Report by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Sustainability Institute at UNH

New England states face a range of climate impacts. How are they building climate resilience?

Written by Summer Sustainability Fellows at the University of New Hampshire, in partnership with the Union of Concerned Scientists, this report assesses climate resilience and preparedness across six New England states (Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire).

We found that most New England states are building climate resilience, and can provide important models and lessons for further state and federal action. However, each state has areas to improve, particularly around limiting possible maladaptation, and in the implementation of equity and inclusion strategies.

 


 

New Hampshire’s CAP is outdated, not regularly used within state agencies, and its recommendations were not implemented. State leadership remains focused on the economic costs of action towards both mitigation and adaptation rather than the crosssectoral benefits of action or the costs of inaction, and this sentiment has presented a clear barrier to implementing the CAP and to introducing other climate policies and legislation within the state. In comparison to its neighboring states, New Hampshire lacks a robust and adequate state-level strategy for building climate resilience in the state. A lack of state leadership to implement the CAP or to introduce other robust policies and legislation to tackle the projected impacts of climate change has meant that municipalities and regional planning commissions are left to take the lead on local-scale climate adaptation efforts within the state. This has produced intra-state disparities between municipalities with different income, resource, and capacity levels, which raises equity concerns for communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In terms of mitigation efforts, while greenhouse gas emissions reductions are considered in the state’s energy policies, it is clear that the state government prioritizes the short-term economic costs and benefits in designing its energy strategy, and in its overall approach to addressing climate impacts. Read more