Gov. Mills wants Maine carbon-neutral by 2045. What will that take?
AUGUSTA — Gov. Janet Mills made a surprise announcement when she addressed world leaders at the United Nations Climate Action Summit last week: She had issued an executive order pledging that Maine will be carbon-neutral by 2045.
The pledge followed commitments enacted by the Legislature this spring to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent from 1990 levels by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050, moves that will require swapping fossil fuels for solar, wind and hydro-powered alternatives, from electric cars and heat pumps to fuel cell-driven trucks, buses and boats over the next 30 years.
But what does the added carbon-neutral pledge mean and how much more would have to be done to achieve it? It would be a major symbolic achievement – only one small Himalayan country and no U.S. state has done it – but in the case of forest-rich Maine, it might not actually require much more action beyond those needed to slash our greenhouse gas emissions.
Going carbon-neutral – a goal Boston, New York, Hawaii, Sweden, France, Costa Rica and other polities have pledged to achieve by midcentury – means your city, state or country makes no net contribution of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. In practice, this entails finding ways to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and buying or creating carbon-devouring “offsets” to make up for what you have left, usually by planting trees, which store carbon dioxide.
Read more: https://www.centralmaine.com/2019/09/29/gov-mills-wants-maine-carbon-neutral-by-2045-what-will-that-take/