MAINE MONITOR • May 9, 2021
As the Maine Climate Council concluded work on its climate action plan last November, one legislator issued what Sen. Anne Carney (D-Cape Elizabeth) recalled as a “plaintive plea: ‘We have to figure out how to pay for this now.’” Half of the Council’s work groups recommended establishing a “green bank” or “sustainability accelerator” that would use public funds to leverage private capital – making loans for clean energy and climate resilience measures. The nation’s first green bank, established a decade ago in Connecticut, has raised on average seven dollars of private capital for every public dollar invested. A sustainability accelerator could help ensure an equitable energy transition by reducing barriers for lower-income residents and small businesses to finance weatherization, heating system conversions and renewable power generation. Environmental financing also could help municipalities with the daunting costs of fortifying infrastructure in the face of rising sea levels and more extreme storms.