Gov. Josh Green created a tough assignment in May for the retired leader of a Hawaii real estate investment firm to assemble a team that can recommend policies to minimize climate-related natural disaster impacts in the state.
Now, this six-person volunteer group with expertise in areas that include climate change, environmental law and insurance faces a tough phase of work: coming up with initial results.
Green’s Climate Advisory Team, led by retired Alexander & Baldwin Inc. CEO Chris Benjamin, is about to move from information gathering to crafting solutions that initially will focus on a package of draft bills for the governor to submit for consideration in the upcoming legislative session that begins in January.
Benjamin said Tuesday during a Honolulu Star-Advertiser editorial board meeting that such legislation is intended to be part of a foundation for longer-term progress in the team’s mission, which might take years to produce.
“We want to make progress next year, but we also have to recognize that this problem won’t be solved overnight,” he said.
Green announced the concept of the CAT in May with Benjamin, who in 2022 co-founded the organization now known as Climate Hawaii, at its helm. In July, membership was filled out and the group had its first meeting.
Members of the unpaid team, in addition to Benjamin as chair, are:
>> Denise Antolini, a retired University of Hawaii law professor whose main field of experience has been environmental law.
>> Robin Campaniano, a former state insurance commissioner and insurance company CEO.
>> Chip Fletcher, interim dean of UH’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.
>> Kawika Riley, vice president of external affairs at Kupu, a local nonprofit helping youth build skills in areas that include environmental stewardship.
>> Gwen Yamamoto Lau, executive director of the Hawai‘i Green Infrastructure Authority, a state agency that helps foster investments in clean energy.
Over the past month, the group has been doing research, which has included meetings with government and business leaders, and meeting together multiple times each week.
The team also has been able to rely on paid consultants that have been doing work for Green’s administration tied to litigation over the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfire disaster.
These consultants include Ducera Partners, an investment banking firm that was involved in utility wildfire mitigation in California; O’Melveny & Myers, a law firm with wildfire experience; and Hueston Hennigan, a wildfire litigation defense firm representing the state in the Maui disaster. Two public relations strategists also are consultants — Andy Winer of Strategies 360 and Christine Matsuda of Pa‘akai Communications.
Benjamin acknowledged that financial resources are a factor in the group being able to achieve its goals.
“We can’t expect that we’re going to be able to afford to do everything that we want to do,” he said.
Campaniano described the tall order another way. “Part of the challenge I think we face is that it’s like shopping on an empty stomach,” he said at the Tuesday meeting. “Our eyes are kind of big, and there’s so many different issues to work with.
“You know, are we solving a wildfire problem, or a hurricane problem or a flooding problem? And incidentally some of them transition over into more broader global warming or sea-level rise. Some of the decisions we make will impact that as well,” Campaniano continued. “We’re just six individuals, part-timers, and we’re trying to solve what appears to be rather insurmountable issues with no budget.”
Benjamin said the team wants to focus on obtaining federal funding to implement recommendations.
Another funding source, noted by Antolini, could be a Hawaii visitor impact fee that state lawmakers have considered since at least 2021 but failed to pass.
Green, who was elected governor in 2022, has pushed for a $50 visitor fee that he said could generate up to $350 million annually.
Part of the reason Green established the CAT was to help refine and advance legislation related to climate risks, response and recovery, especially in the wake of the Maui wildfire that killed 102 people and destroyed most of Lahaina.
Such bills that died earlier this year included one to establish a visitor impact fee, one to create a state compensation fund for property damage resulting from future catastrophic wildfires in Hawaii, and one allowing Hawaii electrical utilities to obtain low-cost bond financing to pay for wildfire mitigation.
One task not assigned to the CAT, according to Benjamin, was to address soaring insurance premiums for condominium projects. A task force Green formed in June to tackle this issue recently issued recommendations that Green is implementing under an emergency proclamation made last week.
The CAT, however, will try to address ways to help make Hawaii an attractive market for insurance companies to operate.
Benjamin said one thing that he believes will be critical for the CAT to succeed is convincing stakeholders that the undoubtedly huge cost to make Hawaii more resilient to climate-related calamities is necessary.
“We’re going to have to tell that story,” he said. “It’s the notion of pay me now or pay me later. … the ($4 billion Maui wildfire) settlement is a great example of just how expensive it can be if we’re not prepared and we’re not taking the steps to prevent the impacts of these natural disasters.”
