Assessments & Metrics
The assessments in this report card outline both the progress and the emerging challenges in more detail as the Healey-Driscoll Administration implements the 2025/2030 Clean Energy and Climate Plan (CECP), ResilientMass Plan, and Environmental Justice Strategy. Each sector’s assessment includes a set of quantitative metrics and narrative to evaluate progress.
Although greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions are the primary yardstick by which climate mitigation progress is legally measured—and how compliance with the Commonwealth’s previous commitments is determined—estimates of Massachusetts’ total GHG emissions are published with an approximate two to three-year lag due to data availability. The metrics in this report card can offer more real-time indicators of progress, but are not used to certify compliance with economy-wide or sector sublimits. They should therefore be considered as an indicative but by no means conclusive proxy of progress.
The metrics in this report card capture important facets of each major sector contributing GHG emissions and advancing resilience and environmental justice. They are based on data that can be collected and tracked on a recurring basis to build an evolving picture over time. Values are from the latest available complete year of data unless otherwise noted, as well as previous years.
For more information on clean energy and climate data, please visit the clean energy & climate dashboard and the Resilient Mass Metrics Project
Targets
Where available, metrics are measured against targets, which are based on a future potential scenario for how Massachusetts can meet its emissions limits and climate goals. For example, the actual number of EVs on the road can be compared to the 2025/2030 CECP target of 200,000 on the road by 2025. There are many possible paths to achieving our overall emissions limits. The 2025/2030 and 2050 CECPs identify targets that collectively represent one possible path based on “phased” scenario modeling to meet emissions limits and climate goals. Some metrics do not have associated targets, as explained in the sector assessments. As policies evolve, individual targets may change or become less relevant. Such cases are discussed in the sector sections.
Understanding the Data
Progress towards targets is often not linear. For instance, adoption of new technologies often follows an s-curve, where adoption is initially slow, accelerates as the technology becomes more widespread, and then slows again as it saturates the market. In this way, the past progress of a metric is not always indicative of future progress even when measured over the same length of time. The sector assessments take such dynamics into consideration, looking not only at individual target values for 2025 and 2030, but also at the broader pattern of how changes are anticipated to be made.
More broadly, the quantitative metrics for each sector are just one component in assessing climate progress. The expected evolution of programs and policies, the broader economic and technological landscape, and expert assessment of the most salient challenges and opportunities also inform assessments.
Challenges and Meeting the Moment
Massachusetts’ clean energy and climate plans identify a path to Net Zero in which the sharpest emissions reductions occur between 2025 and 2030 (see Figure 1, below). Further, the impacts of climate change are becoming more intense. The report card discusses broader regional, national, and even global factors affecting progress and summarizes actions by the Healey-Driscoll Administration to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
| Date published: | January 17, 2025 |
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