Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Insular Area Climate Change Act”.
Insular Area Climate Change Act
A BILL
To provide for climate change planning, mitigation, adaptation, and resilience in the United States Territories and Freely Associated States, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Table of contents
The table of contents for this Act is as follows:
Sec. 3 Definitions
In this Act, the following definitions apply:
Adaptation— The term Adaptation means the capacity of natural and human systems to adjust to climate change or its impacts in a matter that will reduce damage or take advantage of any beneficial aspects.
Freely associated states— The term Freely Associated States means the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau.
Insular areas— The term Insular Areas means the territories and Freely Associated States.
Mitigation— The term Mitigation means measures and initiatives that would limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Resilience— The term Resilience means the capacity of natural and human systems to resist, assimilate, and recover from the effects of climate change in an efficient and timely manner, maintaining or restoring basic structures and essential functions.
Renewable energy— The term renewable energy means energy that has been derived from Earth’s natural resources that are not finite or exhaustible, including solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and ocean (thermal and mechanics).
Renewable energy system— The term renewable energy system includes off-grid or stand-alone systems, microgrids, nano grids, and virtual power plants systems based on renewable energy sources, including storage and other related ancillary equipment. These may also be referred to as “eligible projects”. Waste to energy are not considered as eligible projects.
Territories— The term territories means American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands of the United States.
Territory— The term territory means American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands of the United States.
Sec. 4 Findings
Congress finds as follows:
The Insular Areas are topographically and environmentally diverse and treasured by millions of individuals who call them home.
The territories in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States) and the territories in the Pacific (American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam) face many of the same climate change-related challenges. Freely Associated States face similar climate change-related vulnerabilities.
Insular Areas are experiencing sea level rise, coastal erosion, and increasing storm impacts that threaten lives, critical infrastructure, ecosystems, and livelihood security.
Temperature increases are likely to further create and intensify the length of droughts, reduce water supply, impact public health, and increase demand of freshwater in Insular Areas. In addition, temperature increases will drive coral reefs to extinction, eliminating a natural barrier against storm surge, increasing destruction of infrastructure, and threatening lives of the inhabitants of the islands.
In 2017, two major storms, Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria, impacted Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States. Hurricane Maria caused thousands of deaths in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States and significant damage to their infrastructure, including Puerto Rico’s energy system. Hurricane Maria destroyed millions of trees in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States, which has significantly increased erosion and sediment transport. As a result, reservoirs have lost significant storage capacity and coral reefs are severely impacted.
In 2018, Typhoon Yutu impacted the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, causing catastrophic destruction in those territories.