The United States Department of Energy is pledging US$10 million to fund 10 new climate resilience research centres (CRCs) across the country, aiming to translate cutting-edge science into practical, on-the-ground solutions for vulnerable communities.
The new centres will be led by university research teams in 10 different states, the Department of Energy (DOE) wrote in a mid-August release. They’re “designed to ensure that all Americans are benefitting from scientific research.”
“Every pocket of the country has experienced the impact of extreme weather events that are exacerbated by climate change, and disadvantaged communities often feel the brunt of that impact,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, adding that the CRCs will help develop “the tools communities will need to inform future decisions for building resiliency.”
Selected by a peer review panel, CRC projects will be carried out over the next three years, connecting groups of young scientists, engineers, and technicians with affected communities.
Centres in New York City, St. Louis, Missouri, and Lowell, Massachusetts, will aim to build resilience against the urban heat island effect. “Multiple water-related threats”—both flooding anddrought—will be the focus of the CRCs planned for the Texas and Florida coastal regions, Ohio, Central Michigan, and eastern Pennsylvania.
Too much water, or the lack thereof, will also be the focus of the CRC designed to support resilience capacity for First Nations communities throughout the Missouri River Basin.
Good, green job creation is also a goal of the new resilience funding.
The CRC for Alaska, for example, will aim to actively recruit more young people to climate research, “with an emphasis on rural, traditionally underserved communities,” the DOE wrote.
Located in the fastest-warming state in the country, such northern communities are on the bleeding—and melting, flaming, eroding—edge of the climate crisis.
“It is great to see these projects lifting up local leadership and increasing access to cutting-edge science,” Joanna Eyquem, managing director for climate-resilient infrastructure at the Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation, told The Energy Mix. “Empowering vulnerable communities to help themselves is the beating heart of climate resilience.”
“Science and data alone just isn’t enough—we need to be actively investing in ways to use it to change the way we live,” Eyquem added. “Biden has invested heavily in community and infrastructure adaptation throughout his administration—it is time that Canada did the same.”
In May, the U.S. DOE committed $4.5 million to establish two extreme heat research centres, following a $5 million pledge last September to support [pdf] six projects focused on applying DOE climate resilience research in vulnerable communities.
