By Brooke Thomson
President & CEO

Massachusetts stands at the dawn of a “climatech” revolution that will allow the commonwealth to achieve aggressive clean-energy and climate goals while delivering new economic opportunities for the commonwealth. Let me be clear: AIM fully supports the state’s clean-energy goals.

We must at the same time face the fact that the business community has a fraught relationship with energy and climate policy, precisely because employers here pay some of the highest costs in the nation to heat their facilities, run their machinery and keep the lights on. The ultimate challenge is how we lead the climatech revolution while ensuring that employers have access to low cost, reliable energy sources during the transition.

The still-developing interaction between climate science and economic opportunity will be at the center of a conference of global experts June 3-5 in Boston. The conference, dubbed Climatech, will cover topics ranging from Artificial Intelligence, next-generation power grids, and the future of urban mobility.

AIM Is a conference partner, and I am pleased to be a member of the advisory board for Climatech. Speakers for the program include AIM members like Nicola Medalova, Chief Operating Officer, New England Electric, National Grid; and UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen, who just accepted the 2024 AIM Gould Education Award.

Governor Maura Healey will keynote the conference.

The new era of energy generation and utilization offers potential benefits to the Massachusetts economy – emission reductions, thousands of jobs and lower wholesale electricity prices throughout New England. Businesses and environmental advocates alike are energized by a once-in-a-generation opportunity to claim the “Climate Tech” industry for our economy and our people.

AIM is committed on behalf of its 3,400 member companies to ensuring that Massachusetts meets its clean energy goals without causing financial disruption to the manufacturing companies, technology startups, hospitals and research enterprises that employ most of our fellow citizens. There must be transparency on what the transition will cost, and the pace of the transition should be predicated on the overall costs and economic impact that can be shouldered by customers.

Many of our large employers cannot shift to electricity today – they have limited options – and that needs to be part of the equation.

AIM is also committed to working with Governor Healey to ensure that Massachusetts becomes a worldwide center for climate businesses and jobs in the same way the commonwealth is now a global hub for biotechnology. We support the governor’s proposal to invest more than $1 billion over 10 years in climate-tech research and development, an investment that will allow us to create new products and deploy them here, helping us meet our climate goals and create new jobs at the same time.

Climate Tech’s influence can extend to every corner of Massachusetts. Two booming Climate Tech startups making headlines have expanded westward: AIM member Commonwealth Fusion Systems recently opened its Devens campus and Sublime Systems announced its first commercial site to manufacture low-carbon cement will be in Holyoke.

Climate policy traces a delicate balance between the present and the future of the Massachusetts economy. AIM believes we can preserve both with a reasoned and deliberate approach to the changes and opportunities ahead.