UMass President Marty Meehan focuses on climate tech in his latest address
The $4 billion legislation, the Healey administration says, represents a $1 billion investment in climate-tech over 10 years — though not all of that money is in the actual bill. Mass Leads includes $200 million over a decade in bond authorizations for offshore wind farm infrastructure, $200 million for other capital grants to help companies and nonprofits research or commercialize climate technologies, and up to $30 million a year for tax incentives for clean-tech firms that add jobs (totaling another $300 million). The administration counts another $30 million a year to support the quasi-public Massachusetts Clean Energy Center toward the total; those funds come from the state's operating budget, which needs legislative approval each year.
'UMass ... will be the engine that drives the state's economic ambitions, as we've been for 160 years,' Meehan said in the address.
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Meehan talked about some specific efforts that are already underway: climate resiliency research at UMass Boston's Stone Living Lab, UMass Dartmouth's work on sustainable fisheries, and water treatment and purification research at UMass Amherst. He also mentioned the importance of global partnerships, singling out the Clean Energy & Environment Legacy Transition Initiative that UMass Lowell and Boston University are working on with university partners in Ireland, as well as UMass Boston chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco's efforts with the Vatican Climate Summit last year.
In an interview, Meehan said he believes it's important for UMass to put its research and teaching efforts to work to help with the state's economic development priorities. That includes researching innovative climate solutions and preparing a workforce for the new jobs that will open up.
'There's no question that the federal government is trying to take us back with regard to climate change,' Meehan said. '[But] I would argue that climate change is the existential threat of our time. ... Our goal is to position UMass to be the partner of choice for state government, the private sector in Massachusetts, and also globally.
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston's business scene.
Jon Chesto can be reached at
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