The Resilience Roundup highlights announcements and events along with links to the previous month's state, regional, and national resilience news.
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CIRCA's New Climate and Equity Grant Program
In accordance with the recommendations from the Governor’s Council of Climate Change, CIRCA, with funding from CT DEEP, will be seeking grant proposals for a new Climate & Equity Grant Program starting on October 10, 2022. This grant program will fund projects that increase the capacity of vulnerable communities to mitigate, plan for, and respond to climate change impacts, and is open to community-based organizations. Applicants may apply for smaller projects up to $10,000, or larger projects up to $50,000, with no match required. Applications will close November 7, 2022. If you have questions, please contact CIRCA's Community Resilience Planner, Mary Buchanan at [email protected].
A webinar to learn more about this grant program will be held on October 25, 2022 at noon (a recording will be made available following the event). Register for the webinar today!
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Resilient Connecticut Phase III Project Update
The seven projects that make up Resilient Connecticut's Phase III are now underway across several municipalities in Fairfield and New Haven Counties, including Danbury, Norwalk, Ansonia, Fairfield, Stratford, New Haven, and Branford. The initial tasks for these projects include developing stakeholder advisory committees in each area, reviewing initial modeling of current conditions, site surveys, and planning for the public engagement process for each municipality over the next year. Stay tuned in the coming months for announcements about how to participate in public workshops and events for each Phase III project. For more details about the scope of work for each of the seven projects, visit the Phase III webpage.
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DEEP Climate Resilience Fund
Track 1- Planning Deadline: November 10, 2022
Track 2- Project Development Final Deadline: December 1, 2022
The DEEP Climate Resilience Fund provides grants to help Connecticut communities initiate planning and develop projects that will help communities become more resilient to the effects of climate change. The Fund specifically is intended to support climate resilience planning at regional, municipal, and neighborhood-level scales, and to support resilience project scoping and development. This historic state-level investment into climate resilience planning and project development was established by Executive Order 21-3 (EO21-3) in December 2021 and was one of 61 recommendations from the GC3 in 2021.
Track 1: Planning
Seek up to $250,000 to fund climate resilience planning that addresses the impacts of climate-related hazards, including how climate change increases weather-related risks.
Track 2: Project Development
Applicants can seek funds to advance resilience project scoping and development that leads to federal funding for implementation. While there is no cap on the amount of funding that can be requested, DEEP expects to fund most project development grant application requests in a range of $300,000 to $700,000.
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U.S. EPA: Winners of the Let's Talk About Heat Challenge
October 6, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
EPA's Let’s Talk About Heat Challenge winners are raising awareness of extreme heat risks for more vulnerable groups and individuals and offering tips on how to protect themselves from extreme heat. Join this webinar to hear from winners who share heat safety messages and learn how you can build capacity to communicate the risks of extreme heat.
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DEEP Climate Resilience Fund Webinar Series
Track 1: Planning Details and Q&A
October 7, 11:00 - 12:30 p.m.
DEEP's Office of Climate Planning has scheduled a series of webinars to further explain the details of the DEEP Climate Resilience Fund (DCRF), including time for questions. This webinar will include an overview of the entire program and then take a deeper dive into Track 1 Planning. There will be at least 30 minutes reserved for Q&A. Recordings and a copy of the slides will be posted on the DCRF website following each webinar. DEEP will also host virtual office hours for additional questions and discussion on October 14, 20, and 27.
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C2ES Webinar: Climate-Proofing the Grid -
Strategies for Grid Modernization and Climate Resilience
October 11, 1:00 p.m.
As decarbonization efforts accelerate and severe weather events become more common in a changing climate, electric grid systems and the communities and businesses that rely on them are seeing increasing impacts. This webinar will explore the various technologies and strategies that can be used to modernize the grid and improve climate resilience, barriers to implementing those technologies at scale, and policy mechanisms and steps that can accelerate their adoption.
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UConn Teale Lecture Series:
What Can An Economist Possibly Have to Say About Climate Change Policy?
October 13, 4:00 p.m.
This month's UConn Teale Lecture will be presented by Robert N. Staviins, A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy & Economic Development from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. All Teale lectures are free, open to the public, and held in the Konover Auditorium, Thomas J. Dodd Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. Click below to learn more and find a link to watch the LIVE Streaming Event.
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Yale Center for Environmental Justice: Global Environmental Justice Conference
October 13 - 14
The Yale Center for Environmental Justice and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are partnering this year to present the Fourth Annual Global Environmental Justice Conference at the Yale School of the Environment. This year’s conference will focus on the intersection of equitable climate action and sustainable development. The hybrid conference will meet at the Yale School of the Environment and online through Cvent.
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CT Law Review - Climate and Environmental Justice in the 21st Century:
A Just Transition
October 21, 9:45 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
The Connecticut Law Review is pleased to announce their 2022 symposium, “Climate and Environmental Justice in the 21st Century: A Just Transition.” As the global community continues to grapple with the impacts of climate change, leaders from the political and corporate world have taken up the mantle of transitioning the world to more sustainable energy practices. This symposium will examine how these transitions can promote justice for those facing the greatest harm from the threats of climate change. Registration is free and the event is in-person and will also be available via livestream.
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Navigating Climate Change & Energy and Security in the Northeast
in the Next 5 Years
October 24, 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Hartford Marriott Downtown
UConn is hosting this workshop that gathers some of the brightest minds in energy together for one day to collect different visions, insights on policy and implementation plans and associated socio-technical challenges to decarbonize the energy sector and combat climate change. CT-DEEP Commissioner Dykes will be giving the opening address, and NREL Deputy Director Peter Green will be giving the closing remarks. The workshop will include two panels. The morning panel will focus discussion on resilience and reliability issues of the power grid and the afternoon panel on grid modernization technologies.
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Connecticut Conference on Climate Change
and Insurance (C4I)
October 24 - 25
At this year's C4I, Connecticut Insurance Department Commissioner Andrew Mais brings together a national audience with climate, government, and insurance professionals to understand and explore how climate change affects our communities, regulatory efforts, and businesses. This event will be hosted virtually. The conference agenda can be found HERE.
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Yale Clean Energy Conference
November 3 - 4
Join intelligent and inquisitive minds from across the world to examine justice, finance, technology, policy, and careers in the clean energy field. Register today to form connections and share learnings to foster a broader, more informed, and more engaged community of clean energy leaders. Learn more HERE.
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YCCCH Seminar Series: Dr. Rebecca French on "Addressing the Climate Crisis through Carbon Emissions Reduction Policy and Implementation in the Governor’s Council on Climate Change"
November 7, 12:00 p.m.
Join the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health for this 1 hour seminar with Dr. Rebecca French. As the first director of the new Office of Climate Planning, Dr. French advises the Commissioner of DEEP on mitigation, adaptation and resilience plans across all divisions of the agency with her first charge is to administer the Governor’s Council on Climate Change.
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CMRA: Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation
A new site featured in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit is the Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation (CMRA), which integrates information from across the federal government to help people consider their local exposure to climate-related hazards. People working in community organizations or for local, Tribal, state, or Federal governments can use the site to help them develop equitable climate resilience plans to protect people, property, and infrastructure. The site also points users to Federal grant funds for climate resilience projects, including those available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
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C2ES: An Emerging Blueprint for Companies - Strategies to Advance
Local Climate Resilience
Climate impacts take their toll on communities and on the companies that anchor them. Given the scale of threats facing communities and businesses, major companies are developing strategies to build resilience to climate impacts in places where they operate, employ, and maintain supply chains. This brief, An Emerging Blueprint for Companies: Strategies to Advance Local Climate Resilience, outlines how corporate resources, funding, and expertise can make a difference.
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State and Regional News Clips |
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Higher Education Needs a New Mission. How About Climate Justice?
Boston Globe - September 1, 2022
Metro Boston has more universities per capita than any other region in the world. Given that colleges and universities claim to advance innovation for the public good, one might assume their density would place the city among the most healthy, equitable, and socially just urban areas. Instead, Boston ranks as one of the most unequal, segregated cities in the country, with extreme disparities in health, wealth, and climate vulnerability. Could institutions of higher education be doing more with their resources to promote a better future for all?
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Maps Show Climate Change’s Neighborhood Impacts
New Haven Independent - September 8, 2022
Floods in City Point. Heat waves in tree-sparse, lot-heavy Newhallville. More storms that require evacuation. More periods of drought. As climate change progresses, those conditions will become the new normal for New Haven, especially for the heat- and flood-vulnerable neighborhood of Fair Haven, reported officials tracking the trends.
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Connecticut Wins $52 million in Federal Backing for
Electric Vehicle Build-Out Along State’s Highways
Hartford Courant - September 16, 2022
Connecticut has won federal approval, and $52 million over five years, to build out electric vehicle chargers across the state. Funding is part of $900 million authorized by the sprawling federal Infrastructure Law signed last year by President Joe Biden to install 500,000 chargers at regular intervals across 53,000 miles of U.S. highways. In Connecticut, 10 locations are planned for at least four public fast chargers per port along the interstate system.
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What Connecticut’s Drought Can Teach About a Warming Climate
Yale Daily News - September 12, 2022
Amid an ongoing drought across the state, heavy rain was a welcome gift for Connecticut’s soil and rivers. But resulting flooding that occurred in New Haven and across the state raised concerns over the inability of current infrastructure to survive a warming climate.
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New Haven Gets $25 Million Grant to Prevent Flooding
at Union Station, Nearby Areas
Shelton Herald - September 19, 2022
FEMA awarded the city $25.1 million to help build “a wall, a pipe and a pump” to prevent flooding at Union Station and nearby areas. The city and the state will add approximately $10 million, totaling around $35 million for the work. City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said the fund will go toward a 10-foot stormwater pipe from the corridor of West Water Street and Union Avenue out to the harbor and the living shoreline project at Long Wharf.
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Governor Lamont Launches State Grant Program to Assist Communities With Strengthening Resilience to Climate Change
CT Gov - September 20, 2022
Governor Ned Lamont announced the launch of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Climate Resilience Fund, a state grant program that helps communities in the state plan and prepare for the effects of climate change. The fund is an historic state-level investment to help communities initiate planning and envision projects for climate resilience that can be implemented and constructed with federal funds.
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How Heat Affects Health: An Overlooked Outcome of Climate Change
CT Mirror - September 25, 2022
By 1 p.m., it was 95 degrees in Norwalk on what would turn out to be the last day of the third mini-heat wave of this summer. This was not just summer in New England. Such conditions are some of the irrefutable signatures of climate change, now happening more often, more intensely and with more profound consequences. Among those consequences is their adverse, and sometimes deadly, effect on human health.
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Untold: In the Climate Crisis, Who’s Really Feeling the Heat?
CT Mirror Podcast - September 28, 2022
The planet’s getting warmer, but we’re not all feeling the effects in the same way. In this episode CT Mirror discusses CIRCA's Resilient Connecticut project, one of the state’s biggest climate adaptation efforts, to find out how our towns are preparing for a hotter future
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It Has Been 10 Years Since the Profound Impact of Hurricane Sandy
WaterWire - September 29, 2022
While Sandy affected neighborhoods across New York City, the October 2012 storm hit five coastal areas particularly hard—the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront, the East and South shores of Staten Island, South Queens, southern Brooklyn, and southern Manhattan. Across the five areas—which are home to 685,000 people—physical and economic damage was extensive.
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Fairfield Aims to Improve Coastal Resiliency
Ahead of Stronger Storms
CT Insider - October 2, 2022
Building berms, replacing floodgates and improving flood basins are some of the top strategies that come to mind as local officials look to make their coast more resilient to storms and flooding. Experts on coastal resiliency talked about the steps needed to make Fairfield County's coastline more resilient to storms. James O'Donnell, director of the UConn CIRCA, said hurricanes and more frequent flooding are both challenging, but separate issues
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"Alarming year for extremes": 2021 Saw Record-High Greenhouse Gas, Ocean Heat and Sea levels Rise, New Report Finds
CBS News - September 1, 2022
A new report from NOAA and the American Meteorological Society paints a clear picture of the state of the planet: The climate crisis is not a future threat, but one that's already here.The annual State of the Climate report found that 2021 was among the hottest years as the world saw record-high greenhouse gas concentrations, ocean heat and sea level rise, indicating that the effects of climate change are just getting worse.
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NFWF, NOAA Announce $7.7M for Coastal Resilience Projects
WaterWorld - September 2, 2022
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced $7.7 million in grants to support natural infrastructure projects in 7 states. The grants support design and implementation of projects to enhance the resilience of coastal communities and improve habitat for fish and wildlife in Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Virginia.
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US Flood Maps Outdated Thanks to Climate Change,
FEMA Director Says
The Guardian - September 4, 2022
Flood maps used by the federal government are outdated, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said. Deanne Criswell told CNN’s State of the Union: “The part that’s really difficult right now is the fact that our flood maps don’t take into account excessive rain that comes in. And we are seeing these record rainfalls that are happening.”
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Rising Seas Could Swallow Millions of U.S. Acres Within Decades
Washington Post - September 8, 2022
New research finds an estimated 25,000 properties in Louisiana could slip below tidal boundary lines by 2050. Florida, Texas and North Carolina also face profound economic risks. An analysis published by the research nonprofit Climate Central reveals a troubling dimension of the economic toll that could unfold in the U.S., as hundreds of thousands of privately owned properties slip below swelling tide lines over the next few decades.
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Global ‘Stilling’: Is Climate Change Slowing Down the Wind?
Yale Environment 360 - September 13, 2022
As carbon dioxide levels rise and the Earth’s poles warm, researchers are predicting a decline in the planet’s wind speeds. This ‘stilling’ could impact wind energy production and plant growth and might even affect the Gulf Stream, which drives much of the world’s climate.
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New Report Highlights the Importance
of Social Connectedness for Climate Resilience
Boston.com - September 27, 2022
Knowing your neighbors may help you with much more than just borrowing that cup of sugar. In fact, connecting with others on your block is one of the key ways to build resilience to climate change in your community, according to a new report from researchers at Tufts University who partnered with the nonprofit Communities Responding to Extreme Weather.
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Climate Change Makes Storms Like Ian More Common
NPR - September 29, 2022
Hurricane Ian was just shy of a Category 5 hurricane when it barreled into Florida. The wind was strong enough to destroy homes, and relentless storm surge and rain flooded entire neighborhoods in a matter of hours. Storms like Ian are more likely due to climate change.
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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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