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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
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Interior Confronts Climate Change in Territories

The Virgin Islands is about to get a push in addressing environmental and economic issues associated with climate change, thanks to a newly created position of climate change coordinator.

The Office of Insular Affairs at the U.S. Department of Interior began this week to advertise the job, calling for applications to hire someone who will work with senior leadership at Interior and other federal agencies “to help the insular areas develop robust responses to the effects of climate change,” according to a department press release.

Those areas are the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Freely Associated States of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau.

“The people of the insular areas, both in the Pacific and the Caribbean, are increasingly vulnerable to climate change threats to their infrastructure and natural resources, including sea-level rise, coral bleaching and salt water intrusion, all of which impact quality of life and destabilize food and fresh water sources,” the release quotes Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas Esther Kia’iana.

Kia’iana created the position as part of Interior’s effort to implement President Barak Obama’s Executive Order 13653, issued in November 2013, which called for integrating climate science in policies and planning in agencies throughout the government and in the private sector. The order also created a Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience.

As the executive order defines the terms, “resilience” means the ability to anticipate, prepare for and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to and recover rapidly from disruptions. “Preparedness” means actions taken to plan, organize, equip, train and exercise to build, apply and sustain the capabilities necessary to prevent, protect against, ameliorate the effects of, respond to, and recover from climate change related damages to life, health, property, livelihoods, ecosystems and national security.

In the Virgin Islands, the coordinator will probably work primarily with existing agencies that deal with the environment, the V.I. Energy Office and the territory’s Department of Planning and Natural Resources, according to Krystina Borja of the policy division of the Office of Insular Affairs.

Borja said they hope to have the coordinator in place “by the spring.”

Applicants may apply online through the USAJOBS website, www.usajobs.gov.

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