Climate change in Minnesota is front and center Thursday with state leaders giving a progress report on how the state is addressing and preparing for it.
"The reality of climate change has never felt closer to home here in Minnesota, to simply put it, our state is getting warmer and wetter," says Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Katrina Kessler.
She says improvements to combat climate change are already underway in everything from transportation to city infrastructure to natural resources.
Commerce Commissioner Grace Arnold says transitioning to clean energy make financial sense too.
"There are real economic benefits to investing in energy efficiency. We see about $1 of investment in energy efficiency is about $4 in economic benefit over the course of, you know, that investment," explains Arnold.
State and federal money is being used to accomplish the framework's many goals, the ultimate of which is net-zero emissions across the state by 2050.
Minnesota's Climate Action Framework includes a series of steps and investments for how the state is addressing and preparing for climate change. Arnold says one of the goals is for carbon-free electricity by the year 2040.
"There are local opportunities, a lot of local areas are deciding to put solar up, or other kind of creative ways that they can organize their energy infrastructure," she says.
Minnesota DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen says they're also finding ways to use the state's natural resources to increase carbon absorption, such as planting more trees.
"As Minnesota gets warmer, a strong tree canopy will help keep our communities cooler during heat waves, store more carbon, improve air quality and enhance our neighborhoods," Strommen explained.
The plan comes as Minnesota has had one of it's wettest springs and warmest winters on record, not to mention a record number of air quality alert days last summer due to Canadian wildfire smoke, which state officials say was caused by climate change.
While these more recent weather changes can be tied to climate change, long term data clearly points to warmer and wetter conditions. Minnesota has warmed by 3.0 degrees F between 1895 and 2020, while annual precipitation increased by an average of 3.4 inches.
Although Minnesota has gotten warmer and wetter since 1895, the most dramatic changes have come in the past several decades. Compared to 20th century averages, all but two years since 1970 have been warm, wet, or both, and each of the top-10 combined warmest and wettest years on record occurred between 1998 and 2020.
Although climate conditions will vary from year to year, these increases are expected to continue through the 21st century.