The Resilience Roundup highlights announcements, events, and funding opportunities along with links to the previous month's local, state, and national resilience news.
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Resilient Connecticut Project Updates |
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Climate Change Vulnerability Index -
March Webinar Materials Available
The Resilient Connecticut team hosted a webinar on March 23 to highlight new results for the Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) mapping tool. The webinar included a brief overview of the latest flood CCVI along with a description of new heat and wind vulnerability data. Ultimately, a better understanding of how flood, heat, and wind stressors combine will inform regional resilience opportunities and pilot projects - this will be the focus of workshops to be announced in late May (be sure to read next month's Roundup for those event updates and registration). In the meantime, check out the March 23 webinar video and a new CCVI fact sheet to learn more.
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Resilient Connecticut Collaborative Update
The CIRCA team launched the Resilient Connecticut Collaborative (RCC) in January of this year. RCC members represent conservation, utility, real estate, historic resources, planning, agriculture, food, and environmental justice organizations. The RCC met for the second time on April 1 for a workshop on "PERSISTS", a decision-support tool identified in the Resilient Connecticut Planning Framework. RCC members learned about PERSISTS (Permittable, Equitable, Realistic, Safe, Innovative, Scientific, Transferable, and Sustainable) and how it will be used in the Resilient Connecticut project. A workshop exercise included two breakout groups where participants created criteria for each PERSISTS category. For example, criteria identified for "Realistic": the proposed project is identified in an existing plan, has a design proportionate to the vulnerability, or has the potential to receive state and/or federal grant funding. Criteria will be further refined with the RCC and other project partners to support the work in Phase III of Resilient Connecticut. If you have questions, please contact Joanna Wozniak-Brown, Assistant Director of Resilience Planning joanna.wozniak-brown@uconn.edu
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CIRCA Hiring Postdoctoral Research Associate
to Support CT Resilience Planning
CIRCA invites applications from recent graduates with a Ph.D. in Geography, or closely related field, to participate in the development of technology and quantitative techniques to identify and map critical infrastructure and community lifelines across different spatial scales in support of ongoing climate adaptation planning in Fairfield and New Haven Counties in Connecticut. For more information and to apply, visit the UConn Careers site.
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NFWF National Coastal Resilience Fund 2021
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is pleased to announce the 2021 National Coastal Resilience Fund Request for Proposals. Approximately $34 million in grants will be awarded to create and restore natural systems in order to increase protection for communities from coastal storms, sea- and lake-level changes, inundation, and coastal erosion, while improving habitats for fish and wildlife species. NFWF is accepting pre-proposals until April 7 on topics in four priority areas:
- Community Capacity Building and Planning
- Site Assessment and Preliminary Design
- Final Design and Permitting
- Restoration and Monitoring
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NFWF Long Island Sound Futures Fund
The Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) is seeking proposals to restore the health and living resources of Long Island Sound with potential funding of $5 million or more for grants in 2021. The program is managed by National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Long Island Sound Study, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The three types of eligible projects include:
- Habitat restoration projects and resilience projects
- Water quality, education and fish passage projects
- Nitrogen prevention or reduction planning/design and implementation projects
An applicant informational webinar will be held on April 13 from 2-3:30 and full proposals are due May 27.
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EPA Announces Availability of Up to $6 Million in Annual Environmental Justice Grants
EJCPS Cooperative Agreement Program: Approximately 20 awards will be made (two per EPA region) in amounts of up to $160,000 per award for a two-year project period. Cooperative agreements will be awarded to local community-based organizations, US territories, tribes, and tribal organizations seeking to address environmental and public health concerns in local underserved communities through collaboration with other stakeholders. This opportunity places special emphasis on projects focusing on COVID-19 impacts, climate and disaster resiliency, and projects proposed by new applicants and grantees to the program.
EJSG Program: EPA anticipates awarding approximately 56 grants (about 5 per EPA region) of up to $50,000 each for one-year projects. Grants will support community-driven projects designed to engage, educate, and empower communities to better understand local environmental and public health issues and develop strategies for addressing those issues, building consensus in the community, and setting community priorities. This opportunity places special emphasis on projects focusing on COVID-19 impacts, as well as climate and disaster resiliency.
Applicants interested in either program must submit proposal packages on or before May 7, 2021 to be considered for the available funding.
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GC3 State Vulnerability Assessment Framework
Working Group Meeting
April 7, 2:30 - 4:00pm
The Governor's Council on Climate Change (GC3) State Asset Vulnerability Working Group will develop a framework for state agencies to compile and maintain an inventory of vulnerable assets and operations, in coordination with CIRCA's ongoing vulnerability assessment. Join to hear a discussion of Working Group goals and objectives along with a vulnerability assessment presentation. And save the date for the next full GC3 meeting on April 20, 9 - 11:00 am - visit the GC3 meeting webpage for an agenda as it becomes available.
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April 13, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm
This EBC Climate Change webinar, co-hosted by the Environmental Business Council of New England, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Advisory Board, and the Suffolk University Real Estate Center, will focus on funding options for a regional Boston Harbor coastal resiliency system that would protect the fifteen cities and towns that flood throughout Boston Harbor.
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Resilient Cities! Webinar: Looking For a New Way to Fund Resilience?
April 13, 4:30 - 5:30 pm
New sources of funding for climate resilience will be the focus of this Resilient Cities! webinar on Tuesday, April 13. A three-person panel will include Connecticut State Senator Christine Cohen who introduced climate adaptation legislation HB 6441. The panel will also include Brian Garcia, head of the Connecticut Green Bank, since this legislation would create an Environmental Infrastructure Fund within the Green Bank. James Finch, the finance director in the town of Branford will be the third panelist to describe the town's approach to creating a climate resilience reserve .
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SSL Lunch and Learn Series: Climate Justice Partnerships - Part 2
April 14, 12:00 - 1:00 pm
New York's Lower East Side faces environmental and social conditions that increase its vulnerability to extreme climate events. After Hurricane Sandy, neighborhood organizers from the Good Old Lower East Side mobilized to advocate for their community when the city requested rebuilding proposals. Join UMass Boston's Sustainable Solutions Lab (SSL) to learn about their organizing efforts and the community engagement process led by a design team as part of the Rebuild by Design initiative. Hear how community engaged research partnerships can advance climate justice and how the use of data-driven citizen science can be used to address public health issues such as extreme heat.
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April 15, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
This EBC Climate Change webinar will explore how Massachusetts municipalities are using their delegated legislative and regulatory authorities to become more resilient to climate change. Municipal officials from across the Commonwealth will share transferrable examples of bylaws, ordinances, and regulations enacted and lessons learned from their implementation. Case studies will address a range of climate change impacts, including coastal and riverine flooding, stormwater, and extreme heat. They will also cover a range of tools, such as zoning overlays, design guidelines, wetlands regulations, and funding ordinances.
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Energy Justice: Prioritizing Equity in the Greener Grid
April 16, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
The Center for Energy & Environmental Law at the University of Connecticut is hosting a conference on Energy Justice: Prioritizing Equity in the Greener Grid. The conference is for a general audience and includes policy experts, law professors, elected officials. Distinguished speakers include energy law experts who study and were personally affected by the Texas grid problems, leading members of the NAACP and the Union of Concerned Scientists, Bryan Garcia from Connecticut’s Green Bank, and the Commissioner Dykes of Connecticut’s Department of Energy & Environmental Protection.
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Links Between Wildfires, Air Pollution, and Health
Under a Changing Climate
April 19, 12:00 - 1:00 pm
Dr. Michelle Bell, Professor of Environmental Health at Yale's School of the Environment, investigates how human health is affected by atmospheric systems, including health impacts of climate change and environmental justice. Much of her work is based in epidemiology, biostatistics, and environmental engineering. The research is designed to be policy-relevant and contribute to well-informed decision-making to better protect human health and benefit society. As part of Yale's Center on Climate Change and Health Seminar Series, join Dr. Bell for a discussion on wildfires, air pollution, and public health issues.
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Resilient Bridgeport Virtual Public Meeting
April 28, 6:00 - 7:30 pm
The Connecticut Department of Housing invites you to join the Resilient Bridgeport Team for a virtual Public Information Meeting on Wednesday, April 28. The meeting will include a design update presentation for the Rebuild by Design and Flood Risk Reduction Projects and a live question and answer session.
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State and Regional News Clips |
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Putnam Town Certified As Climate Smart Community
Patch - March 5, 2021
PHILIPSTOWN, NY — The town of Philipstown is one of three local governments that recently earned certification as part of New York's Climate Smart Communities program, which supports municipal efforts to build resilience to extreme weather and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The set of actions that helped the town achieve certification included a community greenhouse gas inventory; municipal fleet inventory; complete streets policy; heat emergency plan; and a natural resources inventory.
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Gov. Lamont lobbies for regional effort to fight climate change;
electric school buses could be funded under initiative
Hartford Current - March 17, 2021
MIDDLETOWN — Standing in front of Connecticut’s first electric school bus, Gov. Ned Lamont called Wednesday for battling against air pollution by joining a regional, multi-state effort to combat climate change by cutting carbon emissions. Lamont has already agreed to join the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program, known as TCI, that is designed to cut carbon emissions, but the measure must gain approval by the state legislature.
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Research: Flood Risk Behavior is Driven by Local Water Conditions,
but Shaped by Race
UConn Today - March 18, 2021
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RI House Approves Climate Change Bill; Net-zero Emissions by 2050
WPRI - March 23, 2021
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) ─ After a lengthy debate, Rhode Island House lawmakers on Tuesday night approved legislation that calls for reducing the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions and strengthening its clean-energy policies. The Act on Climate bill, sponsored by Rep. Lauren Carson, builds upon the Resilient Rhode Island Act of 2014 by toughening emission reduction targets. Supporters say it adds accountability to make sure state emission goals are met by 2050. Carson, D-Newport, called the bill “the most important environmental legislation to emerge from the General Assembly in the last 25 years.”
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‘Bottom-up’ Plan Underway to Catalogue N.J.’s Vulnerable
Coastal Communities
WHYY - March 23, 2021
As the Murphy administration works toward its goal of better preparing the state for the impacts of climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, the Department of Environmental Protection is increasingly focusing on the roughly 1,800 miles of tidal marshes, estuaries and back bays of New Jersey’s coastal zone. But with well over 100 municipalities in that region, most with their own land use rules and needs, and each with a unique set of environmental challenges, it would be virtually impossible to develop from Trenton alone a comprehensive outline of climate priorities based on urgency and vulnerability.
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Could a Catastrophic Blackout Like the One in Texas
Happen in Connecticut?
CT Mirror - March 25, 2021
Residents of Texas are still reeling after two winter storms and freezing temperatures swept through the state. These storms have resulted in at least 82 deaths and about $195 billion in property damage, in addition to widespread power outages, food and water shortages, and eye-popping electric bills for some consumers. While ice and snow are commonplace in New England, could a weather event or other disaster cause extended statewide blackouts and a similar type of energy crisis here?
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Governor Baker Signs Climate Legislation to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Protect Environmental Justice Communities
Mass.gov - March 26, 2021
BOSTON — Governor Charlie Baker signed comprehensive climate change legislation that codifies into law the Baker-Polito Administration’s commitment to achieve Net Zero emissions in 2050 and furthers leading efforts to combat climate change and protect vulnerable communities. The new law, Senate Bill 9 - An Act Creating a Next Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy, establishes new interim goals for emissions reductions, significantly increases protections for Environmental Justice communities across Massachusetts, authorizes the Administration to implement a new, voluntary energy efficient building code for municipalities, and allows the Commonwealth to procure an additional 2,400 Megawatts of clean, reliable offshore wind energy by 2027.
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Volunteers Turn Out to Plant Beach Grass in Effort to Protect Fogland Beach in Tiverton
The Newport Daily News - March 29, 2021
TIVERTON — It was a perfect day at the beach — sunny, warm for March and no wind — and for volunteers who turned out to plant beach grass on sandy and rocky berms at Fogland Beach, it was a chance, after a long year of COVID, to get out and talk to others in person. The masked volunteers spent several hours Saturday morning planting 5,400 plugs of beach grass on berms that will eventually turn into stabilizing sand dunes to protect the town beach and the salt marsh on the other side of the beach road.
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Environment Committee Moves Forward With
Multistate Carbon Compact
CT News Junkie - March 31, 2021
A multi-state agreement designed to reduce carbon emissions and raise gas prices to fund a more environmentally-friendly transportation system cleared a key committee. The Connecticut legislature's Environment Committee approved a bill to have Connecticut join the Transportation Climate Initiative. The pact, which includes Massachusetts and Rhode Island, requires fuel suppliers to buy permits for carbon emissions. It is aimed at cutting pollution and raising revenue, some of which must be spent on a cleaner transportation system.
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Demand for Climate Grants Outpaces Funds
Eagle Tribune - April 1, 2021
BOSTON -- Nearly 100 cities and towns applied for funding from the state last year for climate change resiliency and adaptation projects, only to be turned away. The state's Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant gives local governments money to fortify seawalls, prevent coastal erosion and plant trees, but it has limited resources as demand for the funding has skyrocketed. Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides says the program is extremely successful, though the funds available are not adequate.
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Miami Says It Can Adapt to Rising Seas - Not Everyone Is Convinced
The New York Times - March 2, 2021
Officials in Miami-Dade County, where climate models predict two feet or more of sea-level rise by 2060, have released an upbeat strategy for living with more water, one that focused on elevating homes and roads, more dense construction farther inland and creating more open space for flooding in low-lying areas. Climate experts warned that the county’s plan downplayed the magnitude of the threat, saying it failed to warn residents and developers about the risk of continuing to build near the coast in a county whose economy depends heavily on waterfront real estate.
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In the Atlantic Ocean, Subtle Shifts Hint at Dramatic Dangers
New York Times - March 3, 2021
It's one of the mightiest rivers you will never see, carrying some 30 times more water than all the world’s freshwater rivers combined. In the North Atlantic, one arm of the Gulf Stream breaks toward Iceland, transporting vast amounts of warmth far northward, by one estimate supplying Scandinavia with heat equivalent to 78,000 times its current energy use. Without this current — a heat pump on a planetary scale — scientists believe that great swaths of the world might look quite different. Now, a spate of studies, including one published last month, suggests this northern portion of the Gulf Stream and the deep ocean currents it’s connected to may be slowing.
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State Awards First Ever Resilient Coastal Communities Program Grants
WWAY News - March 17, 2021
NORTH CAROLINA (WWAY) — The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management is awarding grants to 25 communities for technical assistance in risk assessment and resilience planning work. A total of $675,000 will be made available for completion of Phases 1 and 2 of the new NC Resilient Coastal Communities Program. “North Carolinians on our coast are on the front lines of climate change. These grants provide vital resources so that coastal communities can identify and address the climate hazards that impact their residents and economies and prepare for a more resilient future,” said Dionne Delli-Gatti, Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality.
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Minnesota May Add Climate Impacts to Environmental Review
MPR News - March 22, 2021
Large projects in Minnesota — from new highways to industrial plants to big housing developments — are required to go through an environmental review that examines the project’s potential risks to the land, air, water and wildlife. But despite widespread concern over rising global temperatures, proposers haven’t typically been required to examine a project’s contributions — and resiliency — to climate change: How many greenhouse gases will a proposed asphalt plant or hog feedlot release into the atmosphere? How might a new highway or wastewater treatment plant withstand the effects of heavier rainfalls and higher temperatures?
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Biden’s Big Bet: Tackling Climate Change will Create Jobs,
Not Kill Them
New York Times - March 31, 2021
WASHINGTON — In 2017, as Donald Trump was announcing the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, the largest global effort to attack planetary warming, he declared, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” On Wednesday, President Biden traveled to Pittsburgh to try to make the opposite case: that the workers Mr. Trump was appealing to have more to gain from combating climate change than to lose.
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How Microgrids Fare in the Biden Infrastructure Plan
Mircrogrid Knowledge - April 1, 2021
With weather and climate-related disasters rising, President Joe Biden wants to bolster infrastructure resilience by spending billions on energy storage, renewable energy and electric vehicles — all components of microgrids. Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan calls for spending $2.3 trillion over eight years as well as extending clean energy tax credits and adding new ones.
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The Resilience Roundup highlights CIRCA's presence in the news, provides links to recent local/state/national news articles related to resilience and adaptation, and announces upcoming events and seminars.
The Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation's (CIRCA) mission is to increase the resilience and sustainability of vulnerable communities along Connecticut's coast and inland waterways to the growing impacts of climate change and extreme weather on the natural, built, and human environment. The institute is located at the University of Connecticut's Avery Point campus and includes faculty from across the university. CIRCA is a partnership between UConn and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP).
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State and Regional News Clips |
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