Gina Raimondo, the US Secretary of Commerce announced Friday that the Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA are recommending $575 million in funding across 19 projects to boost climate resilience in the nation’s coastal and Great Lakes states and territories.

As part of the Biden Administration’s Investing in America agenda, NOAA’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge is a competitive grant program, and awards are made under NOAA’s Climate-Ready Coasts and Communities Initiative and are funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in history.

President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is driving more than $50 billion to build resilience to the effects of climate change in communities across the country.

“As part of President Biden’s commitment to combating the climate crisis, we are investing $575 million to help make sure America’s coastal communities are more resilient to the effects of climate change,” said Gina Raimondo.

“This is a historic investment in our nation’s climate resilience, the largest in the history of the Commerce Department, and a key piece of the Biden-Harris Administrations’ ambitious climate agenda.

Thanks to this Administration’s commitment to investing in America, we’re going to continue to help underserved communities across the country develop and implement new strategies to protect themselves from flooding, storm surge, and extreme weather events.”

This competitive award program, administered by NOAA, was first announced in early 2023 and is one of the most popular Inflation Reduction Act programs. NOAA received nearly 870 letters of intent, requesting over $16 billion in funding, for the program.

Of these, 120 applicants were selected to submit full proposals, which totaled more than $3 billion in combined requests. NOAA’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiativeoffsite link which set a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments go to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

“From sea level rise and storm surges to eroding infrastructure, coastal communities are on the frontline of dealing with the worsening impacts of the climate crisis,” said National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi.

“Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership, we are driving progress and innovation in climate resilience across the board, using every tool in our nation’s toolbox to fight climate change and safeguard communities.

With the historic funding being announced today, paired with the administration’s newly released Climate Resilience Game Changers Assessment, we are working collaboratively with state, local, and tribal governments to build capacity, upgrade aging infrastructure, and protect our most vulnerable communities from climate impacts.”