Standing inside Ecolab in Eagan on Friday Governor Tim Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, and nearly three-dozen other state lawmakers and officials rallied around a new comprehensive climate plan to aggressively address climate change.
The 69-page Climate Action Framework looks work with the legislature, tribal nations, public and private businesses, and communities across Minnesota to implement solutions reduce greenhouse gases.
“This existential threat of climate change is going to require all of us to have strategic long-term plan,” Governor Tim Walz said. “It is a false choice to believe that if you address climate change that is somehow detrimental to the economy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. To not address climate change will be that existential threat to the health, the wellbeing and, to the economic future of Minnesotans for the years to come.”
The climate plan announced Friday officially adopts the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
It also prioritizes investments in climate resilience over the next ten years.
Additionally, the new climate plan identifies six goals and provides steps to achieve them. Those six goals are:
· Clean transportation
· Climate-smart natural and working lands
· Resilient communities
· Clean energy and efficient buildings
· Healthy lives and communities
· A clean economy
“These goals will help us achieve the vision of the framework, which is a carbon-neutral, equitable, and resilient future for our state,” said Katrina Kessler, commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and chair of the governor’s subcabinet on Climate Change.
Pat Lunneman, a Todd County dairy farmer, worked on the plan and said that he’s seen climate change firsthand in Minnesota.
“I have no doubt that our climate has changed,” Lunneman says. “Extreme events are common, and the landscape has changed. We’ve defined the issues and now we have a plan with action behind it, along with a vision. I believe our fields and forests will be part of the solution.”
Friday’s event followed a brief tour of Ecolab’s campus in Eagan where company president and chief executive Christophe Beck explained the steps Ecolab’s taken to save water, cut energy and greenhouse gases.
“The plan draws upon both to public and private sector to accomplish its goals,” Beck said. “Frankly there’s no other way to meet the urgency of the moment. We see a role for every government, business, and citizen to create a carbon neutral future.”
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