Spring 2018

Compact Currents is a quarterly newsletter from the Southeast Florida Regional Compact Climate Change Compact highlighting the progress of the Compact, and the counties and municipalities in Southeast Florida.

Keeping Southeast Florida Open for Business

At last year’s Climate Leadership Summit, Southeast Florida’s economic development community and representatives of the four Compact counties signed a Joint Statement on Collaboration for Regional Economic Resilience, marking their commitment to jointly build resilience in the region’s communities, shared infrastructure, built environment, economy, and natural systems.

Climate change is often pigeonholed as an environmental issue, yet it touches every aspect of our lives—it knows no boundaries and has far-reaching consequences for human health, equity, the environment, and the economy. Over the past decade, Compact partners largely focused on managing natural resources and fortifying infrastructure against sea level rise, changing precipitation, and increasingly extreme weather patterns, which has laid a foundation to ignite the regional conversation on how current and future impacts from climate change can affect the wallets of individual residents, the bottom lines of small businesses, and the vitality of the regional economy.

The strength of our region’s economy isn’t just a local matter. In 2016, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties generated $328 billion in economic activity according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Commerce, a value greater than the economic output of 31 other states. And the region contributes just over 35% of Florida’s total economic activity. Take the Compact region offline and the national GDP loses nearly 2% per year.

Recognizing the importance of maintaining a healthy regional economy, the Compact and its mayors, regional economic development organization s, and local businesse s are working together to:

Build the business case for proactive resilience investments and educate private enterprises about the opportunities created through resilience initiatives.
Advocate for state and federal funding reflective of our region’s contributions to the state and national economies and reflective of a shared responsibility for maintaining infrastructure assets.
Communicate about the responsible and proactive measures the region is taking to address climate risks and ensure our region remains open for business.

Through stronger public-private partnerships, we can bolster the work we’re already doing and embark on new initiatives to build a stronger, more resilient region and regional economy.

Growing Together

The Regional Climate Action Plan is a living tool and a work in progress. Over the next five years, the Compact will gradually update the resources and case studies that make up RCAP 2.0.

RCAP 2.0 becomes stronger with every new resource and case study we add. Do you know of any examples of these recommendations in action? Share them with us, and they may be featured as a case study! Do you have a helpful resource you want to share? Tell us about it, and we’ll connect it to the right recommendation!

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Case Study

Financing Resilience: City of Miami Invests $400 Million to Build a Stronger Future

Photo: Sunrise over Miami by Nick Loehr, CC BY-ND 2.0

Finding the money to build resilience—whether in a city contending with aging infrastructure or a coastal area planning for the impacts of climate change—can pose a major challenge to communities. So last year's vote by City of Miami residents to endorse the $400 million Miami Forever bond marked an important step in the city's ability to finance local resilience initiatives.

The proceeds of this new general obligation bond will address major community concerns by funding initiatives focused on:

Mitigating sea level rise and reducing flooding risks
Improving affordable housing
Enhancing public safety
Improving parks, cultural facilities, streets, and infrastructure

Read the full story.

Partner Updates

Palm Beach County Appoints Director of Newly Created Office of Resilience

Following a national search, Palm Beach County welcomed Megan Houston to join the county's newly created Office of Resilience as its first director in May. This position was created to coordinate climate resilience planning, implementation activities, and sustainability initiatives throughout the county.

Megan has assumed the responsibilities of former Climate Change and Sustainability Coordinator Natalie Schneider, in addition to supervising two positions transferred from the Department of Environmental Resources Management. Megan is responsible for engaging with local, state, national, and international public and private stakeholders to communicate the importance of resilient and sustainable planning and seek stakeholder input. She also serves on the Compact’s Staff Steering Committee as Palm Beach County’s representative.

Though Megan grew up in Palm Beach County, she has spent much of her career in other parts of the East Coast. For the last three years, Megan served as the program manager for the nonprofit Institute for Market Transformation in Washington, D.C., where she developed a program to remove market barriers to energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption in multifamily residential buildings. Megan holds a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and a Master of Science in Urban Environmental Systems Management from Pratt Institute.

City of Miami Beach Engages External Experts to Bolster Stormwater Infrastructure Plans

As a front-line community already contending with nuisance flooding and sea level rise, the City of Miami Beach has made proactive infrastructure investments and regulatory changes to safeguard communities, from elevating roads and installing pumping stations in frequently flooded neighborhoods, to changing building codes to engender resilience. To bolster these efforts, the city invited the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to convene a group of nationally renowned experts in land-use planning, engineering, real estate, and architecture to review and provide recommendations on the city’s stormwater management plan, other climate adaptation efforts, and the strategic communication and public engagement initiatives around these issues.

In April, the ULI team shared a preliminary presentation with city staff and Miami Beach residents reviewing work completed to date; building upon lessons learned; and expanding creative strategies and innovative approaches to problem-solving, strengthening communities, and improving quality of life in Miami Beach. While the panel applauded the city’s current efforts, they also suggested expanding infrastructure improvements to more broadly consider the use of blue-green or natural infrastructure in addition to gray infrastructure solutions, as well as enhancing future decision-making through the use of an integrative water model. The city will receive a final report this summer.

The Compact Welcomes New Staff

The Institute for Sustainable Communities, the nonprofit organization which has provided implementation support to the Compact since 2009, has hired a new Senior Program Officer! Lauren Ordway is based in Miami and fully dedicated to advancing the Compact’s regional effort.

Lauren brings more than 10 years' experience working on sustainability issues in South Florida to this position. Most recently she served as executive director of the Miami-based nonprofit, Dream in Green, focused on expanding sustainability education and encouraging climate action in Miami. Before leading Dream in Green, she served as the Florida Climate & Clean Energy Lead for the Nature Conservancy, where she led the Conservancy's efforts to broaden support for climate and clean energy policies through stakeholder engagement.

Contact Lauren at lordway@iscvt.org.

News

The Invading Sea: New Resources on the Defining Issue of the Century in South Florida

The editorial boards of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Miami Herald, and Palm Beach Post, along with WLRN Public Media, are joining organizations like the Compact in promoting action to address the threat South Florida and its residents face from sea level rise. Addressing the need for greater public awareness, this unprecedented media collaborative is using its collective voice to communicate the nature of the threat, help people understand what’s at stake, and highlight choices and solutions. Coinciding with major Florida elections, the collaborative will ask all candidates about sea level rise—how the region will respond, who will decide, and how to pay. Together, they’re working to raise awareness, amplify the region’s voice, and create an unremitting call to action to continue and expand regional climate and resilience efforts.

Upcoming Events

Coastal Resilience and Climate Adaptation: Impacts and Solutions Reception and Panel

Thurs. May 24 | 6:00-9:00 pm | University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School

Rising sea levels are increasingly threatening Southeast Florida’s coastline, and these effects are acutely experienced as wave impacts and storm surge events cause extensive flooding and shoreline erosion. Local coastal ecosystems—such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangrove forests, and sand dunes—have the potential to help reduce these impacts, but benefits of these ecosystems may be undervalued. The Nature Conservancy and the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science are hosting an invite-only workshop bringing together experts from across the scientific and NGO, communities, along with local and regional government representatives, to explore the state of the science, identify gaps in knowledge and data, and develop collaborative ideas for joint projects for Southeast Florida. A public reception and Q&A panel will follow to include short presentations by leading experts in the fields of living shoreline ecology, sustainable engineering, coastal management and policy, and shoreline hydrodynamics. Register for the reception here.

10th Annual Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit

Oct. 24-25 | Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami, FL

Miami-Dade County will host the 10th Annual Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit, celebrating a decade of progress with critical discussions on adaptation, innovation, and resilience. The Summit will feature keynotes and panels with local, state, and federal government officials, business and nonprofit leaders, and other experts discussing plans to ensure the region not only survives, but thrives, in the face of sea level rise and other climate impacts.

Sponsorship opportunities are now available! Check out the sponsorship package and sponsorship form.

Contact the Miami-Dade Office of Resilience at 305-375-5593 or by emailing green@miamidade.gov with questions and for information on vendor, exhibit, and sponsorship opportunities.

The Compact Calendar is the central location for climate change events happening in Southeast Florida, so check back regularly for updates. Have an upcoming you would like to share with the public? Submit your event to the Compact Calendar!