Funding will strengthen NOAA’s Climate-Ready Coasts initiative
A photo collage of some of the projects being recommended for funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law/Inflation Reduction Act and NOAA's Climate-Ready Coasts initiative. (Image credit: NOAA)
Today, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced that the Department of Commerce and NOAA have recommended $59.8 million for projects in Louisiana to make the state’s coast more resilient to climate change and other coastal hazards. The awards are being made under the Biden Administration’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge, a competitive, $575 million program funded through the nearly $6 billion total investment under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
“As part of President Biden’s commitment to combating the climate crisis, we are investing $575 million to help make sure America’s coastal communities are more resilient to the effects of climate change,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “As part of this historic investment in our nation’s climate resilience the Biden-Harris Administration is investing $59.8 million to help underserved communities in Louisiana develop and implement new strategies to protect themselves from flooding, storm surge, and extreme weather events.”
Administered by the Department of Commerce and NOAA, the Climate-Ready Coasts initiative is focused on investing in high-impact projects that create climate solutions by storing carbon; building resilience to coastal hazards such as extreme weather events, pollution and marine debris; restoring coastal habitats that help wildlife and humans thrive; building the capacity of underserved communities and supporting community-driven restoration; and providing employment opportunities.
“Equitably and effectively strengthening a community’s ability to address climate change means enabling the leadership of those who have been most affected by climate impacts, and actively working with them to address these impacts,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “This funding provides Louisiana communities with the resources that empower local leaders, building their capacity for coordination and resilience now and into the future.”
Recommended projects and funding amounts in Louisiana include:
- Enhancing the United Houma Nation’s Short-, Mid-, and Long-Term Coastal Resilience. United Houma Nation: $56,573,066.
In Southern Louisiana, the United Houma Nation is pursuing a comprehensive approach to addressing impacts from increased storm activity and sea level rise through a project that will bolster resilience through a cultural, environmental, economic and emergency-response lens.
The five phases of the Houma Nation’s resilience plan are 1) enhance central community resilience hub; 2) establish and enhance satellite community resilience hubs; 3) strengthen and expand communications; 4) build capacity for economic development; and 5) community-led migration.
- Southwest Louisiana and Central Acadiana Resilient Future. ByWater Institute, Tulane University: $1,998,800.
This project uses a multipronged approach for community-based regional planning and governance for addressing storm and sea level rise impacts. The goal is to develop a coordinated vision and sustainable, resilience-focused action plan. Activities include analyzing existing plans; characterizing climate risk; defining best practices; prioritizing potential projects; evaluating policies; and developing engineering reports to move prioritized projects toward implementation.
To meet future needs, the project will set up a regional collaborative to offer continued coordination and sustained knowledge and resource sharing. Additional outputs for this project include filling in technical and data-related information gaps; helping communities identify and use appropriate data and tools; strengthening coordination between all levels of governments, including tribal; assessing the robustness of existing resilience efforts; and evaluating equity impacts.
- EMPOWER: Enabling Meaningful Progress for Water Equity and Resilience through the Greater New Orleans Regional Water Plan. New Orleans Community Support Foundation: $1,208,108.
This project builds on more than a decade of planning and collaboration across the greater New Orleans region to adopt a holistic, adaptive water management vision centered on the leadership of Black, Indigenous and people of color communities. This vision will enable greater cohesion in selecting community green infrastructure projects and ensure the investments address multiple climate hazards and realize multiple benefits. Outputs include 1) a regional approach to making key water management and climate adaptation data more accessible to the community; 2) a policy manual for holistic, adaptive management of green infrastructure projects; and 3) a public communications campaign that highlights the collaborative’s efforts and findings with media, events, workshops and facilitated conversations about management efforts across the region. The primary climate challenge focus is flooding caused by precipitation, as well as tidal and riverine-sourced flooding.
“I’m excited to announce Louisiana had multiple projects selected in NOAA’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge! Our communities live on the frontlines of the climate crisis and witness the growing threats of extreme weather, heat waves, sea level rise, and drought. This funding will help us become more resilient to these growing threats and sets up Louisiana to lead by example in sustainable, community-focused climate adaptation. In line with the Justice 40 Initiative, these projects emphasize equity, community engagement, and regional coordination, making sure our most vulnerable are prioritized. This historic investment in building Climate-Ready Coasts, made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, will provide Louisiana with resources to implement innovative, inclusive solutions that will benefit our future generations,” said Congressman Troy A. Carter, Sr. (LA-02).
“We are excited about this investment in the United Houma Nation community. The historical area of the tribe is one of the most vulnerable in the nation. These funds will help to protect the connectivity of the tribe’s members, economy, and culture. Importantly, this is an investment in the safety and resilience of the region that complements hundreds of millions of dollars of other project funding we’ve secured to protect South Louisiana,” said Congressman Garret Graves (LA-06).
Additional information is available on the Climate Resilience Regional Challenge website.
Climate, weather, and water affect all life on our ocean planet. NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict our changing environment, from the deep sea to outer space, and to manage and conserve America’s coastal and marine resources.
