wanted to get all the systems in the buildings like heating ventilation air conditioning lighting security fire suppression motors electricity all working together to give the best efficiency for those those buildings and that's what this working group is doing it's different for people different components very diverse views who have come together to get us to the highest efficiency possible in the in the buildings policies that we we put forward as a working group so very proud to be sitting along with with some real experts in these areas architects engineers the folks from efficiency main towns and cities utilities members of our youth community and many many more who are working on this working group and outside the working group to provide recommendations going forward next slide so as a working group these are six strategies that we're looking at and I'll go through these really quickly for time sake but we can get into some of the details during the breakout sessions later first we want to tackle new buildings and make sure that the buildings that we build today that will be around for decades are the most energy efficient that we they can be so we want to establish steadily increasing residential and commercial building codes and we want to make sure that everybody is complying with those codes going for so that's that's the first strategy strategy number two is making sure that we transition to cleaner heating and cooling the big focus now is electrifying our homes and buildings peat pumps are energy efficient and effective in cold weather they're cost-effective and when you add heat pumps with weatherization and even solar PV you have a really tight energy efficiency house or or building so we're working on policies there by number three we talked about new buildings but we also want to tackle the existing building envelopes just like the real estate adage location location location this strategy is all about weather eyes weather eyes whether eyes make sure that we are doing energy audits and energy retrofits and making all houses including affordable housing more energy efficient and cost effective number four lead by example in publicly funded buildings you know if our if the state itself isn't making its buildings energy efficiency why should the market follow with with energy efficiency buildings more so we want to make sure that we're following best practices for materials and systems and state buildings including affordable housing schools and government buildings the fifth strategy is decarbonization of industrial processes efficiency main right now has very good programs to increase energy efficiency in in our in our large companies and industrial facilities but that funding is limited so we may need to look at other sources of funding to help really up the game for for industrial facilities in Maine and last but not least we want to modernize and stabilize the electric grid if we're looking to decarbonize our electricity system if we're looking to use beneficial electrification and in within our houses and buildings and if we're looking to really increase the number of electric vehicles in charging stations and cleaner transportation in the state this is all going to mean more electricity and new demand on the electricity grid so we're gonna have to kind of combine all of these strategies our new building strategies our existing buildings our heating and cooling systems our industrial processes tie all these together in an electricity grid that works for the state and works for ratepayers and consumers in the state so I think I'm over my five-minute limit and I'll turn it back over to you David thanks a lot Jeff next up is is the transportation working group and it's Mike Williams who's the deputy director at the blue green Alliance go ahead and Mike thanks David so as David mentioned I am Mike Williamson with the blue green Alliance those of you who don't know we're a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations we do a lot of our work federally but also in states across the country specifically trying to land on those aligned solutions that lift up working people while also taking on the climate crisis and so I lived I'm here in Maine and I have lucky enough to have built relationships not just with the environmental movement up here but also with the with the labor movement with unions up here and I was asked by the folks from the Maine FL CIO to sit on the transportation working group which I sincerely appreciate and in addition there's folks from Labor on the building's working group and the energy working group and there's a big focus for us is specifically on on supporting the workforce and so I wanted to just start with that and note that that's where I'm coming from personally but also very supportive of trying to to really lean into these working groups and specifically transportation to drive down emissions but also creating high quality jobs for Mainers at the same time enjoy the next slide so why transportation honestly this is where most of our missions are more than half of the state's total emissions come from transportation and it's because we drive quite a lot we're a rural state and we have a lot of tourists and it's it's where where we get a lot of our pollution and it's something that is is kind of hard to unstick I the rural and suburban driving do make up the majority of this this problem so I think rural and suburban drivers Drive roughly forty five percent more than urban drivers and so it's something that we need to take a look at and and try to figure out how we can solve that problem and it's not as though it's getting better it's actually getting worse there's been an increase in total transportation emissions across the whole state and then and but it's specifically a big one in the Portland metro area and then not just across the board but also a per capita increase so we're seeing person-by-person more driving more emissions coming from folks although with the current coronavirus crisis there's obviously a significant change in that and so we are we've been utilizing that information and understanding that to see how things like teleworking can take come into play but I'll get to that in just a moment you know the next slide please so what vision are we looking at from the transportation working group and then from all my colleagues especially from from the environmental movement here basically if we can boil it down we've got five nice bullet points here which I didn't read through but it comes down to less driving and lower emission driving or no emission driving preferably and that's where all this comes from I should say less driving or no driving or lower emission or no emission driving so these bullets have clean safe and affordable transportation options for all Mainers whether you're rural whether you're low income whether you're in York County or Aroostook County getting good transportation options is incredibly important noting that we're a rural state that driving is going to be part of our livelihood really ramping up the an increase in electric vehicles and public transit also in rural areas but specifically electric vehicles and making it so that it's affordable and available for all Mainers so and then in addition building out the infrastructure that we need that goes along with those the infrastructure is also the big place of where we can create a lot of high quality jobs next slide please so this is who our working group is your people who dig into the specifics and the nitty-gritty on transportation advocates from low-income communities loan organizations the Contractors Association the builders environmental organizations organized labor public sector so on so forth pretty diverse
group and I will say it has it can be pretty complicated there's been some disagreement and sometimes discord but generally it's been pretty amicable but it's really important to have all of these voices included in here and surprisingly enough while there has been difficulties and disagreement there is a lot of agreement in fact the vast majority of the strategies which we'll see on the next slide have significant agreement across this very diverse array of folks so we can go to the next slide so here are the five strategies that the working group is leaning into and is probably going to not probably almost definitely going to be submitting to the climate council in a week or a couple weeks or so and so we'll go through each of these so reflect the true cost of driving reduce vehicle miles traveled expand electrification of vehicles increase fuel economy and adapt Maine's critical infrastructure and so that first one has actually been the most complicated so I'll spend just a moment on talking about what that means so the true cost of driving what it what driving does in terms of impacting our pollution portfolio what it does in terms of impacting our our state's infrastructure and really figuring out how we build those costs into the issue of driving and so there's a lot of ways to do this we are already pay a cost for driving whether it's the personal cost of owning a vehicle or leasing the vehicle we already pay a gas tax gas tax is actually quite a bit lower in key in Maine and in the u.s. that it is in a lot of other places in the world and it doesn't properly at all cover the costs to to take care of our our state's infrastructure needs we also it should be noted when we compare per capita cost our spending on issues like public transportation we are at the lowest we spend so little on that and I think it's because we don't have the amount of revenue that we need so this has really been digging into that issue of how do we capture that cost of driving raised revenues so that we can fix this issue and so there's been a number of ideas put out and discussed fuel tax so that's effectively your gas tax or different constructs a low carbon fuel standard on that setting that's a more complicated issue that we can get into in the breakout group and then the transportation and climate initiative which is really a interesting and innovative effort that's a a regional effort it's similar to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative which focus on the electricity sector TCI is focused on transportation it's about raising those revenues from fuel sources fuel importers and such and then allocating that revenue to solutions to expand and enhance access to clean transportation options with a significant focus on supporting Maine workers supporting Maine's rural areas and folks from low-income communities it's something that's a really interesting idea that could really benefit Maine we wouldn't need to work out the details to make sure that it is equitable and then it's really is supporting Maine workers but it's something that we've been pushing for it I will say that there has been consternation with some folks contractors and few others who have questions about that and are a little bit concerned so we are working through it and it probably will be mentioned in the recommendations but I wanted to spend a few extra moments just to talk about that piece there quickly though the other four strategies I will say there's a pretty wide agreement so we the second one reduce vehicle miles traveled where experiencing what what that could look like if telework and Teleservices were much more widely available and I feel like we're getting all of us are getting a crash course and how that could work it's turning out that it is lowering our emissions dramatically this is a horrible way to do it but it's something where we can learn these lessons and try to incorporate this into our day to day life and so this is going to be something that we are advocate are recommending to the climate Council that telework Teleservices and such are corporated into this along with greatly improving and expanding public transit getting more rail options more bus options and then also incorporating Smart Growth into our planning the next big one I would say is a statewide electric vehicle roadmap and it's a way so that the state can plan and put for put forward a plan that really expands the usage of electric vehicles in the state and so that it's available for all Mainers of all incomes all regions so on and so forth it's really important so I'm coming down to the end of my time there's a few other options you can see them here increasing the state's fuel economy and then really rebuilding and adapting Maine's critical infrastructure I talked a lot about lowering emissions but it's also something we've the other part of dealing with the climate crisis is adaptation or being resilient in the face of face of a changing climate and the impacts that come from it we have gave a lot of thought to that creating an assessment and action plan so that's also part of it so I look forward to your questions and in the breakout group but otherwise I'll pass it back to David thanks Mike next up we have the energy working group discussion and sled by Greg Cunningham Greg's the vice president director of clean energy and climate that at the conservation Law Foundation go ahead great thank you David hi folks my name is Greg Kingham as David mentioned I'm with a conservation Law Foundation which is new england-based regional environmental organization and I'm a member of the energy working group which is largely focused on the electric sector and energy fuels next slide please so why are we focusing on the energy sector Maine has actually done a really good job of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its electricity sector particularly relative to other states however to the extent that we are going to as Jeff alluded to electrify the way in which we operate our cars the way in which we heat our buildings we're gonna have to shift even further from polluting fossil fuels to electricity that is derived from clean renewable resources and so we need to plan for that future you know how we get enough clean renewable resources on our grid and ensure that our grid can handle them will require some incentives now these aren't handouts necessarily many of these can be market-based incentives where we're actually driving the Maine economy while ensuring that more clean energy is developed and produced and therefore our emissions are declining and they're and they're declining on a scale as required by Maine law the electric system obviously today is designed for a different way of doing things we've got generally large power plants in in localities that deliver vast amounts of energy on to the system then the vision of the future is you know we're gonna diversify our electricity supply we're going to distribute it over the entire state and the electric system is gonna have to change to meet those needs so we need to plan for that as well um we're also here focusing on this because this transformation really has to benefit all Mainers and all businesses in Maine and that has to be a thoughtful process we need to do this quickly because the risks of climate change are massive but we need to do it in a way that's equitable and that takes into consideration the needs cost concerns of all Mainers and businesses next slide please so what's our vision for mains energy system today main exports about five billion dollars a year and dirty fuels dirty energy so there's a lot of capital out there that if directed in in the proper way could go a long way toward meeting our clean energy goals so our vision is we shift that money toward local investments in clean energy and and there are lots of opportunities there whether its energy efficiency renewables like solar and wind or storage opportunities as well as opportunities in transportation and buildings with heat pumps and electric vehicle charging stations on our highways so that's that's a major part of our vision similarly we need to redesign our electric system as I alluded to a moment ago in a way that you for example charges us for electricity in manners that give us incentives to use electricity in different ways and at different times of days and also in a way that ensures that we're using that electricity in a climate friendly manner we also have to modify the system to accommodate this new way of doing business you know in a carbon-free environment and to do so will require planning finally this clean energy shift has to create more jobs it is this is about the climate but it's it's gonna be an economy driver it's gonna clean our air and it's gonna be good for all mater's next slide please so the energy working group as with the other working groups was very carefully selected by the governor's Energy Office and the governor's office herself and it is a diverse group it's representative of the many interests in Maine I've listed only a few here you know others that I've not included include labour low income advocates we have a number of young people who are bringing ideas to the table that some of us who've been involved in this for a long time haven't considered and it's a really refreshing perspective and that includes various college students from within Maine we've got professionals who specialize in this area like economists various lawyers and of course many businesses who will be impacted by this transformation are involved and they're representing not only their own interests but the broader interests of the main business community so it's it's well represented and we have we've disagreed at least as much as we've agreed a lot of issues and I think that's where the best compromises arise and we're doing our best in that regard next slide please so where have we landed and I'll run through these very quickly and we can elaborate if you're interested in joining the energy synergy working group pullout group but the short of it is this first bullet refers to a power sector transformation it's really a public process in which we try to forecast and predict what our future looks like if we're decarbonizing if we're if we're removing carbon from our economy how many electric vehicles do we need to shift to what does public transportation look like how are we heating our homes and does it have it dude those have impacts on our electricity system for example if it does over what period of time will an increased demand and electricity occur and how do we plan for that what new infrastructure that we need to put in place what additional individual and business behaviors do we need to influence with policies and financial incentives that's what this planning process involving the power sector transfer transformation would involve and it's all designed to ensure that we can achieve the objectives and recommendations that the main climate Council ultimately puts out it's likely to be a public process at first but we expect that there will be later proceedings at the Public Utilities Commission and other agencies where we implement get those various policies second here is how we ensure the we build out enough clean energy in the future Maine's got some excellent policies on the books that were passed very recently that really are gonna drive clean energy in Maine but we need to take into consideration what more we need to do and should that include very specific technologies such as offshore wind where we've got a massive resource here in the Gulf of Maine the third bullet and recommendation relates to financing of all of this work it can be difficult to obtain private financing from your typical bank for say solar panels on your house and it can be even more challenging for a larger project so the our group is contemplating a financing entity that can not only spur and provide incentives for this kind of clean energy development but most importantly bring private capital into that as well so they match capital for example and sometimes it's three times the amount of private capital for one part Green Bank capital but the effect is it's both building out new clean energy but more importantly driving the economy as well the final recommendation relates to our heating fuels and it's a way to our heating fuels obviously are a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and we're gonna need to substantially if not eliminate them substantially reduce them but that's gonna take time and in order to do that equitably we're gonna need to make use of some of those fuels for for some period of time a renewable fuel standard provides an opportunity for us to reduce the amount of carbon in those fuels and reduce emissions from them as a result and it provides incentives for the industry to reduce those the carbon content within their fuels so we're exploring that as well all of these are currently in the consideration things these are not final we have got a meeting this afternoon in fact in which we're hoping to reach a solid consensus but this gives you a pretty good sense for where we are thank you David back to you great Thank You Gregg next we have we have IV panocha who's the Casco Bay keeper for the Friends of Casco Bay ID go ahead my name is Ivan oka and I am the Casco Bay keeper with Friends of Casco Bay my organization's mission is to improve and protect the bay and as bay keeper I am our lead advocate in listening to the presentations and seeing all the questions in chat I just want to remind people there'll be two breakout sessions later so you can ask questions and there's also a portal through the maybe it's a website where you can put in your thoughts and recommendations to the council based on what you've learned today so I'm a member of the coastal marine working group that group has just over thirty people in it and like the other groups it has a very diverse membership we represent the coastal and marine sector so there's a lot of businesses represented including hospitality marinas ports fisheries and aquaculture and there's a lot of scientists economists and people who study the social science there's also a lot of people spend a lot of time managing protecting and planning for conserving our coastal and marine resources when we began our work we realized and apropos of the presentations you've just heard that many of the mitigation solutions what's needed to reduce our carbon footprint we're going to occur in other sectors particularly transportation and that in the coastal and marine environment we would have to do our part to contribute to mitigation solutions but that we really had to look at how we were going to add that to all the changes that are going shifting fisheries and increased storm intensities in storm surge and ocean acidification next slide please excuse me IV if you can hear me can you get closer to your microphone a lot of people having trouble hearing you Kimmy you're muted now IDs okay I went on mute to adjust the volume can you can you hear me better now keep talking you in froze can you hear me yes much better okay I took off my headset so hopefully there will be no background noise so sorry for those of you who missed the introduction basically just to recap what I was saying is in Nicolle when we began our work we recognized that a lot of the really big mitigation efforts that Maine would need to take we're going to be covered by other sectors for example by transportation and that in the coastal marine environment we would need to do our part to help with mitigation solutions but that what we really had to do was make recommendations for resiliency and adaptation because there's so many impacts being felt in the coastal marine environment this includes things like sea-level rise shifting dc's oat so forth so we looked at developing recommendations that built on a lot of what's going on in the public and private sector already but consolidating and complementing those efforts and taking them to the next level so our first recommendation is that name needs a very coordinated system to track ocean climate change we have a lot of data already but it's not collected in a coordinated way and often it's collected when fundings availa
le so when funding runs out the the research stops and it's important to track ocean climate change both because there's still aspects of it that we don't understand and because we need to be able to develop models so we can predict consequences in the future for purposes of planning so this recommendation isn't about answering purely scientific questions it is to provide a foundation for action and all of our other recommendations flow from tracking climate change the way we'll discern Amanita is through information that would be a state managed database probably broken down by region because the coast of Maine is so vast and buried and it would include briefing for legislatures symposia for targeted audiences and so forth next slide complementary to the information exchange would be creation of a Marine Business Council this would be specific to fisheries and aquaculture so that targeted information could be provided to wild harvesters and aqua critters and you could work collaboratively to test pilot mitigation and adaptation strategies and this counsel would also look at identifying funding sources for that work the corollary to that is really taking a look at how we're doing fisheries management on a municipal state and regional level to make changes so that it's easier to do the resiliency strategies we need and we look at managing fisheries in a way that is commensurate with climate change so maybe going from it next slide please the next set of recommendations we made can you will still hear me oh good now I turn off your video idea to help with your connection okay is that we revise the laws and and and really look at requirements for planning for climate resiliency so the room they're rather specific are to protect certain habitats and to also help reduce the consequences of increased stormwater pollution and nutrient loading secondary to climate change and the planning is to help identify natural solutions and steps that can be taken to make our coastline more climate resilient especially from storm intensities and sea level rise next slide please and our final strategy is to look at using our blue carbon for mitigation so means coastal and marine plants including salt marshes and eel grass and sea weeds have great capacity to store carbon if they're healthy and if they're healthy they can be a big part of the solution to capture carbon and help us meet our target reductions if they're not healthy then they're going to who degrade and release a part of the problem and the added benefit of keeping our coastal ecosystems healthy is that it provides habitat and helps us be resilient into the into the future so those that's a very high-level overview of very detailed recommendations I'd there'll be two breakout sessions for those of you who want to learn more about this the coastal and marine working group is meeting tomorrow and you can sign up to observe that meeting and to participate and ask questions through the media page and at the meeting tomorrow we are reviewing the results of a poll that we sent out to hundreds of people about our draft strategy is seeking feedback and we're going to work to sharpen these so that's a great way to participate thank you very much thank you very much Ivy next we have Rebecca bio Boulos and it she's focused on she's a member of the community resilience planning Public Health and emergency management working group that could go ahead thank you David hi everyone like he said my name is Becca Wallace and I'm executive director of the Maine Public Health Association and I touch air the community resilience planning Public Health and emergency management working with the longest name with Judy East from the land use planning commission and Annie suits from the Emergency Management Agency and our working group is the largest with about 45 members and assets we have a diversity of training and expertise among our membership and so we divided ourselves into three subgroups community resilience planning Public Health and emergency management and I serve as co-chair of the public health subgroup next slide please so we know that climate changes health and we know that these changes disproportionately impact vulnerable communities and and populations in a negative way and so within our working group and in consideration of the efforts of other working groups we conducted a comprehensive review of Maine's laws to achieve resilience we identified opportunities to provide the fatalities with technical assistance as they adapt to climate related changes in their communities we assembled a wide variety of different funding mechanisms and we identified strategies for improving Public Health surveillance monitoring and education and health systems emissions and preparedness next slide please so our vision for Maine communities is that they have the resources they need to prepare for and adapt to climate change including funding technical assistance surveillance and monitoring and that these resources are distributed equitably and locally across the state and that public health effects and solutions to climate change are considered in decision-making at the municipal regional and state levels next slide please so as I said before we have a large and diverse membership on our working group and we see some examples here we have folks from local and state health departments state veterinary and we have planners and various community members we have public health advocates and researchers we have membership from Wabanaki Public Health nonprofits from across the state so it's a wide range of people that work in public health in different capacities next slide please so mirroring our diverse and sizeable membership and again with consideration of other working group efforts that impact these different areas that we were focused on our working group put forward is putting forward a total of seven strategies to the main climate Council and so in context of today's presentation I'll focus on these ones that you see here as they are strategies that the potential to reduce emissions and enhance resilience at the community level so for community resilience planning the strategies are conducted comprehensive review and revision of several main statutes and their associated regulations that are integral to supporting municipal regional and state level adaptation and resilience as you can imagine there's a lot in there so there's a lot of opportunity - just some examples of what that would be could include updating comprehensive claiming and Shore land zoning establishing a sea level resilience overlay zone and expanding the utilization of floodplain management model ordinances incentives and assistance another strategy from communities claiming or is to improve the regional delivery system of technical assistance on resilience to municipalities and the last one is the exploration and adoption of different funding mechanisms that support community resilience planning and an example of that could be the establishment of cabinet-level coordination across state agencies so that funding priorities are consistent and can reach communities and regional organizations who are ready to implement adaptation solutions for Public Health our subgroups had a total of four strategy recommendations but for today's discussion I'll highlight three that you see there the first is an increased investment and state and local surveillance and monitoring systems including air quality monitoring in public education about climate change and available resources the second is helping private homeowners businesses and municipalities prepare for high intensity weather events such as through source water protection ordinances and the use of low-impact development strategies and the third is incentivizing carbon neutrality and preparedness planning among these four largest Health System recognizing that the healthcare sector accounts for nearly one-tenth of u.s. greenhouse gas emissions and lastly for emergency management the strategy is to develop and implement a non disaster related state infrastructure climate adaptation fund a lot of words there that would allow municipalities and state agencies to access the funds they need to supplement the often excessive local cost shares associated with adaptation projects so this funding strategy has been used in 13 other states and they serve as a guide for what maids could look like and data from the National Institute of Building Sciences suggest that for every $1 invested in disaster mitigation results in $6 of avoided disaster damages and going back to our vision and our recognition that climate impacts adversely impact vulnerable communities the idea behind this would be to have funding available for communities prior to a disaster instead of just in response to so I'll just end this section by acknowledging the incredible work that has been conducted by our working group members and I want to thank everyone who's on here today that's been participating and providing feedback as we progressed over the past several months thank you great thank you Thank You Becca next and last of the last working representative we have Eliza Donahue who is the staff director of advocacy and staff eternity it may not upon Eliza thanks Damon hello everyone like David said I'm Eliza Donahue I'm the director of advocacy at Maine Audubon for those who are not familiar with the organization we are a statewide wildlife and wildlife habitat conservation organization so I'm a member of the natural and working lands working group thanks so much before I forget again for your interest and engagement in this important work I'm really impressed with the number of people that are with us today fine so why natural and working lands well nature can play a big role in combating climate change plants and soil contain a lot of carbon globally plants and trees store as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere and soil contains four times as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere to put a finer main focus point on it 75 percent of Maine's fossil fuel emissions are currently offset by our forests and wood products and there's a lot of potential for more so we can fight climate change by reducing carbon emissions from our natural working lands and by storing carbon in the landscape and the good news about that is is that the co-benefits are often just as important as the emissions benefits for instance climate friendly agriculture management increases soil productivity conserved coastal wetlands protect against storm surges and landscape scale conservation keeps forests in production while maintaining critical wildlife habitat and what's great about what's commonly referred to as natural climate solutions is that they're often affordable and immediately implantable that means that these strategies can help us bridge the gap as we transition to low carbon energy sources slide the natural working lands working group is diverse but has perhaps surprisingly similar goals from large landowners to entomologists environmental advocates farm owners and natural resource agency staff there's a pretty wide mix one the strategies to achieve our shared vision often overlap such as adopting Smart Growth principles can keep farms working and keep development out of ecologically significant areas conserving connected landscapes can help support our forest products industry and all of this can help us maintain and increase stored carbon fine the working groups is still in the midst of finalizing our recommendations to the climate council but there are a few that show the most promise and I'll talk really briefly about two so first main needs to create a dedicated sustained public funding source to conserve working forests agriculture and ecologically significant lands Maine's got a great history of supporting land conservation but funding has been inconsistent leaving us unable to match existing federal and private dollars and sometimes unable to think long term about strategic land acquisitions that'll get us the most climate benefit bang for our buck I think we can do better and I think people really want to do better particularly because these same lands support our vital forest products outdoor recreation and tourism economies but it's not just about conserving big chunks of land we've also got to incentivize private particularly small landowners to both keep their lands in production whether that be in Ag or in forestry but to also manage those lands with carbon storage and climate resiliency in mind so that's - and I think I'd like to also say that you know as a wildlife and wildlife habitat advocate I really love that the strategies we're discussing have a lot of wildlife benefits and not just because developing strategies for climate adaptation is part of the climate council's charge but because what will get us to our climate goals will also benefit wildlife managing bigger managing for bigger older trees results in more stored carbon as well as prime wildlife habitat having more trees period and keeping the ones that we've got means that wildlife can move across the state as they adapt to increased temperatures and the list goes on I encourage folks to continue to follow the climate council's work and to keep on the lookout for the co-benefits that are particularly meaningful to you I think we we all stand to gain something you didn't really expect from this work thank you and I look forward to answering more questions in the breakout session thank you a lot of sir happy everyone my name is Abbey Bradford my a Maine Conservation Voters and Maine alliances so Pietra manager in a moment we're going to transition into Q&A sessions on each of the working groups and I'll give you instructions on how to do that but first after hearing all of these presentations appear if you're wanting to get involved in the main climate council process we encourage you all to join their public meeting on July 17th and 18th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on both days there's not a registration page for that event yet but whichever group you signed up for today's webinar through will will reach back out with one of the times available you can also take action sooner than that by signing our petition calling for a strong and equitable climate action plan forming and that will be emailed out to you by whichever group you signed that through today or tomorrow and that email will also include the video recording of today's event and it's a quick survey and we'd love to hear your feedback your thoughts on both to these events and main climate councils itself okay let's get you all into your working group and ask questions and know many of you have been sending them through this chat when you join a new session you will have to refund them in maximum apologies
