From Promises to Action.

• Author: Narayanan, Rishya
• Position: CLIMATE CHANGE

We have a chance to stop climate change from getting worse. We deserve clean air, decongested highways, and a chance to protect the people we love and the world we live in.

HERE IN NEW ENGLAND, WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED THE UNPRECEDENTED: CLF, our partners, and our supporters have passed binding climate taws in five out of six states. These taws mandate cuts to the polluting emissions at the root of our climate crisis, targeting culpable sectors tike transportation, buildings, and electricity.

Few other states have taken such aggressive action. However, passing these laws is only the first step toward reaching net zero carbon pollution by 2050. The real test of these laws--and CLF's advocacy is in their implementation.

MAKING CLIMATE LAWS A REALITY

Laws by themselves are just words on paper, not action.

Each of these climate laws requires a planning process for the state to chart its path toward implementing its legal mandate. And many of our New England states have created this plan. Vermont, for example, just released its Climate Action Plan in December 2021. Maine finished its own in 2020. Massachusetts and Connecticut also have completed plans, while Rhode Island is creating its plan this year.

CLF advocates have been at the table for the creation of each of these plans, pushing for aggressive, equitable, and concrete actions. But the reality, admits Greg Cunningham, CLF's vice president for clean energy and climate change, is that these plans are not very specific.

"We've found that the plans tend to be fairly high level," he says. "They provide for categories of action rather than explicit policies that direct concrete steps to lower emissions."

We also must contend with any plan that does not provide a timetable other than the 10-year milestone of its respective state climate law. That includes plans that lack required deadlines for action other than 2030, 2040, and 2050. Additionally, policy, regulations, and law proposals are coming from various agencies and decision-makers, presenting the risk of a highly uncoordinated effort, says Cunningham. That can all add up to a messy and procrastinated process in implementing these critical laws.

That's why the next few years are critical for CLF's climate advocacy. Just as we helped to lead the passing of these landmark laws ensuring they matched the best interests of our families and communities we must now watchdog their implementation. Because the consequences if these laws languish are too...