Transforming Rhode Island with the 2025 Climate Action Plan
In 2021 Rhode Island passed a law called the Act on Climate. This law requires transformations across many different parts of the economy to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 (for more on carbon emissions and decarbonization, read this blog). We can see and feel the effects of a changing climate—hotter summers, weirder weather patterns, stronger storms, and sea level rise—and every year the science is more clear that if we don’t take rapid climate action, there will be hefty consequences. These consequences will become increasingly fatal, especially in the midst of cuts to the National Weather Service, such as in the case of the floods in Texas this past month. That’s why the requirements in the Act on Climate are legally binding, and if the state doesn’t meet them they could get sued.
This blog explains what the state is doing to meet the Act on Climate requirements and why your voice is needed to ensure that these transformations revitalize our communities now and in the future. In the next few sections, we will unpack the state’s next steps and how you can get involved.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN 2025?
The state looks at many different sets of data to evaluate the major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by sector. These sectors are broken into the following: transportation, electricity, residential heating, commercial heating, industry, natural gas distribution, waste, and agriculture – and reducing emissions in all of them will require a significant buildout of clean energy. (More on that here.) While there has been a decrease in GHG emissions between 1990 and 2020, Rhode Island is not on track to meet the Act on Climate requirement to reduce emissions to 45% below 1990 levels by 2030. In 2022 Rhode Island emitted the equivalent of 9.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (you can explore the different sources of Rhode Island’s greenhouse gas emissions here). The Act on Climate says that emissions need to be reduced to 6.5 million by 2030. This is a large reduction—the equivalent to driving 750,000 cars for a year, or the energy used in 400,000 homes for a year. To guide these reductions, the law requires the state, under the leadership of the Department of Environmental Management (DEM), to submit a report every five years with strategies to decarbonize the economy.
The state has several plans being developed this year—the main one being the Climate Action Strategy which will lay the foundation for the next five years of economy-wide transformations to reduce emissions across these sectors. These are some of the priorities they identified:
Electrify transportation (cars, buses, government vehicles) and expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure
Expand mobility (pilot shuttle services; improve bus shelters; make bus and train rides cheaper or free)
Help residents weatherize their homes and install energy-efficient technology for heating and cooling (like heat pumps or mini-splits) while protecting tenants from rent increases and preventing gentrification
Fit government-operated buildings with heat pumps, solar, and battery storage
Incentivize battery storage systems for homes and businesses
Plant trees in areas that need more tree coverage
Preserve forests by putting renewable energy projects in areas that are already developed
Divert food waste from the landfill to anaerobic digestion and composting facilities
Most importantly, the Act on Climate requires that the Climate Action Strategy addresses environmental and health inequities, supports workers transitioning away from the fossil fuel industry while providing quality jobs for people underrepresented in the workforce, and protects the people that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and ensures they can influence the climate plan. One of the state’s current plans refers to this population as low income and disadvantaged communities, or LIDACs*.
*The term LIDAC is language used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The emphasis on “disadvantaged” overlooks the systemic oppression and harmful extraction that created disparities in health and quality of life along lines of race and class. Many people prefer the term frontline communities because it names the lived reality of people who live in communities on the front lines of environmental injustice. DEM used its environmental justice (EJ) policy guide and tools like the EPA’s Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool to identify EJ focus areas, which are census tracts that meet one or more of the following criteria:
Annual median household income is not more than 65% of the statewide annual median household income;
People of color make up 40% or more of the population;
25% or more of the households lack English language proficiency; or
People of color comprise 25% or more of the population and the annual median household income does not exceed 150% of the statewide annual median household income.
Ultimately, DEM identified 98 of the 244 census tracts in Rhode Island as LIDAC areas, which includes 38% of the total population of the state.
ENGAGING COMMUNITIES IN RHODE ISLAND’S CLIMATE PLANS
To meet the requirements of the Act on Climate, DEM hired a consultant that hosted a series of ten public engagement meetings that ran from March to May. The purpose of these meetings was for the agency to educate the public on decarbonization strategies and receive feedback on the strategies. Some of these meetings were focused on a specific sector, like transportation or workforce, and some of them were general stakeholder meetings. Three of them were in-person meetings held in Woonsocket, Providence/Cranston, and Newport, and the rest of them were virtual meetings. If you want to see the presentations from those meetings and what people at those meetings had to say, you can find all of that here. E3’s latest summary report ends by saying:
“E3, Lighthouse Consulting, and BW are working with OER and DEM to integrate the stakeholder feedback received into the development of the plans. Specifically, E3, OER, and DEM are considering the feedback when selecting the list of GHG reduction measures to include in the CCAP and RI 2025 Climate Action Strategy. BW Research is considering the feedback received when setting up the modeling for job impacts and low-income and disadvantaged community (LIDAC) benefits. Stakeholder input will also be used to inform the development and narrative of the reports this fall. Additional engagement opportunities will be available this fall to provide input on the modeling results and reports, with the timeline of those meetings to be announced later in summer 2025.”
Another major plan being developed this year is the Resilient Rhody 2025 Statewide Coastal Resilience Plan, which impacts all Rhode Islanders since the entire state is considered coastal. According to the climatechange.ri.gov website, “This initiative is the state’s first comprehensive coastal resilience study, and the plan will propose state resilience actions, assess community vulnerabilities, recommend adaptation strategies along ocean and riverine coasts, and identify financing pathways to implement resiliency strategies.” The project team for this plan has started hosting community meetings this summer and will continue community engagement through the rest of the year. The next one is taking place on Thursday, July 17 from 5:30-7:30pm at Weaver Library in East Providence. The event will be hybrid in-person and online, and you can RSVP here. You can also check for future community forums hosted by DEM here.
While these plans are really important for understanding how RI can best meet its climate goals, these are only plans for now. Many details of how these projects will be funded and implemented will be decided by the state and municipal governments during their budgeting processes over the next several years, and some strategies could even require additional laws to be passed. Research shows that investments in environmental quality are not equally felt by all members of the public and can even exacerbate inequities if there isn’t appropriate monitoring and enforcement of policies to ensure that social justice measures are properly implemented. That’s why it’s crucial that we stand up and speak out to protect all Rhode Islanders, especially those who are bearing more of the costs of climate change.
BIG TAKEAWAYS
Creating plans on top of plans without seeing much change in our homes, communities, schools, and workplaces is frustrating. These are things to keep in mind as we continue working towards a more just and regenerative future.
It matters who is in office. Currently, our federal administration is acting hostilely towards renewable energy, especially offshore wind. Despite that, we can vote in and influence a governor, senators, representatives, mayors, and city council members who will prioritize the kind of radical climate action we need. For the most part, climate resilience projects get funded through the state budget. Visit RI’s General Assembly website to find out who your local representatives are and keep track of legislative highlights. Or visit RI ACLU’s site to learn how a bill becomes law.
Our voices are louder together. You can get connected with local organizations like Roots 2Empower to find spaces where your voice will be heard. One easy place to start is to sign on to Roots 2Empower’s petition, “Support a Community-Driven Transition to a Regenerative Future”. You can also join our email list here.
Focus on the solution in your backyard. It can be difficult to keep up with so many different issues: flooding, extreme heat, rising utility bills, unfair labor laws—the list goes on. Planting and maintaining trees in your neighborhood may only increase the tree canopy by a small percentage, but it will also create habitat, reduce heat island effects, and improve air quality for your whole community.
The advisory board of the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council (EC4) hired Roots 2Empower and Horsley-Witten to host more community-based conversations this fall. Make sure you’re signed up for our email list to receive updates on those conversations. We’d love to see you there.
