Join the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative on October 28 for our 5th annual Net Zero conference. The virtual (and event will highlight a variety of climate issues facing the Cape and Islands, with discussions on how YOU can make a difference in such urgent times.

Visit our website for updates on the conference, presenters, agenda, and registration -- all coming soon!

CAI- The Point, August 25, 2022

Mindy Todd, producer and host of CAI's The Point, talks with Savarese and Wolf about takeaways from their recent climate-fact-finding trip to Denmark, how to reduce our carbon footprint, and boost regional economic and workforce development around green energy and technology. Listen here

By Sabrina Shankman and Dharna Noor, Boston Globe, Updated August 12, 2022

Governor Charlie Baker signed a major climate bill into law on Thursday that will accelerate the clean energy transition in the state by boosting offshore wind and solar, and — in a first for Massachusetts — allowing some cities and towns to ban the use of fossil fuels in new buildings and major renovations.

The legislation also sets up a number of new funds, including one that would increase rebates for electric vehicles, and add an additional rebate for low-income purchasers; another focused on offshore wind procurement; and a third for electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployment. Read more.

by Kathryn Krawczyk, Energy News Network, August 17, 2022

The Inflation Reduction Act — signed by President Biden — is still poised to benefit red states via financial incentives for wind and solar and tax credits for carbon capture, energy storage and other applications. (Grist, Politico)

By National Audubon Society, August 17, 2022

The name doesn’t make it obvious, but the Inflation Reduction Act is the most significant climate legislation ever to become law. It also does a lot of other important things. Here are 12 ways this bill benefits birds, people, and the places we need. Read more.

The Am HaYam Climate Justice Committee and Orleans Energy and Climate Action Committee seek advocates for a workforce housing project to be sited at the former Orleans Underground Mall location on Route 6A near the Orleans/Brewster line. The project is climate-forward, with structures to be nearly all-electric including air source heat pumps for heating and cooling, induction stoves for cooking, and electric washers and dryers. The project also contemplates a low-energy, environmentally responsibile design with open cell insulation at walls and ceiings, henry blueskin-adhered housewrap, and a low-nitrogen septic system. The developer, Chris DeSisto seeks approval for a flat roof structure to accommodate solar panels -- a potential point of concern relative to the Old Kings Highway Regional Historic District Commission well-documented opposition to solar panels on structures within its jurisdiction.

If you can, please attend this meeting. Our climate allies in Orleans will appreciate your support of this climate-forward project. Letters of support may also be sent to the attention of Ronald Mgrdichian, Chair, Old Kings Highway Historic District Commission.

Wednesday, September 28, 7:00 – 8:30

To combat climate change, the Wellfleet Energy and Climate Action Committee is hosting three workshops on how individuals can reduce greenhouse gases to help reaching net-zero emission goal by 2050.

Event is hybrid and all are welcome!

Technology expert, engineer, investor, and best-selling author John Doerr lays out a ten-step plan for averting climate catastrophe. The book gives us the opportunity to discuss real-world solutions developed by innovators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs, and how those ideas can be brought to scale. All are welcome (even if you haven't finished the book).

*Or contact us at FalmouthCAN@gmail.com with your name, email, town and state to let us know you will be attending.

Register here

Charlotte Quigley, Assistant Director of Center for Seafood Solutions, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, will talk about dairy cows who produce a lot of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases heating up our planet. Charlotte will provide an update on a promising initiative from Bigelow Lab in Boothbay, Maine, exploring whether seaweed and algae may provide an answer. How? Feed them to the cows! Read more here.

By Hauke Engel, Alastair Hamilton, Libbi Lee, and Jonathan Woetzel, McKinsey and Company, August 22, 2022 | Photo: McKinsey & Company

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, 192 countries adopted a bold goal: to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions enough to limit the rise of global temperatures in the 21st century to “well below 2°C above preindustrial levels” while working to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to the agreement, based on the best available science, the world must reach net-zero GHG emissions early in the second half of the present century. That will require the transformation of economies and societies alike.

Reducing public-sector emissions could be a vital component of most national decarbonization strategies. Public procurement wields significant purchasing power... Public-sector entities could help to scale up solutions and to increase demand for low-carbon products and services by including their supply chains in decarbonization efforts. operations. However, many public-sector entities could do more to promote full decarbonization and fuel the worldwide transformation toward net zero. Read more

Join the fourth annual EBC New England Climate Change and Resiliency Summit, which offers an opportunity to learn how New England is addressing the challenges and opportunities associated with adapting to climate change and reducing vulnerability to climate change impacts, working to meet state and federal greenhouse gas reduction goals, and transitioning to a carbon-free economy. For those in the environmental business community at the frontlines of adaptation and transition, the Summit is a forum to listen, learn, network and ask questions related to rapidly developing policy and programs connected to climate change Learn more here.

Deena Theres, Interesting Engineering, August 23, 2022

Scientists have invented a new form of air conditioning that could massively reduce the environmental harm caused by current AC units. The breakthrough involves replacing harmful hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants with solid-state materials, thus eliminating the need for potent greenhouse gases that are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. Read more.

European Commission on Ocean and Fisheries, News Announcement, August 27, 2022

The 5th Intergovernmental Conference negotiating the UN High Seas Biodiversity Treaty suspended its session with significant progress made in almost all chapters, bringing the international community closer than ever to the Treaty it needs for protecting the ocean, tackling environmental degradation, fighting climate change, and preventing biodiversity loss, including through establishing large-scale marine protected areas. This has resulted in progress these past two weeks that had not been seen before in this negotiation. Read more

"My Job Is to Police Energy Use in My Office. Here’s How We Got to Net Zero"

By Carlos Gamarra, New York Times, August, 22, 2022

Motivating office workers to get to net zero energy may sound daunting. But by paying close attention to every aspect of our energy use, my co-workers and I have seen how even the smallest actions can have an impact on climate change. We now take pride in the fact that the office’s electricity bill is $0. What’s more, the local utility pays our organization, the Houston Advanced Research Center, over $1,000 a year in rebates for the energy our solar panels provide to the power grid.

Some 40 percent of annual global carbon dioxide emissions come from buildings and construction, and commercial buildings, which have an average life span of 50 to 60 years, account for around 20 percent of U.S. energy use. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that on average, 30 percent of the energy used in these commercial buildings is wasted. Read more.

Grady Culhane, capecod.com, August 25, 2022

The Wampanoag Common Lands project is among efforts by tribes and other Native groups from the Great Plains to the Pacific Northwest seeking to repair lands altered by European colonization.

A Native American conservation group in Massachusetts has received a former Catholic summer camp and is working to restore it to its natural state. Old camp buildings have been torn down and volunteers this summer have been rooting out invasive plant species, replanting indigenous ones and studying the area’s wildlife. The Native Land Conservancy envisions a restored natural environment where Wampanoags can practice cultural ceremonies. Read more.

Celebrate the Summer of Certification with Interfaith Power & Light! (Ok, summer's almost over, but it's not too late to get on board!)

If your congregation has taken steps to reduce your energy use and carbon emissions, apply to be a Certified Cool Congregation. Emissions reductions of 10% or more qualify. Apply to be certified today!

“It started in my first meeting with the Green Sanctuary Committee,” member Tom Hackley says. “‘I said, 'Why don’t we pick something big like net zero by 2030?’ Thinking that everybody would say, 'No we can’t do that,' but everybody said, ‘Great, run with it!’” People’s Church has reduced their emissions by 20% towards their goal of net zero with a detailed plan on how to finance and achieve net zero by 2030. Read their story here.

We are a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is reduce the Cape & Islands' contributions to climate change and protect our region from its potentially devastating impacts. We depend upon the generosity of our stakeholders to conduct our work. All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.

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The Climate Collaborative's Climate Action Alerts newsletter is curated and edited by Fran Schofield with production assistance by Lauren Gottlieb. We welcome climate news from your home, school, business, town, faith community, or organization. Please submit your news, events, or article ideas to info@capecodclimate.org.