This bill creates a Nature for All Fund administered by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and a 15-member board. The fund is dedicated to developing parks and outdoor spaces, especially in underserved areas, conserving land to safeguard water resources and enhance climate resilience, and achieving environmental justice objectives. The fund may also be used for conserving indigenous cultural lands and ensuring community stewardship. Funds may go to municipalities, regional partnerships, planning entities, watershed associations, land trusts, conservation groups, state agencies, tribal authorities, and other non-profit organizations. The fund will be financed by sales tax revenue from all sales classified as sporting goods, recreational vehicles, and golf courses. The bill allows for the issuance of bonds backed by the Nature for All Trust Fund to finance its initiatives without making them general obligations of the Commonwealth.

This bill establishes the Climate & Community Resilience Fund, overseen by the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs in partnership with an advisory board. Revenue for the fund comes from a tax established on the premiums paid for home and commercial real estate property insurance. The fee is set at two percent for the first five years and can be adjusted up or down, with a ceiling of an increase of an increment of 0.25 percent per year with an overall cap of 5 percent, as determined by the board. The Department of Revenue, in consultation with the Division of Insurance, may set up an opt-out provision for people, not-for-profit organizations, and small businesses and farms who cannot afford to pay.

The fund is dedicated to supporting equitable climate adaptation strategies, promoting workforce development in green industries, and fostering municipal coordination for community-led solutions. It excludes support for carbon offset markets and certain carbon sequestration technologies.

Establishes a special commission to study statewide strategies to improve pollinator health by enhancing and expanding native habitat across developed and natural landscapes-including farm and forest borders, residential areas, parks, urban and industrial sites, energy transmission and generation facilities, and transportation corridors-for a broad range of native and managed pollinators such as bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, ants, bats, and birds. Requires review of existing laws and regulations, successful public education and outreach models, funding adequacy, data collection methods, best management practices (including foraging and food-source diversity), and the use of agricultural and nonagricultural lands to increase forage, and calls for strategies to expand and coordinate public education programs.

Specifies an 11-member body chaired by the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, including the Commissioner of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the Commissioner of Agricultural Resources, legislative members, and six gubernatorial appointees representing University of Massachusetts pollinator science, UMass Extension, farmers, beekeepers, nurseries, and land protection, with a report due by March 1, 2026.

The bill focuses on integrating climate resilience into building regulations. The bill allows cities and towns to adopt broadened floodplain maps based on advanced climate science. These maps will supplement existing FEMA flood insurance rate maps to guide building standards in flood-prone areas. Local governments can request the implementation of these expanded maps, with an emphasis on public health, safety, and climate resilience. The bill also mandates the creation of a municipal opt-in specialized stretch resilience code, offering municipalities the option to adopt more rigorous building codes than the current state standards. This resilience code will include guidelines on building elevation, utility placement, and structural resilience to extreme weather, developed with the assistance of an advisory committee. The bill also establishes a statewide climate resilience retrofit program to provide technical and financial assistance for retrofitting buildings to meet the new code, prioritizing environmental justice communities and areas susceptible to flooding. 

Establishes a statewide policy to prevent the degradation and loss of natural and working lands and freshwater and coastal wetlands-promoting equitable access to Nature Services-by requiring agencies to avoid, minimize, and mitigate permanent conversion; prohibits use of state-administered funds and federal grants to finance such conversion when feasible alternatives exist; and coordinates state land permitting with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to sequence avoidance, minimization, and mitigation.

Creates a municipal opt-in Natural and Working Lands Friendly Communities program, administered by the Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, providing technical and financial assistance-including annual grants, loans, and incentive payments-preferential access and match waivers in existing grant programs, and higher reimbursement in lieu of taxes on state-owned land; applications are noncompetitive and acceptance is based solely on meeting eligibility requirements centered on adopting natural resource protection zoning plus a majority of complementary bylaws on tree retention, agriculture and right-to-farm, groundwater and stormwater management, fertilizer and water-use controls, and landscaping standards, with specified exemptions and waiver pathways.

Amends statewide climate planning and reporting to track program expenditures, participation, and results, and to update recommendations-developed with the Division of Local Services-on expenditure and incentive rates for land conservation, stewardship, and ownership programs, along with recommendations for future policy action.

Directs the Environmental Policy Act Office, by 2025-2026 deadlines, to develop methodologies to quantify greenhouse-gas impacts of land clearing and farmland development and to establish scaled thresholds that trigger environmental impact review for projects involving permanent conversion of such lands or wetlands, with public and legislative committee input before finalization.

The Climate Change Adaptation Cost Recovery Act sets up an assessment on fossil fuel companies to fund climate change adaptation projects. Under this legislation, entities involved in fossil fuel extraction with significant greenhouse gas emissions will make payments to a newly constituted Climate Change Adaptation Fund. These payments will be based on their estimated impact as determined by a climate cost study assessing the economic repercussions of emissions within the state. The bill requires directing at least 40% of these funds towards projects that serve environmental justice populations. An independent evaluation will look at the impact of the program. The bill directs adherence to prevailing wage laws and the use of American-made materials wherever applicable to ensure project compliance and economic integrity.

This bill establishes the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Plus (MVP Plus) grant program in Massachusetts, funding municipalities that achieve MVP Plus certification by implementing climate resilience initiatives. The initiatives may involve climate resilience projects, hiring personnel for project management, or fostering regional collaboration. To be certified as an MVP Plus community, municipalities must complete a vulnerability assessment, adopt a specialized stretch resilience code described below, and implement a range of specified policies, such as stormwater utility programs and floodplain overlay districts. The program encourages regional projects through partnerships with planning agencies and non-profit organizations.

The bill also creates the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Trust Fund to financially support these initiatives, with at least 50% of the funds allocated to MVP Plus communities based on a formula that accounts for factors like population, road mileage, employment, and flood vulnerability. The municipal opt-in specialized stretch resilience code will address advanced climate risk considerations, including flood-proofing and energy resilience.

Establishes a statewide policy to prevent degradation and loss of natural and working lands and freshwater and coastal wetlands, requiring agencies to avoid, minimize, and mitigate permanent conversion; bars use of state-administered funds and federal grants for such conversion when feasible alternatives exist; promotes soil, tree, and water conservation and public access; and mandates permitting coordination with the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs for state-owned land projects.

Creates an opt-in Natural and Working Lands Friendly Communities program, administered by the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, admitting municipalities noncompetitively that meet a majority of eligibility measures anchored by natural resource protection zoning with a family-housing exemption and complemented by measures including tree-canopy protections, rights of first refusal for certain protected lands, agricultural commissions and planning, right-to-farm bylaws, groundwater and stormwater controls, fertilizer and landscaping standards, and water-conservation bylaws; and provides technical and financial assistance, annual grants and loans, preferential access and match waivers in existing grants, enhanced payments in lieu of taxes for state-owned land scaled by the amount of such land, and additional incentive payments tied to restricted land parcels.

Requires the Environmental Policy Act Office by July 1, 2026 to set scaled thresholds triggering environmental impact review for projects that permanently convert these lands and wetlands and to enforce sequential avoidance, minimization, and mitigation, and by July 1, 2025 to develop methodologies to quantify greenhouse-gas implications of land clearing and farmland development with mitigation options, subject to public comment. Amends climate planning to explicitly include natural and working lands; mandates inventories, baselines, plans, and reports capturing program expenditures, participation, results, and compliance recommendations; updates land-conservation and stewardship incentive recommendations to track land values; and adds definitions for "Nature Services" and "Reforestation."

This bill establishes the Climate & Community Resilience Fund, overseen by the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs in partnership with an advisory board. Revenue for the fund comes from a tax established on the premiums paid for home and commercial real estate property insurance. The fee is set at two percent for the first five years and can be adjusted up or down, with a ceiling of an increase of an increment of 0.25 percent per year with an overall cap of 5 percent, as determined by the board. The Department of Revenue, in consultation with the Division of Insurance, may set up an opt-out provision for people, not-for-profit organizations, and small businesses and farms who cannot afford to pay.

The fund is dedicated to supporting equitable climate adaptation strategies, promoting workforce development in green industries, and fostering municipal coordination for community-led solutions. It excludes support for carbon offset markets and certain carbon sequestration technologies.

The Climate Change Adaptation Cost Recovery Act sets up an assessment on fossil fuel companies to fund climate change adaptation projects. Under this legislation, entities involved in fossil fuel extraction with significant greenhouse gas emissions will make payments to a newly constituted Climate Change Adaptation Fund. These payments will be based on their estimated impact as determined by a climate cost study assessing the economic repercussions of emissions within the state. The bill requires directing at least 40% of these funds towards projects that serve environmental justice populations. An independent evaluation will look at the impact of the program. The bill directs adherence to prevailing wage laws and the use of American-made materials wherever applicable to ensure project compliance and economic integrity.

This bill creates a Nature for All Fund administered by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and a 15-member board. The fund is dedicated to developing parks and outdoor spaces, especially in underserved areas, conserving land to safeguard water resources and enhance climate resilience, and achieving environmental justice objectives. The fund may also be used for conserving indigenous cultural lands and ensuring community stewardship. Funds may go to municipalities, regional partnerships, planning entities, watershed associations, land trusts, conservation groups, state agencies, tribal authorities, and other non-profit organizations. The fund will be financed by sales tax revenue from all sales classified as sporting goods, recreational vehicles, and golf courses. The bill allows for the issuance of bonds backed by the Nature for All Trust Fund to finance its initiatives without making them general obligations of the Commonwealth.

Establishes and regulates a new fund entitled the Nature for All Fund, which is to be used exclusively for conserving and improving natural and working lands. Creates a 15-member Nature for All Board; authorizes issuance of special obligation bonds and notes payable solely from Fund revenues.