The Invading Sea asked the resilience officers from the region’s four counties about their goals and aspirations for 2019 and beyond.
Here’s what James Murley from Miami-Dade County told us in an email.
- Continue to work with our 100 Resilient Cities partners, the cities of Miami and Miami Beach and other municipalities and community partners to develop the Resilience Strategy for Greater Miami and the Beaches.
The Resilience Strategy will be designed to address Greater Miami and the Beaches’ key shocks and stresses and will serve as a roadmap for our community to respond to the challenges we face. The strategy is expected to be released in May.
- Initiate work with consultants to complete the Miami-Dade County Sea Level Rise Strategy. It will address medium and long-term sea-level rise risks to county government and the community as well as evaluate the cost of various solutions.
The Office of Resilience will engage the community through workshops, newsletters, social media and community outreach as we develop the strategy to ensure that our community is well represented in this plan.
- Implement the Building Efficiency 305 program to significantly reduce building energy and water consumption in large private and public buildings. The project is expected to achieve:
- $200 million in energy and water bill savings
- 1.2 million metric ton reduction in climate pollution emissions
- 38-million-gallon reduction in water use
Local level- The Miami-Dade County Office of Resilience will continue to work with other county departments to ensure Miami-Dade thrives. We will also continue in our 11th year to coordinate with our regional partners in the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact to effect regional action and collaboration to address climate change.
Statewide- I am very pleased that our new governor, Ron DeSantis, has taken on the environment and resilience as priority issues for his administration. As we continue to invest at the local and regional level for more resilient communities, we are excited to see how the state will take a greater role in supporting these efforts.
Global- Global climate change is an issue that must be tackled with a two-prong approach. We need to address the root cause through mitigation efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and climate pollution.
We also must recognize that a certain amount of damage has already been done and that we will need to find innovative solutions to adapt to our changing environment.
It is crucial that the United States become a leader in climate action and make the changes necessary to deal with future condition. This will require unprecedented coordination and collaboration across country and political lines.
“The Invading Sea” is a collaboration of four South Florida media organizations — the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and WLRN Public Media.
