Vermont climate office outlines Climate Action Plan update, warns emissions targets off track

Secretary Julie Moore, head of the Agency of Natural Resources, told the Natural Resources & Energy committee that the agency’s Climate Action Office and the Climate Council are on a fast timeline to deliver an updated Climate Action Plan by July 1 while continuing technical work begun after the Global Warming Solutions Act became law.

The update matters because the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) sets statutory emissions targets and reporting deadlines; officials said gaps in data and federal tools mean Vermont will not know final 2024 inventory results for several years and that current indicators show the state is slightly over the 2024 target in key sectors.

Moore described how the Climate Action Office was created after the 2020 law and now has seven staff in addition to the director, and that the office’s work is grouped across greenhouse‑gas mitigation (including scenario modeling and life‑cycle analysis), resilience and adaptation, community engagement, interagency coordination, and support to the Climate Council’s drafting and administrative work. Jane Zarczak, director of the Climate Action Office, said the office manages contracts such as the one with the Stockholm Environment Institute to run emissions scenarios and is preparing a “measuring and assessing progress” tool to track Vermont‑specific actions beyond the annual greenhouse‑gas inventory.

Council chair Sarah Clark, Secretary of Administration, said, “I think this is the first time in my more than 20 years in state government that I’ve been in this committee,” and described her role as chair as largely process‑focused while she learns the technical work. Clark and agency staff emphasized that the Climate Council is a 23‑member body with a smaller steering committee that sets agendas and handles time‑sensitive matters.

Officials explained data and timing constraints that affect near‑term accounting. The greenhouse‑gas inventory relies on Vermont‑specific datasets for transportation and the residential/commercial/industrial (RCI) sectors (fuel‑sales data from the Department of Taxes and vehicle data from DMV) but depends on EPA national datasets and EPA’s inventory tool modules for agriculture and other sectors. Zarczak said the agriculture data, which the state downscales from EPA datasets, delays final inventory publication; officials said current sector indicators suggest Vermont is roughly 1% above its 2024 target for the sectors tracked so far, though the inventory will not be finalized for approximately two years.

The office is also preparing resilience work products required under the law. Zarczak described a resilience implementation strategy due July 1 that identifies gaps between current state programs and resilience needs in rural communities, agriculture and ecosystems. Staff emphasized a large community‑engagement program (quarterly summaries of public input, standing events and regional outreach) and an interagency advisory board that meets quarterly to align state programs from VTrans, ACCD, Department of Public Service and others.

Officials noted statutory targets in the GWSA: an early target tied to a 2024 accounting period (described in the meeting as 26% below a 2005 baseline for an earlier target), an approximately 40% reduction below 1990 levels by the 2029/2030 period, and a net‑zero goal by 2050. Zarczak and Moore said the state is not on track to meet the steeper 2030 requirements and that policymakers are considering how to pair gross emissions reductions with protection and sequestration from natural and working lands so the “net” target meaningfully preserves natural sequestration while cutting emissions.

Federal funding and national policy changes also affect Vermont planning. Moore and Zarczak said prior modeling incorporated the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law; they are now updating business‑as‑usual scenarios to reflect federal policy rollbacks and the current funding landscape. They stressed that parts of the Climate Action Plan rely on federal funds and that state investments alone are unlikely to close the entire funding gap.

Several administrative details were raised for committee members: the Climate Council currently has one vacant legislatively appointed seat for community action partnership representation; the steering committee has five members at present; and the office expects to hold multiple public meetings on the draft plan in the coming month. Officials invited the committee to request additional briefings and indicated they would return with further detail.

The committee paused the briefing to move to other witnesses but asked the agency to return for a follow‑up on remaining slides and technical details.