A Spotlight on the Priority Climate Action Plan

Aug. 26, 2024 - Climate change is impacting Greater Boston communities at an alarming rate. High temperature days, extreme weather events, flooding, and other impacts are becoming more frequent and intense. These impacts disproportionately harm lower-income communities of color due to social, political, and economic factors that make it difficult to adapt to and recover from climate change. Planning efforts should focus on these communities to ensure a safe, resilient, and thriving future for all.

To achieve this future, MAPC is developing the Greater Boston Climate Action Plan with funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program. During the first phase of the federally funded project (through March 2024), MAPC developed the Greater Boston Priority Climate Action Plan (GBPCAP). The GBPCAP builds on existing climate planning and implementation efforts in the region (e.g. municipal climate action plans) with additional strategies for municipalities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and center equity and justice.

Engagement

RPCs and RPAs

Municipal Advisory Group

Justice40 Advisory

MAPC partnered with the regional planning agencies and commissions (RPAs and RPCs) working in Greater Boston and convened a municipal advisory group and a Justice40 advisory group to develop priority greenhouse gas reduction measures, identify co-benefits, and draft implementation steps.

MAPC also gathered feedback through public listening sessions. All forms of input were instrumental in shaping plan development, refining the prioritization criteria for strategies, and adding detail to the implementation and analysis of priority measures.

Greenhouse Gas Priority Measures

MAPC developed the Greater Boston region’s first baseline inventory of greenhouse gas emissions for the year 2017. The inventory identified “buildings and transportation” as the region’s two highest polluting sectors, followed by “electricity generation,” then “waste.” Across these sectors, the GBPCAP prioritized 11 measures to reduce emissions.

To ensure that these measures centered equity and public health benefits for environmental justice communities, MAPC developed a co-benefits framework with five categories. These categories ensure that, in addition to reducing emissions, each measure also generates important co-benefits, particularly for low-income communities of color and other marginalized communities.

The measures were evaluated based on the degree to which they would:

Lead with equity;
Reduce cost of living;
Reduce environmental and public health concerns;
Create economic and job benefits; and
Improve community resilience to climate impacts.

The co-benefits framework resulted in several environmental justice benefits for each priority measure:

Priority Measure	Environmental Justice Benefits	Examples of Success
Buildings
B2. Building Decarbonization Financial Assistance	Improves access to incentives and financing for low- and moderate-income households Reduces energy costs Increases local jobs	Massachusetts Community Climate Bank will provide $50 million in seed funding to attract private and public capital for the retrofit of low- and moderate-income housing in the state
Transportation
T1. Public Transit Access and Accessibility	Enables transportation self-sufficiency for populations dependent on public transit such as the youth, seniors, people with disabilities, and people of color Reduces transportation cost burdens Increases access to job centers & education and other institutions	Cambridge has a pilot permit program to allow residents who do not have access to off-street parking to charge EVs across an authorized area
Electricity Generation
E1. Renewable Energy Projects	Community solar lowers energy bills Job opportunities for solar installers Battery storage can be designed to island buildings during a grid outage and pair with emergency back-up power at critical community facilities	The City of Chelsea is working with community partners to develop a virtual microgrid
Waste
W1. Reduce Solid Waste Going to Landfills and Incinerators	Reduces emissions from co-pollutants Reduces waste disposal costs Composting programs can create economic opportunity	Salem, Lexington, Natick, Hamilton & Seacoast of New Hampshire organized curbside composting through public-private partnerships, private composting haulers, or local non-profits

For a full list of the 11 priority measures and information on how they were selected, read our earlier blog.

How to get involved

Building off this first phase, MAPC is working on the Greater Boston Climate Action Plan, which is expected to be completed by December 2025. This plan will include two additional sectors, along with updated measures that set projections and targets to reduce regional emissions by 2030 and 2050.

To sign up for regular updates and the Greater Boston Climate Action Plan Newsletter click here.
For more information, questions, or to get involved in the Climate Action Plan development, please contact us at [email protected].

Preparing Greater Boston for a Changing Climate: A Spotlight on the Priority Climate Action Plan