The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Tuesday $171 million to support 72 projects to improve resilience in the fight against the climate crisis. NOAA's Climate Program Office announced the funding, the highest five-year investment in the program's history. This year’s funding is supporting a broad spectrum of research areas that include advancing environmental justice, improvements in climate models and advances in the understanding of ocean observations. Additionally, the projects focus on understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic affected local and regional air quality, advances in resilience planning for future flooding impacts, and studying how emissions and chemical reactions impact air quality and climate. Over the next one to five years, researchers will work on the newly-funded projects in close partnership with NOAA laboratories and research centers.

NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said, “These new NOAA investments are essential to improve understanding of how to mitigate these impacts and bolster community resilience to climate change.”

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