REGIONAL- Gov. Tim Walz has unveiled a comprehensive framework for Minnesota to address climate change now and in the years to come, targeting transportation, clean energy, land management, health, resilient communities, and the economy.
Walz made the announcement last Friday during an event at Ecolab’s Advanced Design Center in Eagan.
“To maintain the things we love about Minnesota – our pristine lakes, incredible wilderness areas and state parks, and outdoor economy – we need to act in a collaborative, bipartisan, and forward-looking way,” Walz said in a press release accompanying the announcement.
The framework identifies immediate and long-term actions Minnesota can take to achieve the state’s vision to help communities reduce pollution that contributes to climate change, and also to prepare for extreme weather events caused by a changing climate.
Building out the electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, enhanced use of wind and solar energy, and strategies to build carbon storage in forests and soils, as called for in the framework, will also grow the economy by creating new jobs around Minnesota, with collaboration from partners in public and private sectors, according to the release.
Katrina Kessler, commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, said the Walz administration can implement some of the proposals on its own, while others would require approval and funding from the next Legislature, and still others could be achieved through partnerships with local governments, businesses and farmers.
The plan includes a goal of increasing the share of electric cars on Minnesota roads to 20 percent by 2030 from the current one percent, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030, and achieving zero net carbon emissions goal by 2050.
Walz took the first steps toward creating the plan in 2019 when he established a Climate Change Subcabinet of state agency, department and board officials and a parallel 15-member Advisory Council on Climate Change comprised of citizens representing business, labor, education, tribes, climate advocacy, and other sectors affected by climate change. The groups were necessary, Walz said then, for the state to address a continuous and worsening problem of failing to meet state climate change targets set in 2007.
Workgroups developed initial drafts of plans for each of the six areas of the framework, and this past spring more than 3,000 people helped shape the framework through public input. Minnesota’s 11 tribal nations also provided input and reviewed the plan.
Within each of the six goals, the plan summarizes challenges, prioritizes action and initiatives needed to achieve the goal, specifies measurements to gauge progress, and provides considerations for equity.

Election implications
While the plan was developed by the state in collaboration with the public, Walz faces an election in November that could threaten its implementation.
Walz said during the announcement that releasing the plan during the runup to the election should foster conversations about policy directions.
“This issue will transcend whoever’s elected. This issue is not going away. It needs to be addressed,” Walz said.
As expected, conservative Republican gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen has been openly critical of Walz’s positions on energy and climate change, and he took issue with the new 69-page climate change plan as well.
“Governor Walz’s report does mention the words ‘equity’ or ‘equitable’ 40 times,” Jensen said in a statement. “While equality is something we should all strive for, it’s clear that this is a political document meant to shore up his base before an election, rather than a serious solution for Minnesota’s energy problems.”
Jensen criticized the plan for excluding nuclear energy as a possible source of low-carbon electricity. Nuclear power was a component of the energy plan Jensen released in July, along with fossil fuels and renewable sources, and rejection of a tie to California emissions standards that are part of Walz’s clean cars initiative. Noticeably lacking from Jensen’s energy plan was any mention of the present and growing threat of climate change.
MPR News contributed to this report.