US awards funds to resettle its first 'climate refugees'

The US has seen its first ever allocation of federal money for the purpose of relocating an entire community due to climate change. Isle de Jean Charles in southeastern Louisiana suffers from flooding and land loss due to rising sea levels. A $48m “climate resilience” grant has been awarded to help the island’s 60 Native American inhabitants move to drier land. The resettlement is seen as a test case for relocation that aims to maintain community cohesion. Three earlier attempts at resettlement failed due to political and logistical difficulties. According to the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security and the International Organization for Migration an estimated 50m to 200m people could be displaced from their homes due to climate change by 2050.

ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, La. — Each morning at 3:30, when Joann Bourg leaves the mildewed and rusted house that her parents built on her grandfather’s property, she worries that the bridge connecting this spit of waterlogged land to Louisiana’s terra firma will again be flooded and she will miss another day’s work.

Ms. Bourg, a custodian at a sporting goods store on the mainland, lives with her two sisters, 82-year-old mother, son and niece on land where her ancestors, members of the Native American tribes of southeastern Louisiana, have lived for generations. That earth is now dying, drowning in salt and sinking into the sea, and she is ready to leave.

With a first-of-its-kind “climate resilience” grant to resettle the island’s native residents, Washington is ready to help.