Climate activists gathered at the State House as the 2019 legislative work year wound to a close last week to remind the legislature that they are eager for action on climate policy in 2020 – and that inaction could have electoral consequences.
A group that included Boston Climate Strikers, the Sunrise Movement, the Sierra Club and 350 Mass held a press conference Wednesday with a small group of lawmakers to voice frustration with the pace of policy action on Beacon Hill and to lay out expectations for the seven months of formal legislating to come in the new year.
Sam Draisen, 16, led a contingent of young people who are concerned that a state government they have no say in choosing is not doing enough to address climate change and that its inaction will disproportionately affect their futures.
“As a kid, I cannot vote. The vast majority of this student-led group also cannot vote. We cannot run for office, pass legislation, we cannot ensure the safety of our future through direct legislative action,” he said. “That is why we are here today asking our elected officials to do what we cannot.”
A clutch of lawmakers participated in or attended the press conference in the State House Library – Reps. Maria Robinson, Jonathan Hecht, Mike Connolly, Michelle Ciccolo, Jack Lewis, Joan Meschino, Tommy Vitolo, Denise Provost, Paul Mark and Lindsay Sabadosa, and Sens. Marc Pacheco and Jamie Eldridge.
“They recognize, as we do, that without any major change in climate policy, we won’t have an Earth to live on,” Robinson said of the student activists. She added, “I think it’s clear to all of us standing here that we need to throw everything in the toolbox at climate right now – we need mitigation, we need adaptation and we need a real sense of urgency.”
In July, the House approved a $1.3 billion bond bill and a plan to create a climate change resiliency grant program for cities and towns. Otherwise, the House has not acted on any other climate-related bills this year.
The Senate has not taken up the House bill, which is similar to a concept that Gov. Charlie Baker proposed earlier in the year, but Pacheco said recently that Senate President Karen Spilka has agreed to take up a climate bill by a “drop-dead date” of Jan. 31, 2020.
In recent years, the legislature and the Baker administration have taken steps toward more renewable energy, including the pursuit of major offshore wind power and hydroelectricity projects, as well as efforts to grow solar energy. Activists, and some lawmakers, say the pursuit of clean energy is not moving ahead fast enough.
The advocates said they want to see the Senate bill include a rapid increase in the introduction of renewable energy, an increased commitment to energy efficiency in buildings, a widespread move to electric heat and heat pumps, and a “bold plan” for electrification of transportation.
“At the end of January, we will be taking account of how much of that agenda has moved from concept into law, at least on the Senate side,” Mark Dyen from 350 Mass’s Newton node said. “And we’re going to be working with people — if we need to bring a few more champions of climate change action into the Legislature in the fall of 2020, we are prepared to do that.”
The rally came the same day top United Nations officials announced the amount of planet-heating gases being pumped into the atmosphere hit a new high last year, despite a near-global pledge to reduce them. The world must reduce its carbon emissions by 7 percent every year for the next decade to avoid catastrophic environmental changes like significant sea level rise.
