Climate Resilience Committee

 

Climate Resilience is the ability to prepare for, recover from, and adapt to the impacts of climate change.  As in all Maine coastal communities, Phippsburg is increasingly experiencing effects of climate change, including heavier and more frequent storms, sea-level rise, and flooding.  At the 2022 town meeting, the townspeople authorized the Select Board to appoint a Climate Resilience Committee, and charge it to assess the risks of sea-level rise to town-owned roads and facilities. At the 2023 town meeting, the Climate Resilience Committee was made permanent.

Sea-level rise is a significant and visible threat, but climate change-related risks to Phippsburg are more than the impacts of sea-level rise on town-owned roads and facilities alone. Coastal communities are also seeing shoreline erosion, rising ocean temperatures, heavy winds, extreme heat, drought and high energy costs—impacts that are predicted to continue and become more severe. Climate change impacts private property, the working waterfront and other local businesses, jobs, transportation, public safety and health. The original mission of the Committee limited the committee's scope to assessing the impact of sea-level rise on town-owned assets. The newly authorized Committee will consider not only sea-level rise, but other climate-related impacts as well.

The Climate Resilience Committee's purpose is to advise town officials about the risks of sea-level rise to town-owned roads and facilities; to identify and prioritize other climate-related threats that can be addressed at the local level: to coordinate with other town committees to provide climate resilience-related information for their planning processes; and to identify state, federal, or private funding available to enhance municipal resilience to the effects of the changing climate.

 

Members of the community are welcome to attend the committee's meetings, which are scheduled for the second Wednesday of each month at 3:00 p.m. at the Town Office.