Minnesota updates climate plan, affirms 2040 carbon‑free power goal

State officials unveiled Minnesota’s 2026 Climate Action Framework on Feb. 11 at St. Paul’s North End Community Center, an updated roadmap that leans into the statutory goal of 100% carbon‑free electricity by 2040 and outlines more than 400 specific actions across seven sectors. Built off a 2022 framework and now tied to roughly 40 state laws and over $1 billion in climate‑related funding, the plan targets big cuts in greenhouse‑gas emissions from the power sector, transportation, building heat and agriculture, while promising job growth in clean‑energy fields. MPCA says Minnesota has already distributed $95 million to more than 160 local governments in the past two years to help them prepare for climate impacts, money that includes Minneapolis, St. Paul and other metro cities working on flooding, heat and infrastructure upgrades. Near‑term priorities include actually implementing 100% carbon‑free electricity, accelerating EV adoption and transit decarbonization, cutting emissions from furnaces and boilers in homes and offices, and backing local infrastructure and disaster‑response projects. For Twin Cities residents, this framework is the blueprint agencies and utilities will use to justify future rate cases, building‑code changes, grant programs and transit or land‑use decisions that will show up in monthly bills and neighborhood projects over the next decade.