Will Benefits from $1 Billion Climate Change Resilience Fund be Limited to 'Believer States'?

A recently announced federal competition to provide funding for communities affected by disasters signals that the buzzword “resilience” might be becoming a concept businesses, cities, and government entities are willing to invest in financially.

Dave Hampton, a natural disaster resilience consultant, looks at the White House’s announcement last week of a competition to award $1 billion in funding to communities seeking to rebuild.

The National Disaster Resilience competition comes after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rebuild by Design competition, which provided $920 million in federal funding for New Jersey, New York state, and New York City, areas hard hit by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, according to Hampton. This new competition is open to a wider geographical area, Hampton added.

“I predict that communities, in order to pursue this and future funding, will begin to take a partnering approach similar to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which has continued to make strides towards the reduction of poverty and crime, economic development, and energy efficiency, even in the face of federal (and state) inaction. High hopes that putting its money where its mouth is will help the U.S. shift away from disaster relief and towards disaster risk reduction, adaptation and genuine resilience.”