“Gobsmackingly bananas.”

This colorful term was how one climate scientist described 2023, the hottest year ever. Then came 2024, which is likely to set fire to the previous year’s short-lived record.

The impacts of climate change are palpable here in Maine. Winters grow shorter. Ice thaws more quickly in lakes and rivers. Tick outbreaks surge. Sea levels are rising and intense storms leave coastal communities devastated and facing tens of millions of dollars in cleanup and rebuilding costs – part of the billion-dollar disasters that are becoming the norm across the country.

Maine’s major business sectors — tourism, farming, forestry, and fishing — must recalibrate for the future as floods, droughts, and fires multiply, intensify and destroy. Following a national election that had 80 million Americans calling for reduced emphasis on climate, federal leadership on this issue may soon end, and funds that support energy transitions and incentives will most likely dramatically decline. These changes will push activity to the state and local levels, requiring us to work together more collaboratively.

Help is on the way. In November, Gov. Janet Mills and the Maine Climate Council released an updated state climate action plan, Maine Won’t Wait 2.0. The new state plan sets strategies to accelerate Maine’s transition to clean electricity and transportation, smarter and more efficient buildings, technology and infrastructure investments and economic growth with concerted and coordinated climate action. Its recommendations seek to protect natural lands and waters and the communities and workers that depend on them in their personal and professional lives.

This plan and others serve as models for the rest of the country. In December, the Governor’s Energy Office released a draft energy roadmap to put the state on a path to 100% clean electricity by 2040 while stabilizing energy costs, enhancing infrastructure resiliency and reliability, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and creating jobs and growing Maine’s economy.

But plans are insufficient without implementation and action. Maine’s businesses, towns and residents are taking action. This push harnesses the tremendous influence of the private, public, and nonprofit sectors for an economically beneficial, carbon-constrained future. Climate change directly impacts the livelihoods and well-being of all Mainers. The governor is expecting a doubling of clean energy jobs by 2030. However, there may be shrinkage in other segments of our economy, creating some economic challenges during the transition.

We can and must do our part, by capturing opportunities. Scores of Maine-based business leaders and experts have been advising the State’s Climate Council, and these same people, along with tens of thousands of others, are changing the way we build, heat and transport things.

The nonprofit sector is involved as well: ClimateWork Maine and the E2Tech Council were each created to support change. ClimateWork Maine is helping Maine businesses grow and communities and people succeed in a carbon-constrained economy. The Environmental & Energy Technology Council (E2Tech) has fostered business development, professional relationships and the green economy for more than 20 years.

Together, we can help Maine adapt and compete, growing new businesses and making new products that suit the climate era while ensuring that existing and legacy businesses stay robust. In the coming years, our members will expand and enhance our efforts to strengthen and support a vibrant, resilient economy, helping to create and keep good jobs for residents of all ages and types.

We look forward to working with state, business and community leaders to be a coordinating, unified, mobilizing force to highlight the urgency of climate and energy action, explain how investment and innovation can leverage private capital and drive job creation and underscore the importance of Maine leadership in the global low-carbon economy.

As 2025 begins, we believe in Maine’s potential to unite business and community leaders across the state in meaningful climate action. We invite you to join us in shaping the future so that we can be, yes, “gobsmackingly successful.”