DATE: December 18, 2006

Comprehensive Roadmap to Reduce Global Warming Pollution in the
Northeast United States and Eastern Canada Released Today

(Rockport, ME) – In the wake of alarming reports and documentaries on the potentially devastating effects of global warming on our economy and environment, and the challenge laid down by leaders of the Northeast states and eastern Canadian provinces to reduce greenhouse gas pollutants by 75 percent by mid-century, Environment Northeast (ENE) today released the Climate Change Roadmap for New England and Eastern Canada, the first-of-its-kind, comprehensive plan to reach regional pollution reduction goals.  

“The public is increasingly concerned that global warming pollutants are changing our climate and this Roadmap offers remedies that can be implemented today to put us on the lower polluting path we need to be on,” said Daniel Sosland, Executive Director of ENE , a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that identifies and works to implement solutions to environmental challenges, said. Sosland added, “Our policy leaders need to take action and the Roadmap is intended to show the way, with solutions to create a healthier, more competitive, efficient and vibrant economic and environmental future.”The 275-page Climate Change Roadmap presents for the first time a wide-ranging, yet practical plan of action for the states and provinces of this region to meet their climate targets.  It is the result of two years of research, consultation with industry experts, peer groups and government officials, and a thorough review of best practices. The Roadmap’s 10 Priority Climate Solutions are broken down into three main categories: energy, transportation and storing carbon. If fully implemented, ENE estimates these 10 priorities would reduce greenhouse gas pollutants from power plants, industrial sources, cars and trucks and by storing carbon in the region’s forests and suitable geologic formations, totaling at least 35-40 million metric tons by 2020.   These 10 priorities would achieve the 2020 emissions targets set by the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers and put the region on the path towards the mid-century target of 75 percent lower emissions, a goal necessary to limit warming to between one and two degrees Celsius and avoid the worst impact.Plans call for the Climate Change Roadmap to be presented to industry representatives, elected officials, environmental advocacy groups and other leaders across the region in the coming months with the goal of catalyzing discussions about how to implement policy changes that will put our region on the path to strengthen our economy while meeting greenhouse gas targets through action at the state, provincial and local levels. Michael Stoddard, ENE Project Director and co-author of the Climate Change Roadmap said the regional approach expands the marketplace for new technologies, promotes uniformity of regulations, and shares the costs of research, development and planning. “The goal for the region is to emit one quarter of current greenhouse gas emission levels by 2050, while improving our quality of life and strengthening our state and provincial economies,” said Stoddard,. “New lighting technology uses a quarter as much energy; new car technology can carry passengers using a quarter the amount of fuel; new power plant technology can provide electricity while emitting only a quarter as much CO2, so we know it can be done.  Now we need to switch to these and other technologies across the entire economy.”  The Roadmap already received warm praise from nationally-recognized leaders and elected officials in the region.    Armond Cohen, Executive Director of the Clean Air Task Force in Boston, said moderating harmful climate change is a huge and complicated task, made more manageable with the plan laid out in the Roadmap.  “If we are going to move from bumper sticker slogans to real world solutions, ENE’s Roadmap is the best beginning I can imagine,” Cohen said. U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe, (R-ME), said she is pleased that the Northeast states, which have already joined together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, now have a comprehensive plan to consider and implement. “These forward-thinking states now have ENE’s Climate Change Roadmap to follow as they work to advance the climate change debate,” Snowe said. William Moomaw, Professor, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Director, International Environment and Resource Program, at Tufts University, said he is particularly pleased with the Roadmap’s detailed analysis and recommendations on coal power plants and transportation.“In place of generic recommendations about improving efficiency or adopting low emission technologies, this report summarizes the divergent laws in each state and province and the gaps between where our policies are and where they need to be,” Moomaw said. “The report is an informed and informing guide of what must be done and how our region can move quickly to reduce our emissions.”Robert H. McLaren, President of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Distribution of the National Grid, said the Roadmap comes at a critical moment when responsible long term decision-making is needed. “The Climate Change Roadmap offers a new and thought provoking vision of that energy future, and proposes a number of innovative actions that can help foster its realization,” McLaren said.   

The Climate Change Roadmap highlights many “best practices” found within the region, such as Quebec’s major commitment to build new wind generation, Nova Scotia’s interest in studying the feasibility of carbon sequestration in old coal seams, the new Rhode Island law requiring utilities to procure all cost-effective energy efficiency, the Maine law requiring all new buildings of the state to exceed energy codes by 20%, California’s law setting CO2 standards for new cars, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative under development in the Northeast states, and many others. The Climate Roadmap also proposes several novel policy recommendations, including:

• requiring all state and provincial government procurement (of appliances, equipment, or construction services) to meet high energy efficiency performance standards
• instituting a tiered building permit fee and rebate system to reward construction that exceeds building energy codes
• pursuing a net greenhouse gas emission standard for transportation fuels that factors in the full lifecycle of the fuel’s emissions
• pursuing a regional carbon sequestration initiative in New England and Eastern Canada
• promoting the role regional forests can play in sequestering more carbon or providing a low-carbon supply of biofuel

ENE Releases Climate Change Roadmap for New England and Eastern Canada

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Media Contacts:

Daniel Sosland
Executive Director
Phone: (207) 236-6470

Michael Stoddard
Project Director
Phone: (207) 761-4566