Abell Foundation Report Reviewing the Climate Leadership Actions of Maryland and Massachusetts
The Abell Foundation Report by the Center for Climate Strategies, “Turning Up the Heat on Cooling Down the Planet: Comparing the Climate Leadership Actions of Maryland and Massachusetts,” identifies the most important characteristics of government leadership and commitment necessary to address climate change by providing metrics to evaluate climate actions, gauge progress, and guide next steps. The Report explains the full set of actions required by officials to address this challenge at scale and on time in terms that show exactly what this requires and provides a case-based analysis of Maryland and Massachusetts to demonstrate its use.
Based on review of leading jurisdictions worldwide, the most effective climate leadership actions include:
Establishment of short- and long-term emissions reductions and resilience planning targets for all sectors and alignment with social and economic goals
Incorporation of economic and environmental equity in policy development and implementation
A whole of government approach that encompasses all programmatic areas and stakeholders
A full suite of policies and measures in all sectors needed to reach targets
Implementing mechanisms to match each policy and measure, including governance and financing
Measurement systems for climate change impacts and opportunities, such as social cost of carbon and transparent, line-item policy impact analysis
Each of the above measures includes subcomponents that provide a comprehensive, metric-based evaluation framework for jurisdictions of varying size and location. The Report uses this in-depth method of analysis to review two US states with a history of climate action, Maryland and Massachusetts, by documenting their progress on climate change activities in detail over the past decade and identifying gaps for critical new actions. Findings indicate that both states were on a similar leadership track through 2016 then diverged as Massachusetts sped up climate activities while Maryland slowed down. Despite their differences, both states have made progress in addressing climate change, yet continue to face shortfalls in key action areas.
The Abell Report demonstrates the importance of not only selecting and designing appropriate climate policies and the role of stakeholder collaboration and detailed analysis, but also the absolute necessity of timely implementation of these policies by all government agencies and tracking overall performance. CCS considers the Report a significant contribution to best practices on policy development and must read for climate change decision-makers and leadership.
