President-elect Donald Trump took aim at several government agencies on the campaign trail, including the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump has vowed to roll back EPA climate regulations, as well as rescind some Inflation Reduction Act funds.
The EPA has received over $40 billion in funds from the IRA. The federal agency has, in turn, given multiple grants to Honolulu's Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency, including a $1 million sum for the office to update Oʻahu's climate action plan.
The head of that office, Benjamin Sullivan, said he doubts Trump's administration will try to claw back that funding.
"A lot of the work is already underway," he said.
A portion of the grant money will go toward paying local organizations to conduct outreach efforts on the action plan in their own communities.
"The EPA had the foresight to enable and encourage us as local government to partner with communities," Sullivan said.
The Honolulu agency will soon announce two community partners, each receiving $50,000 to run an outreach initiative.
Sullivan said that work will help the office build strategies that support front-line communities and low-income households into the action plan. He expects an updated version of the plan will be available to the public by the end of 2025 or early 2026.
While Sullivan acknowledged that there could be some risk to the office's federal funding under the Trump administration, he said there are no plans to put any of their climate initiatives on pause.
"We're not going to stop for a second," he said.
