The Maine Climate Council's Scientific and Technical Subcommittee (STS) provides the latest information on direct and indirect effects of climate change, and factors contributing to those effects, in the State and on the sectors, ecosystems and communities most at risk from such effects, drawing on existing data and studies.
The STS provides information on the effects of climate change in the State to the Maine Climate Council's working groups to help inform their research and consideration of mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation and resilience strategies.
Download their Scientific Assessment of Climate Change and Its Effects in Maine here (link).
The STS also provides the following additional deliverables:
- Establish, by December 1, 2020, science-based sea level rise projections to 2100 for the State's coastal areas and update those projections at least every 4 years
- Create maps that indicate the areas of the State that may be most affected by storm surges, ocean and river flooding and extreme weather events and make these maps publicly available on a website maintained by the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Maine Geological Survey
- Identify critical scientific information needs pertaining to priority research and monitoring of state-based changes in the climate and its impacts
- Identify options for quantifying carbon emissions and sequestration associated with biomass growth, management and utilization in terrestrial and marine environments in Maine
- Identify methods to build resilience to direct and indirect effects of climate change for the State's species