STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1414

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: S.B. No. 657

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 657, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE CENTER FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT DEVELOPMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to establish and operate the Center for Climate Resilient Development within the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Office of Planning and Sustainable Development; University of Hawaiʻi School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology; City and County of Honolulu Office of Climate Change; Ulupono Initiative; Surfrider Foundation Hawaiʻi Region; Climate Protectors Hawaiʻi; Coalition Earth; Hawaiʻi Climate Change and Health Working Group; and three individuals.

Your Committee finds that the State is vulnerable to climate change and lacks an office or agency that is responsible for developing community resiliency plans. Your Committee further finds that the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa has already been working with communities to identify multiple forms of flooding due to sea level rise, hurricane storm surge, heat projections, and leveraging campus-wide expertise in wildfire ignition modeling. Your Committee notes that the work conducted at SOEST has largely been funded by federal grants. Instability, gridlock, and uncertainty in funding from the federal government puts the important work of SOEST at risk of being lost. This measure appropriates funds for the establishment and operation of a Center for Climate Resilient Development within SOEST and will ensure that SOEST's critical research activities continue.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 657, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and recommends that it be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education,

____________________________

ANDREW TAKUYA GARRETT, Chair