Announcing our new Climate Resiliency Strategy

The Harold Castle Foundation’s first new strategy in over 20 years. Photo Credit: Hawaii Sea Grant King Tides Project, Rafael Bergstrom 2017

We are at a critical moment for our state and our planet: we know that unavoidable climate impacts are here and that even with aggressive climate action, they will persist through the second half of this century and beyond. While the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation’s environmental grantmaking has focused on nearshore ocean resiliency over the past 15 years, the looming specter of climate change has created a need to examine our environmental strategy within a broader climate context. 

The 2020s have been called the “decisive decade” for the future of humanity and the planet. Global climate change has reached a tipping point, and the world is on track to overshoot 1.5°C global warming potentially as soon as 2026. In fact, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that the world is currently heading for around 2.6°C warming. Exceeding 1.5°C will trigger multiple climate tipping points – conditions beyond which irreversible and dangerous changes in our climate systems become self-perpetuating.

The recent devastation in Lahaina and Kula, Maui, forces us to acknowledge that climate change isn’t coming, it is here. An abnormally wet spring followed by an exceptionally dry summer created an abundance of fuel. Fires were sparked by high winds from a hurricane passing south which should have weakened from cooler ocean waters that were, instead, unusually warm. This seemingly extraordinary confluence of factors that led to disaster—only now detectable in hindsight—will unfortunately begin to be more commonplace. 

This fight is ours to win or lose in the precious few years ahead: as the inevitable impacts of climate change continue to occur, our communities will face more moments of extreme stress. After our shared priority of supporting our Maui community, our top priority will be to help Hawaii be more resilient—prepared and adaptive—to an increasingly changing climate and uncertain future. We must do the work now to ensure we are prepared, and to build the social cohesion necessary so that we turn towards one another – not against each other – during cycles of stresses and shocks.

We believe the solutions we need for climate adaptation and resilience exist: Hawaiʻi can learn best practices from other jurisdictions. We can apply local wisdom and knowledge that supported generations of Hawaiians in pre-contact times. We can build on our strong, tight-knit communities. We can lead with what works beyond our own borders. 

Acknowledging the above, the Foundation is excited to share a shape, structure, and focus to the Castle Foundation’s Climate Resilience Strategy. This strategy includes the leveraging of both funding and non-financial resources to deliver on shared goals and objectives and partners. It also strives to embed climate resilience as a cross-cutting value throughout the Foundation’s work and the work of existing grantees.