A Year of Disaster Resilience: Hawaiʻi’s Climate Advisory Team Closes Out With a Call for Continued Action
Governor Josh Green and the Climate Advisory Team at the signing of Act 96 on May 27, 2025.
By Climate Advisory Team
One year ago, Governor Josh Green, M.D., established the Hawaiʻi Climate Advisory Team (CAT). The Governor’s charge to our group was urgent and clear: develop policy recommendations that minimize the impacts of future climate-related disasters like the 2023 Maui wildfires, and speed recovery from the physical and financial damage they cause.
Throughout the year, our six-person team worked tirelessly to understand Hawaiʻi’s climate and disaster vulnerabilities, identify evidence-based solutions to mitigate these vulnerabilities, and advance legislation that ensures these solutions are funded and implemented. With the passage of Act 96, also known as the “Green Fee,” we are proud to have helped secure a sustainable funding stream of roughly $100 million per year for disaster resilience work in Hawaiʻi.
While the CAT formally concludes its work this month, we remain committed to increasing Hawaiʻi’s resilience. As a statewide community, we must do everything we can to reduce the impacts of climate-related disasters like the Lahaina wildfires.
How We Got Here: Community-Informed Research & Policy Recommendations
Through the fall of 2024, we engaged in a deep research process to understand the unique challenges Hawaiʻi’s communities face, evaluate successful efforts applicable to our resilience and disaster recovery needs, and gain insight into potential policy solutions. We interviewed more than 60 subject matter experts and conducted a statewide survey of 600+ Hawaiʻi residents to better understand priorities and concerns within the community at large.
What we found was staggering:
71% of survey respondents believe what happened in Lahaina could happen in their community, but only 39% think their community is prepared for a natural disaster.
The ongoing expected annual loss to all properties in Hawaiʻi due to hurricane, wildfire, flood, and earthquake damage is $1.4 billion.
Increasing risk from disasters will exacerbate Hawaiʻi’s cost-of-living crisis.
Hawaiʻi cannot afford to wait.
In January 2025, we released a policy paper about these findings and our recommendations for immediate actions and long-term steps that will help Hawaiʻi survive and respond to future disasters. Our top recommendation was for the state to make a significant financial commitment to fund disaster resilience and recovery work in ways that do not place added financial burden on Hawaiʻi’s residents.
From Recommendations to Results
As the 2025 legislative session began, we worked alongside the Governor’s team, lawmakers, advocates, and industry leaders to turn our recommendations into reality. Good policymaking requires healthy democratic discourse, which resulted in two major pieces of legislation passing:
SB1396 (now Act 96): Establishes Hawaiʻi’s historic climate impact fee, unlocking dedicated funding for critical environmental and infrastructure projects that improve disaster resilience without placing the financial burden on local residents.
HB1064: Fully funds and empowers the new Office of the State Fire Marshal, giving Hawaiʻi the coordinated leadership and infrastructure needed to prevent and respond to wildfire threats statewide.
What Comes Next?
These legislative achievements are historic and worth pausing to acknowledge. But the real work begins now. With the state’s budget deadline approaching in August, the projects funded by Act 96 must be selected through a fair, inclusive, and transparent process that truly moves the needle towards greater resilience.
The CAT expresses its deep gratitude to Governor Green for the opportunity to contribute to this meaningful work. Mahalo nui to our state legislators for their ongoing dedication to increasing resilience among our communities. Increasing Hawaiʻi’s readiness for future disasters will take all of us, and the collaboration we’ve witnessed over the last year makes us very hopeful for continued progress and action.
