Sec. 4. Findings
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Congress finds as follows: The Insular Areas are topographically and environmentally diverse and treasured by millions of individuals who call them home. The territories in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States) and the territories in the Pacific (American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam) face many of the same climate change-related challenges. Freely Associated States face similar climate change-related vulnerabilities.
Insular Areas are experiencing sea level rise, coastal erosion, and increasing storm impacts that threaten lives, critical infrastructure, ecosystems, and livelihood security. Temperature increases are likely to further create and intensify the length of droughts, reduce water supply, impact public health, and increase demand of freshwater in Insular Areas. In addition, temperature increases will drive coral reefs to extinction, eliminating a natural barrier against storm surge, increasing destruction of infrastructure, and threatening lives of the inhabitants of the islands.
In 2017, two major storms, Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria, impacted Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States. Hurricane Maria caused thousands of deaths in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States and significant damage to their infrastructure, including Puerto Rico’s energy system. Hurricane Maria destroyed millions of trees in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States, which has significantly increased erosion and sediment transport.
As a result, reservoirs have lost significant storage capacity and coral reefs are severely impacted. In 2018, Typhoon Yutu impacted the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, causing catastrophic destruction in those territories.