Vermont Climate Action Office details staffing, modeling contracts and new tracking tool ahead of 2025 plan

The House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee heard an overview on Jan. 15 from the Agency of Natural Resources’ Climate Action Office about staffing, modeling, grants and a new web-based tool intended to track state climate progress.

James Orcek, who identified himself as leading the Climate Action Office, told the committee that the office was formed after the initial climate action plan and is intended to coordinate climate work across state agencies. "The Climate Action Office was a recommendation that came out of the initial climate action plan that was adopted on December 1, 2021," Orcek said, describing the office's role in supporting the climate council and meeting requirements under the Global Warming Solutions Act.

Why it matters: committee members pressed the office on whether Vermont is on track to meet GWSA targets and on how the state will measure progress. Orcek said the office is building a new measuring-and-assessing-progress tool to show program-level activity (for example, counts of weatherizations or heat pumps installed) and to help identify where implementation is falling short of targets. "It's not intended to quantify... although because the greenhouse gas inventory is supposed to be the place where…