A report from the Climate Crisis Working Group

Acknowledgment & Dedication

This report is dedicated to the hundreds of Cambridge residents who have worked over the years to push Cambridge to address the climate crisis in a meaningful way. From convening climate congresses and plenaries and seminars to volunteering hundreds of hours engaging in thoughtful comprehensive educational efforts to strong and forceful advocacy, these residents have consistently worked to make the city a leader. Some people have been writing and speaking for decades, others for far shorter.

All share a passion for change, a conviction that Cambridge must stand up and be a role model, and a deep- seated and growing concern about the implication for our city (and the world) of our lack of progress in reducing emissions and mitigating the impact of the already changed and changing climate. The crisis is with us; it is accelerating. The CCWG seeks to accelerate Cambridge’s effectiveness in climate action and become a leader in impact, not only intent.

The CCWG honors all the work that has been done and the people who demand greater urgency and bold action. 1 Introduction The Climate Crisis Working Group was convened by Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui with Councillor Patty Nolan to build on the city’s work on climate. The main goal of the group is to increase the urgency of our climate actions and the impact of that work by providing guidance on how Cambridge can better address the climate crisis.

The need for greater urgency was made exceedingly clear by the recent Net Zero Action Plan 5-year Impact Evaluation Report, released in December of 2020, which concluded that the City will have to accelerate emissions reductions twentyfold over the next ten years in order to meet our goals. That sobering assessment means immediate action is needed. Despite more than twenty years of climate efforts, with multiple worthy initiatives, citywide greenhouse gas emissions have remained relatively unchanged since 2003.

Though some of this can be accounted for in Cambridge’s growth, other entities with similar expansion have had some success in reducing emissions. It was time to take stock and see if a group of relative outsiders - most of whom had not been directly involved in city climate efforts - could come up with some useful ideas.

Our goal was to provide input and guidance to the City Council and the administration by reviewing climate work within the city, building on existing efforts, consulting with community advocates, and soliciting input from the group members. The working group sought to identify ways to accelerate progress and develop a list of targeted actions for the City to implement.

From the beginning, the goal was to make sure the output of the group was not a report to put on a shelf, but a guide for a new approach to climate work. The city has enough reports and lists of actions to take. We need a culture shift, and financial investment to match the need. We see the value added of the CCWG to the stellar climate work done over the last two decades is our willingness to call out and identify lapses in program implementation, effectiveness and the general lack of progress.

In response a key recommendation is to propose a culture shift. The CCWG met six times during the fall of 2021, all remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Find short meeting summaries below, with full meeting slides available in the appendix.

Meeting 1 - September 1, 2021

The first meeting started with a welcome message and an introduction of the members. Meeting discussion covered: an overview of the CCWG’s goals, a quick review of the City’s previous climate actions, successes, and failures, and a discussion of future meetings and next steps. 2

Meeting 2 - September 15, 2021

The meeting began with a review of the CCWG work plan and discussion of any necessary edits. Then, the rest of the meeting was devoted to identifying key actors in Cambridge’s climate goals, actions they may take, and discussion ended up centered on the concept of focusing on potential barriers to carrying out climate actions.

Meeting 3 - October 13, 2021

During this meeting, the CCWG reviewed the City’s past and current climate actions, focusing on where they succeeded or failed to meet the goals. The CCWG then reviewed why certain initiatives succeeded or failed, which barriers they faced, and brainstormed ideas to overcome these barriers.

Meeting 4 - October 27, 2021

At this meeting, the discussion started with a review of the recently released Net Zero Action Plan 5-Year Report, then summarized the CCWG’s top ideas to date. The group discussed and narrowed down feasible goals to 3-5 ideas, then broke into smaller groups to create action plans for these ideas.

Meeting 5 - November 17, 2021

At the beginning of this meeting, the Group reviewed the goals that had been established at Meeting 4, then reviewed the Building Energy Use and

Disclosure Ordinance (BEUDO) draft

amendments (with presentations by city staff and CCWG members) and discussed reactions. The meeting concluded with compiling a list of smaller, simpler action items to complement the main goals.

Meeting 6 - November 30, 2021

The last meeting was largely devoted to discussing and refining some recommendations with acknowledgement that the work was not done, but that the conceptual framework of barriers and focus on ensuring impact was helpful. There was some discussion of the final product and next steps. 3

Task Force Members

Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui

Councillor Patricia Nolan

Audrey Schulman (Co-founder and co-executive director of HEET)

Ben Hellerstein (State Director, Environment Massachusetts)

Carol Lee Rawn (Senior Director of Transportation, Ceres)

Connor Rockett (New England Forestry Foundation)

Cynthia Hibbard (CDM Smith, Green Cambridge)

Daniel Mascoop (Sunrise Boston)

Dr. Gaurab Basu (Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School )

Justin de Benedictis-Kessner (Assistant Professor at Harvard Kennedy School)

Lyn Huckabee (State of Mass. Energy Efficiency Program Manager and member, CPAC)

Malcolm David Bliss (SVP of partnerships Common Energy)

Margery Davies (Mothers Out Front and member Net Zero Action Plan 5-year

review task force)

Michael Scarlett (Mayor’s Chief of Staff)

Susanne Rasmussen (Director of Environmental and Transportation Planning,

Cambridge Community Development Department)

City Staff:

Adrienne La Forte (Aide to Councillor Nolan)

Seth Federspiel (Climate Program Manager, Cambridge Community Development

Department) 4

Cambridge Climate History & Next Steps

Cambridge declared a climate emergency over a decade ago and has been actively working to address the climate crisis for more than twenty years. The city has taken some important steps, yet is behind on overall climate goals and has consistently missed the mark on both citywide goals and deadlines. CCWG group members, all of whom have a strong awareness and understanding of the climate crisis, believe Cambridge can and should be a leader on climate action and climate justice.