Climate Action Plan Final Draft Complete & Belfast Application for Maine's Community Resilience Partnership

On June 6, 2023 the Belfast City Council and Climate Crisis Committee (CCC) held a ‘Community Resilience Partnership’ Public Workshop to review the components of the application for enrolling in Maine’s Community Resilience Partnership. With acceptance into the CRP program, Belfast would be eligible for State grant awards (up to $50,000 twice a year) to help reduce carbon emissions, transition to clean energy, and become more resilient to climate change effects.

Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge presented a draft Community Resilience Self-Evaluation & List of Community Actions (part of the CRP application). The CCC provided the Council with a short summary of 6 suggested priority actions for Belfast (see above), derived from the final draft of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) which was submitted to the Council on June 5, 2023.

The CAP and the above short list of recommendations come directly from the CCC’s community outreach, including a series of “Community Climate Conversations” held by All of Belfast Climate Dialogues & the CCC to vet priorities and collect public feedback & ideas.

In next steps following the June 6th meeting, each Council member was asked to select their top 2 recommended priority actions or issues to focus on. With this direction, Kittredge is drafting a resolution of commitment for the Council to discuss and adopt at the June 20th City Council Meeting. This resolution provides the final step allowing Belfast to complete its application to the CRP.

Once the City’s application has been accepted, the prioritized action areas will become the focus for developing implementation grant applications for the next 1-3 years. 

Here are some examples of what other Maine communities are doing with their grants.

ABCD would like to congratulate and thank the CCC members for their outstanding efforts in completing the CAP and for volunteering their expertise and time. Thank you to City staff and the City Council for moving this process forward to enroll Belfast in the Community Resilience Partnership. Thank you to all community members who have contributed their ideas.