Maryland Climate Change Initiatives

On April 20, 2007, Governor Martin O’Malley signed Executive Order 01.01.2007.07 establishing the Maryland Commission on Climate Change (MCCC).  The MCCC was charged with developing a Climate Action Plan to address the drivers and consequences of climate change, to prepare for its ensuing impacts in the State, and to establish firm benchmarks and timetables for Plan implementation.  To accomplish its goals, the MCCC worked with the Center for Climate Strategies in conducting an extensive stakeholder-based process.  This process used public input to formulate, analyze, and build consensus for forty-two mitigation and nineteen adaptation policy recommendations for the state of Maryland to pursue.  The MCCC completed its work in August 2008 with the release of its final Climate Action Plan (2008 Plan).  Since August 2008, Maryland State agencies have been working to implement each of the forty-two mitigation strategies and nineteen adaptation strategies through the development of an implementation plan for each of the policy recommendations.

One of the Plan’s policy recommendations, to adopt science-based regulatory goals to reduce Maryland’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, was realized with the passage of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Act of 2009 (GGRA).  The law requires Maryland to reduce its GHG emissions to 25 percent below 2006 levels by 2020.  It directs the Maryland Department of the Environment to work with other lead State agencies to prepare an implementation plan to meet this goal as a first step toward achieving longer term science-based reductions.  An interim plan will be submitted to the Governor and the General Assembly during the 2012 legislative session, and the final plan (GGRA Plan) will be submitted on or before December 31, 2012.  The GGRA Plan builds on the 2008 Plan and ensuing implementation work of the State agencies.   

This website provides a portal to information supporting Maryland’s Climate Change Initiatives that can be accessed through the following links:

Maryland Department of Environment (MDE)

Maryland Commission on Climate Change (MCCC)

Transportation and Land Use (TLU) Strategies Group

Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)

Maryland Department of Planning, PlanMaryland

Maryland Smart, Green, and Growing (MSGG)