Michigan has an environmental roadmap of policy recommendations produced by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and Michigan Environmental Council that includes helping our state ensure clean drinking water and mitigating the effects of climate change. Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has announced environmental issues will be a top priority. A first of its kind Climate Action Summit was held in Grand Rapids last month to bring together climate experts, advocates and leaders focused on solutions.

These actions and others show a growing momentum for advancing climate action in our state.

Tom Porter, president of The Porter Family Foundation and co-chair of CMF’s Green and Blue Network (GBN), says he has seen a promising change in the climate change conversation.

“When we began work on [climate change] in 2014 people wouldn’t use the words ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’,” Porter said.

It was around that time that The Porter Family Foundation provided seed money to help create the Michigan Climate Action Network (MiCAN), which is comprised of individuals, groups, nonprofits and funders working toward solutions to “put us on a path of climate stability.” Fifty organizations are members of the network, including CMF members The Porter Family Foundation, Colina Foundation and Americana Foundation.

MiCAN hosted the sold-out Climate Action Summit for 300 attendees in Grand Rapids.

The summit was sponsored in part by CMF members the Wege Foundation and The Porter Family Foundation.

Porter said the overwhelming response to the summit demonstrates how the climate change conversation is evolving in Michigan.

“We had talked about doing this before, but we didn’t think the state was ready for it. It was so controversial to talk about climate change when we began,” Porter said. “But last year was a breakthrough year for climate change in a number of ways.”

For instance, in 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was released which showed that we must reduce our climate emissions by half by 2030 or the impacts will get much worse. Porter said media coverage of extreme weather events such as wildfires and flooding also became common place.

MiCAN says that data has indicated extreme weather events in 2017 cost the U.S. more than $300 billion.

Katie Madigan, director of MiCAN, recently wrote an op-ed for Bridge Magazine pointing to the urgency on a global level and in Michigan, and highlighted the work underway to combat it.

“Michigan has the 10th highest climate emissions in the country, and the U.S. has the second highest climate emissions in the world,” Madigan wrote. “Every state, including Michigan, must do its part, and policies set in Lansing — like the renewable and energy efficiency standards — are already making a difference in reducing our climate emissions.”

Porter said Governor Whitmer and her administration have made environmental issues a top priority, which is helping to spotlight the issue.

As MLive reported, Liesl Clark, director of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), made her first public appearance at the MiCAN Climate Action Summit, sharing the importance of this work for Michigan.

Porter said the summit was a success and hopes to see it become an annual event.

“It was truly inspiring,” Porter said. “It was gratifying to have the Wege Foundation there as a sponsor, as well as several other foundations – the Americana Foundation and Colina Foundation – so from a foundation perspective hopefully we can engage other foundations in this work.”

Want more?

Join the Green and Blue Network for their March 15 gathering in Owosso, PFAS: How Can Foundations Help.