Kauai County mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami has signed the county’s first comprehensive plan focused on addressing climate change.
The Kauai Climate Adaptation and Action plan was developed over the course of four years and was informed by both research and community feedback.
“Climate change is not a future concern for Kauai, it is something we are already experiencing,” Kawakami said in a new release. “This plan gives us a clear roadmap to protect our communities, infrastructure, and natural resources, while making smart decisions that will benefit future generations.”
It outlines 79 strategies and more than 240 specific actions for county departments, and is designed to be action-focused but also flexible to allow adapting to changing conditions.
“By considering climate impacts in policies and long-term planning, this plan helps ensure Kauai is better prepared for today’s challenges and those we know are coming, while supporting resilient and equitable communities,” Planning Department Director Ka‘aina Hull said in the release.
More than a dozen local climate change hazards were identified, including increased risk of wildfires, decreased rainfall, higher temperatures on land and in the ocean, sea-level rise and global disease.
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While everyone on Kauai will be affected by climate change, the plan indicates that Lihue and West Kauai face the most vulnerability. The high cost of living in Hawaii also will likely be exacerbated by climate change with increased utility and insurance rates, which threaten vulnerable households with displacement, the plan says.
Kauai’s reliance on tourism and the impacts of tourists themselves are also vulnerabilities, the plan notes. “Lack of visitor preparedness paired with the fact that many visitor destinations and uses are exposed to hazards makes them vulnerable and puts
a strain on community members,” it says.
Wildfires are expected to cause the most damage to Kauai’s 798 critical facilites; while flooding, sea-level rise and landslides are a top concern for transportation, especially on the North Shore. Sea-level rise also threatens about 550 Hawaiian cultural sites with chronic flooding and may also impact cultural practices such as fishpond maintenance and crop cultivation.
To mitigate the potential harms Kauai residents face through climate change, the plan lays out hundreds of action items.
This includes improving facilities to better withstand environmental threats, such as wildfires and supporting local farmers. The plan also notes that the county should explore potential legal mechanisms that could protect homeowners from developers seeking to take advantage of families in crisis after a natural disaster, such as placing a temporary moratorium on property sales in affected areas to
allow residents to recover.
Kauai also aims to descrease its greenhouse gas emmissions drastically from measurements taken in 2017. If the county and its residents make no changes, greenhouse gas emissions were projected to increase by 38% from 2005 to 2045. With additional measures taken, such as increasing electric vehicles and implementing energy efficiency programs, the county aims to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 83% in that same time period.
Priotizing equity was a key part of the plan, with adressing cost-of-living, assisting low-income residents with implementing programs such as greenhouse gas mitigation, and protecting Native Hawaiian cultural resources noted as some important strategies.
An “adaption pathway” framework lays out ways strategies could change if the county reaches certain milestones, or if climate change hazards become more imminent.
“This approach aadvances near-term action while retaining flexibility to adapt to an uncertain future of changing exposures, risks and teachnologies,” the plan said.
It focuses on county government actions, but also emphazised the importance of working with state and federal agencies, schools, cultural practitioners, nonprofits and community groups.
To read the full plan, visit kauaiadaptation.com.