A proposed state-funded center for climate-resilient development may blunt the impact of federal grant freezes targeting climate-change research.
Data collected over the last 20 years by UH Mānoa climate researchers have influenced Hawai’i legislation on numerous occasions.
“My team has been gathering data on beach health, ocean, sea level rise flooding, wave flooding, and these have come to underpin seven to nine different laws and policies in Hawai’i,” said Charles “Chip” Fletcher, the interim dean at the School of Earth Science and Technology at UH Mānoa.
Fletcher supports Senate Bill 657, which calls for the creation of a $3 million center for climate resilient development.
“There needs to be a guarantee in the future that this data continues to evolve and get updated and improved and that’s the idea behind the center,” said Fletcher.
Concerns tied to the issue of climate change have progressively grown over the years, but it has always been an area of research.
“There were a couple of motivations for this bill, and I worked with a couple of legislators to introduce it,” said Fletcher. “We’ve been doing this very applied research, purposely directed at improving our laws and policies for coastal management and also for resiliency in the face of climate change.”
Colin Lee, a policy analyst at SOEST, described how this bill would further the relationship the state has with the school.
“We are helping the state fulfill its obligations under the public trust doctrine by giving them actionable, clear, granular projections of climate change impacts, particularly sea level rise impacts,” said Lee.
The development will require further funding to ensure its success in the long run. In light of recent movements made by the Trump administration, the future of federal funding for climate-related research has been called into question.
“We’ve been entirely funded by grant funding over the course of the last decade or so and that funding is at risk and with it is the risk to the state,” said Lee. “For each of these individual policies, the ultimate goal is to protect the coastal zone, to protect beaches, which are public trust resources protected through Article 11, Section 1 of the state constitution.”
Senator Mike Gabbard, a frequent climate legislation supporter, says that this initial funding would get the center off the ground.
“The real work is after that, the research, innovation, and community partnerships, which takes consistent support over time,” said Gabbard. “If we fund it once and walk away, we’re not going to be setting it up for success.”
Gabbard shared his thoughts on the impact of the bill in the long run.
“We’re talking about investing in Hawaiʻi’s future,” said Gabbard. “That means making sure the center has the top researchers, the right technology, and the funding to actually put those solutions into action.”
The state has used models from the school for various legislative developments, including those related to coastal erosion and sea level rise. Gabbard shared his perspective on furthering the state’s relationship with the school.
“UH has provided the research and expertise that we need to develop policies that work,” said Gabbard. “The center is the next step in that relationship, so by expanding our partnership, we’re ensuring the state has the tools, data, and research to protect our future.”
This step, which Gabbard calls a collaborative effort that benefits everyone, is just the start of where he would like to go next with the state’s partnership with the university.
“I’d love to see UH continue to dive deeper into research around sustainable agriculture, clean energy technologies, and water conservation,” said Gabbard. “These areas are critical for Hawaiʻi’s long term future and I’m excited to continue to collaborate to find the solutions to these issues.”
