STAND. COM. REP. NO. 573

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 677

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 677 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO A CLIMATE ADAPTATION AND RESILIENCE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development to develop and publish a Hawaii Climate Adaptation and Resilience Implementation Plan and updates to the Plan every five years thereafter.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Health Working Group, Coalition Earth, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Public Health Association, American Flood Coalition, and one individual.

Your Committees find that as an island state, Hawaii is uniquely prone to the effects of climate change and must plan for a greater frequency of natural disasters. Your Committees further find that despite the threat posed by climate change, there is no statewide climate adaptation and resilience implementation plan assessing the overall financial risk of the State associated with climate change. Accordingly, this measure requires the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development to develop and publish a Hawaii Climate Adaptation and Resilience Implementation Plan which will enable the State to better prepare for and respond to the effects of climate change.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the report from the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development required by this measure shall be submitted to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2028;

(2) Deleting language that would have required the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development to update the Hawaii Climate Adaptation and Resilience Implementation Plan every five years;

(3) Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 677, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 677, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair