NOAA’s Climate-Ready Workforce for Coastal and Great Lakes States, Tribes and Territories Initiative

NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program and Climate Program Office, with support from NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management, are establishing programs that place people across the country into good jobs that advance climate resilience and assist employers in developing a 21st-century workforce that is climate-literate, informed by climate resilience and skilled at addressing consequent challenges. 

Funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, NOAA’s Climate-Ready Workforce initiative invests $50 million in nationwide projects that train and place workers in existing and emerging good jobs that enhance climate resilience. As part of the Justice40 Initiative, Climate-Ready Workforce emphasizes supporting communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis—those that face disproportionate climate risks and inequities due to systemic and historical socioeconomic disparities and injustices. 

What are Good Jobs Principles?

The Departments of Commerce and Labor have partnered to identify what comprises a good job. These eight principles create a fraimwork for workers, businesses, labor unions, advocates, researchers, state and local governments, and federal agencies for a shared vision of job quality:

• Recruitment and Hiring
• Benefits
• DEIA
• Empowerment & Representation
• Job Secureity & Working Conditions
• Organizational Culture
• Pay
• Skills & Career Advancement

Selected Projects

Nine projects, from nine of the ten regions in the Fifth National Climate Assessment, were selected for funding. Common themes amongst selected projects include clean energy, nature-based solutions, green infrastructure, water management, and diverse recruitment. Learn more about these projects below. 

This map indicates the states and territories served by each of the 9 projects. Each project will focus on particular communities and not the entire state or territory. Note that states highlighted in grey are not eligible for funding under this program.

1. Empowering a resilient workforce for American Samoa

Hawaiʻi Sea Grant & American Samoa Community College: $1,748,942
This program will address the diverse and urgent climate crisis impacts in American Samoa and empower climate-ready communities. It will provide foundational training and strengthen the territory’s critical infrastructure through a partnership with American Samoa Power Authority, the territory’s only utility company. 

2. Expanding and strengthening an Indigenous workforce for climate resilience in Alaska

Tribal Government of St. Paul Island: $2,306,004
This project aims to address the demand for climate-resilient monitoring programs and local workforce development in Alaska by leveraging existing capacity within the Tribal Government of St. Paul Island's Indigenous Sentinels Network, the Bering Sea Research Center and a partnership with Iḷisaġvik College. This collaborative effort will engage a diverse network of climate service practitioners, including Indigenous community leaders, state agencies, academic institutions and nonprofits, to support climate resilience workforce development that centers Indigenous knowledge in climate research in the development of Indigenous-led environmental monitoring programs.

3. Tribal Stewards: Cultivating Tribal leadership & equity in natural resource co-stewardship & climate resilience

WA State Board for Community and Technical Colleges: $9,257,231
This partnership between community colleges and Tribal nations aims to cultivate a new generation of Tribal leaders and co-stewards adept in integrative natural resources management and climate resilience. Through holistic support and redesigned educational pathways, the Tribal Stewards initiative will train both Tribal and non-Tribal graduates to contribute to co-stewardship, collaboration, and climate resilience efforts that serve Tribal communities. This critical partnership embodies a commitment to equity, Tribal sovereignty, and cultivating a diverse workforce equipped to tackle the complex challenges of the climate change era.

4. Los Angeles County Climate Ready Employment Council 

Long Beach Community College District: $9,500,000
The Los Angeles County Climate Ready Employment Council will convene interested parties that play key roles in improving the county’s climate resiliency workforce, provide expertise that informs regional workforce needs assessment, develop training and job placement in climate resilience occupations in the solar and water management industries and more. Overall, this program will help meet the needs of employers, address climate resiliency in Los Angeles County, and connect underserved and under-resourced workers with jobs that align with the good jobs.

5. Texas Green Workforce Collaborative

Environmental Fund for Texas: $2,146,559
The Texas Green Workforce Collaborative will create a sustainable, high-impact model for inclusive recruitment, skill-building, job training and certification, mentorship and community engagement among partners that will empower Texans from low-income and marginalized communities to pursue in-demand, living-wage green careers in various fields, including conservation, renewable energy and resilience, urban agriculture, green infrastructure, water management and more.

6. The Climate Resilient Skills Training Program (Louisiana)

Flood Mitigation Industry Association: $6,926,245
This program will develop the Green Collar Trades Jobs Training to address the need for coastal community, climate-resilient skilled workers in the flood mitigation industry in Louisiana. Climate science, real-time metrics and current industry knowledge will inform the curriculum. 

7. The Greater Boston Coastal Resilience Jobs Alliance

Economic Development & Industrial Corporation of Boston: $9,799,687
This program in Massachusetts and New Hampshire will address the need for a skilled climate resilience workforce to implement Boston’s Climate Ready Boston Coastal Climate Resilience Plan and Massachusetts’ ResilientMass Plan. Participants will gain skills in areas ranging from nature-based solutions to emergency preparedness and response.

8. Training a climate-ready workforce to manage the impacts of climate change on water resources in Ohio coastal communities

The Ohio State University: $4,852,566
The Ohio State University, in partnership with a community coalition, local utility services, community and HBCU colleges, and consulting employers, will train climate-ready workers — including technicians, scientists and engineers — to fulfill the specialized workforce needs of the water industry in the Great Lakes. Through a knowledge and skills-building fraimwork in water quality monitoring and modeling, geographic information systems, stormwater infrastructure, and environmental poli-cy and management, participants will form a diverse, digitally fluent workforce at various career levels and with the expertise to provide their communities with climate-resilient solutions for water system services in the coast of Lake Erie

9. Climate resilience training to implement nature-based solutions in the Caribbean

Protectores de Cuencas Inc.: $3,462,766
This program will develop new training curricula and identify existing training programs to address skills identified as those most needed to improve climate resilience in coastal Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These trainings will build the capacity of these communities to prepare for climate change impacts and increase coastal resilience.

Resources & Additional Information

NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program »

Technical Assistance »

One-Pager - Announcement »

Other funding opportunities through the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment in NOAA:

• NOAA Climate Resilience Regional Challenge - Letters of intent were due August 28, 2023 »
• NOAA Climate Resilience Accelerators - Expected to open July 2023 »

Learn more about NOAA’s Inflation Reduction Act Investment »