Maine’s governor met with European Union officials on Tuesday about strategies to deal with climate change a day after announcing ambitious environmental goals for her state.
Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, spoke during the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit 2019 on Monday. Her schedule on Tuesday included meeting with EU officials and participating in a panel discussion with other governors about how the states will hold up America’s end of the 2016 Paris Agreement about climate.
Participants in the meeting with European Union officials didn’t make public statements, but reaffirmed their commitments to the Paris Agreement, Mills spokeswoman Lindsay Crete told the Portland Press Herald.
The group also talked about “trying to raise global ambitions” in advance of the 2020 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Crete said. Mills has said Maine has to play a role as a leader in combatting climate change in part because a warming world jeopardizes key industries in the state, such as commercial fishing.
Mills was also slated to deliver remarks before the premier of a documentary about shellfish growing and environmental stewardship.
Mills pledged on Monday that her state will go carbon neutral by 2045. She said in an executive order that the state’s climate council will give recommendations by Dec. 1, 2020, about how to meet that goal.
Democrats in the state cheered the announcement, but the state’s Republican party cautioned that it could saddle taxpayers with new costs. Democrats are “forcing hard-working Mainers to shoulder the cost of their extreme climate plans,” said Nina McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.
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