The US Department of the Interior says it will award $120.8 million for a total of 146 projects focused on helping tribal communities address climate-related threats. Agency officials say the funding is the largest investment in the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ annual Tribal Climate Awards program.
The investment will come from funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Jobs and Investments Act, and federal appropriations in 2023. It is part of a total of $440 million in Biden administration funding for tribal climate resilience programs.
The bureau estimated in 2020 that more than $4 billion would be needed over the next 50 years to protect tribal infrastructure threatened by the impacts of climate change. The biggest need is in Alaska, which will need more than $3 billion over the next few decades, he said. Surface air temperatures have risen steadily over the past 17 years, with the highest recorded in 2023, according to the latest data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Funding awards include $4 million to the Alaska Native Village of Nelson Lagoon, a long, narrow strip of land that is being washed into the sea by melting ice and more intense weather, to build a structure of erosion protection and new 300,000 gallon water storage tanks. . About $3.2 million will go to the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians in Stewarts Point Rancheria, Calif., for their share of a PG&E microgrid to avoid outages during intense storms.
“The most severe impacts of climate change fall disproportionately on communities that are least able to prepare and recover from it,” said Tom Perez, senior White House adviser to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs. , in a statement.
Bryan Newland, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, said in a statement that the funding will help tribes “protect their ability to exist on their homelands in the face of a changing climate.”
