{"id":31956,"date":"2022-03-04T12:11:41","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T18:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31956"},"modified":"2022-03-04T12:11:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T18:11:47","slug":"updated-climate-report-recommendations-proposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31956","title":{"rendered":"Updated climate report, recommendations proposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Nebraska would use federal coronavirus relief funds to update a nearly decade-old climate change report under a bill heard March 3 by the Appropriations Committee.

\"Sen.
Sen. Eliot Bostar<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

LB1255, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Eliot Bostar, would appropriate $150,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the university in fiscal year 2022-23. <\/p>\n

Bostar said the university\u2019s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources would use the funds to update a 2014 report that assessed the effects of climate change in Nebraska. <\/p>\n

The funding also would allow the institute to contract with a third-party, science-based organization to develop a report that recommends specific measures the state could take based on the findings of the updated university report, he said. <\/p>\n

Those measures would include a conservation and management plan under the federal Clean Water Act and plans for green infrastructure investments and projects that improve the state\u2019s resilience to climate change. <\/p>\n

Both reports would be delivered to the governor and the Legislature by Dec. 1, 2024. <\/p>\n

Bostar said 2021 was the seventh consecutive year in which the country experienced 10 or more billion-dollar weather- or climate-related disasters. National and global climate assessments are updated and reissued regularly to reflect new data and refined modeling techniques, he said, and Nebraska\u2019s report should be no different. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s imperative that we are measuring and gauging the impact of climate change on our state with accuracy and timeliness,\u201d Bostar said. <\/p>\n

Martha Shulski, Nebraska state climatologist, testified in support of LB1255 on her own behalf. She said the most useful scientific reports are \u201cliving documents\u201d that synthesize new information.<\/p>\n

In the past three years alone, Shulski said, Nebraska has experienced widespread drought, its third wettest year on record and, in 2021, its warmest December on record, a month that also included an unusual winter derecho and 30 confirmed tornadoes. The key to helping Nebraska prepare for emerging weather hazards like those is to track them regularly and systematically, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTracking weather trends is not a choice,\u201d Shulski said. \u201cIt\u2019s a must.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kristal Stoner testified in support of the bill on behalf of Audubon Nebraska. The 2014 report is the \u201ccurrent gold standard\u201d for those seeking information on how climate change could affect Nebraska, she said, and an update is needed.<\/p>\n

Stoner said 34 states have released or are currently drafting climate action plans and that Nebraska decision makers need similar guidelines to help them conserve state resources and build sustainable communities. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of this proposed legislation, in my opinion, is cheap compared to the implications of inaction,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Katie Torpy of the Nature Conservancy also testified in support, saying the university is Nebraska\u2019s most trusted source for climate-related information.<\/p>\n

By authoring the updated report, she said, the university could serve as a \u201cclimate ambassador\u201d to help Nebraskans better understand the state\u2019s vulnerabilities to climate change and demonstrate how adaptation and mitigation techniques can benefit them. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe continued absence of a climate action plan not only leaves Nebraska vulnerable \u2014 it leaves us unable to capitalize on solutions that benefit our economy and the environment right now,\u201d Torpy said. <\/p>\n

John Hansen testified in support of LB1255 on behalf of Nebraska Farmers Union, saying the state\u2019s agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable to climate change. The more data and knowledge farmers have, he said, the better they can plan for and adapt to changing climate conditions. <\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to the bill and the committee took no immediate action on it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Nebraska would use federal coronavirus relief funds to update a nearly decade-old climate change report under a bill heard March 3 by the Appropriations Committee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[264],"class_list":["post-31956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appropriations","tag-sen-eliot-bostar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31956"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31959,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31956\/revisions\/31959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}