Bath City Council member Louis “Roo” Dunn (right) asks questions about the city’s climate resiliency plan, which unanimously passed at the special City Council meeting Wednesday, Nov. 20. Paul Bagnall / The Times Record

Bath City Council has approved a new climate action plan aimed at resiliency in the face of a changing climate.

City councilors unanimously passed the Bath Climate Action and Resiliency Plan Wednesday night. Bath Climate Action Commission Co-Chairperson Paul Perkins, who has held the role for the past four years, spoke in support of the climate action plan at the City Council meeting.

During the meeting, Director of Sustainability and Environment Rod Melanson said that for the past eight months, the city’s Office of Sustainability and Environment has developed the plan and received community feedback.

“I want to recognize the huge body of work that’s done by staff, community volunteers, and community membership,” said City Councilor Louis “Roo” Dunn. “It shows it’s a genuine product of participatory government.”

Key initiatives

The key initiatives of the plan include a renewable energy transition, such as solar and wind power for municipal facilities and the community, as well as energy-efficiency programs. These programs aim to implement energy-saving measures in municipal buildings while providing resources to help Bath residents and businesses improve their buildings.

Other initiatives include enhancing public transit, promoting electric vehicles, developing safer pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, and assessing and strengthening the city’s infrastructure to withstand the effects of rising sea levels and increased storm frequency and intensity. Finally, the plan dictates that community engagement should be used to encourage the involvement of all residents by hosting workshops and calls for participation in sustainability initiatives.

Along with the initiatives are the five guiding principles to help shape the planning process and establish priorities for implementing the Resilient Bath Plan:

• Reducing greenhouse gases.
• Addressing challenges disproportionately affecting underrepresented communities.
• Proactively reducing current and future economic impacts due to climate shocks and stressors.
•  Ensuring honest transparency around the allocation of Bath’s resources.
• Increasing the capacity of social, economic and natural systems.

Addressing climate change challenges

The actions identified for each focus area are clean energy and efficient buildings, resilient and healthy communities, connected transportation and mobility, vibrant natural resources, and smart waste and water management. Implementing these focus areas is intended to be completed within the next five to 10 years to put Bath on the pathway to achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.

Bath Director of Sustainability and Environment Rod Melanson speaks briefly about the pathway and work that went into the climate action plan while answering questions from City Council members. Paul Bagnall / The Times Record

The plan also highlights an 80% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050 through transforming buildings, transportation and industrial systems to be as clean and energy efficient as possible. In 2022, Bath generated 87,656 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, with 27% from residential buildings, 12% from commercial buildings, 40% from industrial energy, 19% from transportation, 2% from solid waste, and 1% from water and wastewater.

“As I think most of us are aware, although that’s questionable recently, the science of climate change tells us that climate indicators are headed in the wrong direction,” Perkins said. “Globally, the 10 hottest years are the last 10 years, [with] 2023 being the hottest and 2024 likely to be even hotter.”

How Bath arrived at the passage of the Climate Action Plan

During the City Council special meeting, Perkins said the climate action plan has been greatly expanded and updated from earlier climate plans in 2008 and 2018, which resulted from extensive research and community engagement. The climate action plan will become a living document that has been amended and expanded over the years as climate science unfolds. It is based on the best available climate science from Maine’s scientific community and the national and global climate community.

“As Paul was indicating, this is really a living document that lives with the community,” said Bath City Council Chairperson Mary Ellen Bell.

The Climate Action Commission follows up the Resiliency Plan on a 2022 City Council Climate Resolution, a major goal of the 2023 Comprehensive Plan focusing on climate action. Perkins said the commission’s recent unanimous endorsement of the climate action plan pushed it forward to be approved by Bath’s City Council.

Before Bath’s climate action plan passage, Dunn mentioned that most community members were not in a position to shift to climate solutions immediately, and the current granting opportunities and rebates may not survive the next four years as the legislative environment changes.