Low-Interest Loan Facility to Support Climate-Resilient Homes and Businesses
A Climate-Resilient Marine Spatial Plan will guide the protection and sustainable use of the Virgin Islands’ marine environment. It will define key zones for conservation, fisheries, recreation, and development—supporting climate resilience while enabling a balanced blue economy.
Introduction
The building stock of The Virgin Islands is constructed to high standards; however, today’s reality of record-breaking category 5 hurricanes requires a new level of resilience.
In 2017, The Virgin Islands was hit by two category 5 hurricanes - Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria - which made the need for more resilient buildings an urgent reality. The hurricanes resulted in complete destruction of 14% of the assessed building stock, major damage to 17% and minor damage to 31% (DANA, 2017).
Almost ten years later, some home and business owners are struggling to afford to rebuild or have not been able to rebuild to a climate-resilient standard.
The Impact
This project will design and pilot a revolving Low-interest Loan Facility aimed at making it affordable for home and business owners to implement a wide variety of projects to make their properties, facilities and operations more resilient to hurricanes, floods and other climate change impacts, leading to reduced impact from climatic events and slow onset changes.
The design scope will include consultations with home and business owners to assess needs, consultations with The Virgin Islands Climate Change Trust Fund and potential partnering banks to deliver the Facility, consultations with design processionals to understand typical retrofitting needs and associated costs, development of an Operational Manual to guide the Facility, development of technical support tools to assist interested persons in accessing the Facility, and development of marketing/promotional materials. The Facility would be designed taking into account lessons learnt from similar facilities in the region and piloted over at least a 3-5-year period.
The Problem
Traditional roofing often fails under extreme pressure, leading to the total destruction of homes and displacement of residents.
The Solution
Implementing "Build Back Better" standards, specifically utilizing hurricane straps and reinforced structural ties to secure roofs against CAT 5 winds.
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