Fishery Friendly Climate Action Pathways
Illuminating paths to net-zero that are net-positive for fisheries
The Goal
To steer state-level and economy-wide climate action planning towards “fishery friendly” pathways that jointly prioritize carbon neutrality and fishery resilience.
The Need
Diverse greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction measures are needed to avert the worst of the climate crisis, but some measures can impact oceans and fisheries, either negatively or positively. Climate action planners and stakeholders should design pathways that reach carbon neutrality through the most “fishery friendly” portfolio of policies and actions possible.
How Fishermen Are Mobilizing for Action
Fishermen and their collaborators are working through the Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign to:
Build the fishing community’s capacity to engage in state-level climate action planning supported by the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program.
Work with diverse experts to design decision tools to visualize “fishery friendly” climate action pathways that co-optimize economy-wide decarbonization with fishery ecosystem resilience.
Building Fishermen’s Capacity to Engage in State-Level Climate Action Planning
2024-2025 are critical years for climate action planning.
A total of 219 concurrent climate action planning processes are taking place across the U.S. as a result of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program, with 46 of them led by states. These plans will set in motion the next several decades of climate policy and investment, and they represent a critical moment for Americans to get involved in shaping the decarbonization pathways of states, territories, tribes, and cities where they live and work.
Visit our State CPRG Resource Center to learn more about these opportunities and to see how fishermen are mobilizing to make their state climate plans as “fishery friendly” as possible.
Webinar Series
Centering Fisheries in State-Level Climate Action Planning
Forty-six states are developing Comprehensive Climate Action Plans (CCAPs) that will set in motion several decades of climate policy and investment. The CCAPs are a vital opportunity for fishermen who want to see strong climate action done right.
Our interactive webinar series on Centering Fisheries in State-Level Climate Action Planning will run from October 2024 to December 2025 to help fishermen and their allies navigate state-level CCAP processes. By sharing lessons across state lines, webinars will help fishing community maximize its impact on climate action planning despite limited time and resources.
CASE STUDY
Rhode Island: A CPRG Learning Laboratory
Rhode Island’s 2025 Climate Action Strategy is a required milestone under the state’s 2021 Act on Climate legislation, and one of 46 state climate action planning processes supported by the EPA’s CPRG program. The Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign is working with the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island to build onramps for integrating fishery co-impacts into this plan. Together, we are training members of RI’s commercial fishing community to:
Engage effectively in state-level climate policy in Rhode Island;
Understand how decarbonization pathway modeling can inform planning, and how fishermen can play a role in the selection and interpretation of modeling scenarios;
Compare and communicate fishery ecosystem co-impacts from a range of decarbonization solutions; and
Build ally-ship with other climate-impacted constituencies in the food system and identifying decarbonization solutions that we can advance together.
Decision Tools for “Fishery Friendly” Climate Action Pathway Analysis
A “climate action plan” combines specific GHG reduction targets (such as net-zero by 2050) with a slate of quantifiable actions or measures that, when implemented in combination with each other, achieve this target by the desired deadline. A “decarbonization pathway model” is a type of energy modeling tool that helps planners and stakeholders visualize different slates of actions that get to the desired emissions end point, while also addressing interconnected social, economic, and environmental issues.
Until now, there has been no effort to explicitly link fishery ecosystem impacts into decarbonization pathway modeling. We are working to change that.
Other Resources
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Thesis:
Exploring the Fishery Friendliness of Decarbonization Solutions in Southern New England, Vanessa Sedore, Brown University, ’24
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Video:
Decarbonization Models: Contextualizing Impacts of Diverse Pathways on Fishery Ecosystems, Matt Chester, Chester Energy and Policy, LLC
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Conference Session:
A Synoptic Framework for Assessing Synergies and Tradeoffs between Decarbonization Solutions and Fishery Ecosystems, World Fisheries Congress, March, 2024