Hanover
“Now, therefore be it resolved, that the Select Board of the Town of Hanover is committed to taking such local actions as are within its purview to limit global temperature rise and supports the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement,” says the proclamation that the board voted unanimously to support.
The resolution also says that the Selectboard will join with other communities across the state to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect our most vulnerable residents from the impacts of climate change, and reap the benefits of the transition to a clean energy economy.”
Town Manager Julia Griffin on Tuesday said the board’s stance was a natural offshoot of its past support for ambitious renewable-energy goals for the town. The board and residents at this year’s Town Meeting voted to commit Hanover to attaining 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, with all other energy sectors to follow by 2050.
Griffin also noted that Hanover was one of many communities around the country — including larger cities and entire states — to endorse the terms of the Paris Agreement after Trump’s announcement.
“We’re committed, even though our country may not be,” Griffin said.
Under the agreement, the United States, which is responsible for about 13 percent of the world’s yearly greenhouse emissions, had pledged to cut the country’s emissions to 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. America also had promised to contribute $3 billion to an international fund encouraging climate action in developing countries.
The Paris Agreement’s main goal is to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — a threshold above which climate scientists warn of dangerous environmental consequences.
Syria, which is in the throes of civil war, and Nicaragua, which said the agreement did not go far enough, are the only other countries that are not participants.