Located between New York’s Hudson River Valley and Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, Connecticut is home to 3.6 million people and encompasses 5.5 thousand square miles, making it the third smallest state by area, the 29th most populous, and the fifth most densely populated of the fifty states.
Connecticut’s topography varies from hilly slopes in the northwestern portion of the state to the southeastern coast along the Long Island Sound. Its climate, like many of its Southern New England neighbors, is experiencing shorter and warmer winters, hotter summers, longer and more intense heat waves, rising sea level, and bigger rain storms – all things that show climate change isn’t something that’s coming, it’s something that is here. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Connecticut’s temperatures have increased an average of 3.5 degrees. Currently in the middle of a historic drought, Connecticut has just experienced the second driest October on record. Droughts are becoming more severe and frequent, bringing an increased risk of deadly brush fires.
Connecticut’s greatest climate change risks are, however, inextricably intertwined with its 217 miles of Long Island Sound shoreline. Nearly 40% of its population lives in 36 coastal communities, all of which now face a dangerous combination of rising water levels and frequent storms. Over 7,000 properties are at risk from flooding, with sea level rise also putting coastal wetlands and ecosystems at risk. After Florida, Connecticut is the state with the most property value risk from sea level rise. The sea level along the coast of Connecticut has risen 10-12 inches per century, higher than the global average. As sea levels have risen along the Connecticut coastline, the number of tidal flood days have gradually increased overwhelming storm drains. Global sea levels are projected to rise another 1 to 4 feet by 2100 as a result of both past and future emissions from human activities, and even greater increases can be expected along the northeast U.S. coast following historical trends. The state has invested $2 billion in solutions and adaptation projects for sea level rise, including infrastructure projects, coastal resilience planning and storm restoration projects.
Natural gas (56%) and nuclear power (38%) fueled almost 94% of Connecticut’s utility-scale electricity generation in 2024. Only one nuclear power plant still exists in Connecticut, the 2,073-megawatt Millstone nuclear power station, but the state ranks among the 10 states with the highest share of electricity generated from nuclear power. Connecticut had one remaining coal-fired power plant at the Bridgeport Harbor Station, which contributed less than 0.1% of the state’s net generation in 2020. It closed in 2021. In 2024, Connecticut was one of nine states that did not generate any electricity from burning coal. Solar provided the majority of the remaining electricity generation, at 4% in 2024 - the majority from small-scale rooftop solar panels. Renewable resources altogether provided about 6% of Connecticut’s electricity net generation in 2024 with petroleum contributing less than 0.1%.
Connecticut does not have any crude oil reserves and does not produce or refine petroleum. However, a pipeline originating in New Haven delivers refined petroleum products to central Connecticut and terminates in central Massachusetts. About seven-tenths of the petroleum consumed in Connecticut is used in the transportation sector, primarily as motor gasoline. Connecticut does not have any natural gas reserves or production.
The Connecticut legislature has taken multiple steps to combat climate change and global warming. They first passed landmark legislation in 1990 and immediately strengthened it with an Act Concerning Connecticut Global Warming Solutions requiring the state to reduce emissions by 10% (from 1990 emissions) by 2020, as well as mandating an 80 percent reduction (from 2001 emissions) by 2050. Their renewable portfolio standard (RPS), created in 1998, has been revised several times since then. However, in July 2025, Governor Lamont signed a bill which made Connecticut the first state in the region to scale back their RPS, dropping the requirement from 32% to 25% in 2026, and from 40% to 29% in 2030.
In June, 2019, Connecticut’s governor called for 100% carbon-free power by 2040 and almost simultaneously Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) issued a RFP to solicit proposals to install up to 2,000 megawatts of offshore wind generating capacity by 2030. Also in 2019, Connecticut announced the development of the Park City Wind project, which would provide 804 megawatts of offshore wind power, or 14% of the state’s electricity supply. This project fell apart in 2023 when the developer terminated the contract. But, in 2024, two new wind projects were approved, together called the New England Wind Construction and Operations Plan. Construction is also underway on Revolution Wind, the nation’s first multi-state offshore wind project, serving areas of both Rhode Island and Connecticut. However, President Trump has made his aversion to offshore wind clear, signing an Executive Order halting approvals of all new offshore wind farms on the first day of his second term, and then attempting to challenge offshore wind farms that had already been approved or were already far along in construction. Trump issued two stop work orders for Revolution Wind, despite the project being 80% completed, citing unspecified national security interests. Governor Lamont joined the governors of Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York in warning that cancelling wind projects that have already been permitted could spark a crisis for wind investment and destabilize the industry. Both work orders were overturned in court, and Revolution Wind began sending power to New England’s grid in March 2026.
In December 2020, DEEP published a roadmap to achieve a 100% zero carbon electric sector by 2040. Six months later, in June, 2021, the governor signed another bill establishing a goal of deploying 1,000MW of energy storage by the end of 2030, making it the eighth state to set such an energy storage target.
Later that same month, West Hartford became the first town in Connecticut to commit to 100% clean energy, adopting a new Comprehensive Energy Plan and joining 14 counties, nine states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and more than 180 communities across the United States in that commitment. A month later, Hamden, a town of about 62,000, approved an energy plan to build its first microgrid by 2025. In partnership with the CT Energy Network, the People’s Action for Clean Energy’s (PACE) 100PercentCT Project provides resources and local plans for towns in Connecticut to transition to 100% renewable energy.
In 2022 Governor Ned Lamont passed the Public Act. No 22-5: An Act Concerning Climate Change Mitigation, codifying into law the state’s zero-carbon by 2040 target. Additionally, 2022 brought significant investments in a zero-carbon grid, amounting to 92% of electricity consumed by customers by 2025.
While Connecticut was previously regarded as a leader on climate change, it has recently fallen behind, according to environmental organizations like the CT Coalition for Climate Change. The 2024 legislature session was regarded as a failure for climate change, with a hugely popular bill, the Connecticut Climate Protection Act, never appearing for a vote in the Senate. The bill would have updated CT’s Global Warming Solutions Act, as well as setting emissions standards, declaring a climate crisis, and outlining incentives for sustainable businesses. The state’s annual greenhouse gas emissions inventory also shows emissions increases, and finds that significant reductions will be necessary to meet its climate targets.
The 2025 legislative session had some successes, including the passage of Public Act 25-33, which requires flood risk disclosure, updates evacuation and emergency plans, strengthens infrastructure against extreme weather events, and requires a state water plan that integrates analysis of climate change, and Public Act 25-125, which updates the Global Warming Solutions Act with a target of net-zero by 2050, and incentives clean energy. Read about other environmental wins in the 2025 legislature here.
Connecticut is one of twenty four states and territories committed to the U.S. Climate Alliance, which is working to implement policies that advance the goals of the Paris Agreement. Connecticut’s Fact Sheet highlights the state’s environmental justice offices and policy tools, low and zero-emission vehicle standards, energy efficiency resource standards, a statewide resilience plan, and considerations of the social cost of carbon in policymaking.
Connecticut’s governor signed a sweeping bill that legalizes balcony solar installations, requires automated residential solar permitting, and establishes a revamped community solar program. Seven states have now passed similar legislation, two are awaiting governors’ signatures and nine are pending. Keep up to date here.
Formed in 1997, the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice aims to improve urban environmental health in the state through education and policy change. The organization has more recently established a CT Zero Waste Coalition to advocate for marginalized communities who are disproportionately impacted by trash burning and the waste crisis. There is still a long way to go. According to a 2020 CT Health Foundation Study, Black children and teenagers in Connecticut are almost five and a half times more likely to go to the emergency room because of asthma than white children and teenagers.
Connecticut has also joined other states in pushing back against oil and gas companies and the Trump administration through climate accountability cases. In 2020, CT’s Attorney General William Tong filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, claiming the company violated the state’s consumer protection law due to its “campaign of deception” and climate denialism. In December 2025, a state court rejected Exxon’s motions to strike the lawsuit. In January 2023, Attorney General Tong filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of Hefty bags for their plastic pollution, and in April 2026, Connecticut joined 21 other states in suing the Trump administration for their rollback of an air toxin standards rule.
Organizers in the state have recently been fighting for a Connecticut Environmental Rights Amendment, introduced as Senate Joint Resolution 37, which would establish an enforceable individual right for each state resident to clean and healthy air, water, soil, ecosystems, and environment, and would require the state to conserve, manage, protect and maintain its natural resources. If the resolution is approved by the state’s Senate and House, it will be placed on the 2026 general election ballot in November.
CREDIT: Connecticut Public, February 2023
