- Severe Weather Events (e.g. hurricanes)
- High Wind
- Flooding
- Sea level rise
- Aging infrastructure
- Spread of invasive species
- Coastal erosion
- Development pressure and assets in floodplains
On September 15, 2017, Governor Gina M. Raimondo signed an Executive Order appointing a Chief Resilience Officer to drive climate resilience efforts across the state, both within government and in collaboration with business, academic, and nonprofit partners, with the mission to develop a statewide Climate Resilience Action Strategy to be submitted to the Governor by July 1, 2018.
The goal of the Strategy is to identify actions - e.g., projects, policies and legislation, or funding and financing opportunities - that the state can take to better prepare for a changing climate. Rhode Islanders are seeing the impacts of climate change in our communities already so the actions included in the Strategy prioritize things we can begin work on now.
These investments will leverage the extensive work that many around the state, from environmental organizations to academic institutions to state agencies, have already been doing. We’re building upon efforts, so the first step for the Chief Resilience Officer was to hold a series of Resiliency Roundtables across the state, to listen to local and regional leaders, learn what has been done, and hear their priorities for local climate resilience in the future.
Throughout the state, we heard many concerns, both coastal and upland. Here are our biggest takeaways from these roundtable meetings, which we used to shape the main themes of the working Climate Resiliency Action Strategy.
If you are engaged on this issue, this is the place to interact with us as we continue to work toward climate resilience here in Rhode Island. Send us your feedback!