Financing Climate Mitigation and Resilience: Lessons from Hawaii

A transcript of a March 2020 Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) webinar featuring experts discussing climate mitigation and resilience financing in Hawaii, with a focus on the role of green banks and community-led land preservation.

• Green banks are specialized finance institutions, typically public or nonprofit, that connect clean energy projects with capital without taking deposits. They aim to expand the clean energy financing market by addressing projects that the private sector considers unfinanceable, acting as the 'glue' for such initiatives.
• The National Climate Bank Act, introduced in 2019, proposes a federal climate bank capitalized with $35 billion to mobilize over $1 trillion in total investment. The act would enable direct federal project finance for large-scale mitigation and adaptation, establish new state and local green banks, and provide low-cost financing to existing ones.
• Financing for climate adaptation is more difficult than for mitigation because adaptation projects, such as seawalls, often lack the intrinsic, quantifiable cash flows generated by mitigation technologies like solar panels. Green banks are attempting to solve this by identifying alternative cash flows, such as insurance premium savings for homeowners who harden roofs against hurricanes in Florida.
• The Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority (HGIA) uses a 'Green Energy Money Saver' (GEMS) on-bill repayment mechanism to democratize clean energy. The program avoids traditional credit scores and debt-to-income ratios, requiring only that applicants have no utility disconnection notices in the last 12 months and that the installation provides at least 10% post-installation utility bill savings.
• The Kahauiki Village (K Village) project in Hawaii serves as a model for resilient community development, utilizing a public-private partnership to build homes for previously homeless families. The project included a microgrid that allowed the community to operate independently for five months before being connected to the utility grid in 2018.
• Hawaii's Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission is a multi-jurisdictional body of 20 members tasked with providing policy direction and identifying vulnerable communities and ecosystems. The state aims for carbon neutrality by 2045 and is currently addressing 'sunny day flooding' in industrial areas like Mapunapuna.
• The North Shore Community Land Trust focuses on preserving land on Oahu through conservation easements and public-private partnerships. A key project at Kahuku Point has restored seven acres of dune habitat and removed over 200 tons of invasive ironwood trees to support native species and the return of albatrosses.

APA

Environmental and Energy Study Institute (2020). Financing Climate Mitigation and Resilience: Lessons from Hawaii. https://www.eesi.org/files/transcript_032020.pdf

Chicago

Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Financing Climate Mitigation and Resilience: Lessons from Hawaii. 2020. https://www.eesi.org/files/transcript_032020.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |title=Financing Climate Mitigation and Resilience: Lessons from Hawaii |date=March 2020 |url=https://www.eesi.org/files/transcript_032020.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{environmentalandenergystudyinstitute2020financing, author = {{Environmental and Energy Study Institute}}, title = {{Financing Climate Mitigation and Resilience: Lessons from Hawaii}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2020}, month = mar, url = {https://www.eesi.org/files/transcript_032020.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }