Massachussetts appoints advisory committee to assess climate change adaptation strategies

Cape Cod Today: On Thursday, [Massachussetts] Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Ian Bowles launched a new Climate Change Adaptation Advisory Committee to advise the Commonwealth on strategies for adapting to sea level rise, warming temperatures, increased incidence of flood and drought and other predicted effects of climate change.

The Advisory Committee, created by the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008, comprises experts from business, academia, and nonprofit organizations, who will meet periodically and report their findings to the Legislature by December 31, 2009. They met for the first time on the day of the announcement.

…As mandated by the Act, the panel includes members representing the following sectors: transportation and built infrastructure, commercial, industrial and manufacturing activities, low income consumers, energy generation and distribution, land conservation, water supply and quality, recreation, ecosystem dynamics, coastal zone and ocean, rivers and wetlands, [and] local government.

…Signed by Governor Patrick last August, the Global Warming Solutions Act established in Massachusetts one of the nation’s most ambitious regulatory programs to address climate change. It calls for an 80 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by 2050, while requiring EEA, in consultation with other state agencies and the public, to set a 2020 target between 10 and 25 percent below 1990 emission levels. ..

Landsat image of Cape Cod and the Massachussetts coast, NASA