On a sweltering summer morning in 2023, eight months after I was sworn in as governor of Hawaii, disaster struck Maui. In the early hours of August 8, a downed utility pole sparked a fire that quickly spread into the town of Lahaina. Hurricane-force winds fanned the flames, igniting grasses and brush left bone‑dry by years of drought. By afternoon, fires tore through homes and businesses—trapping residents, overwhelming emergency crews and burning so hot that they melted metal and warped granite.
That day Lahaina, the cultural heart of West Maui, became ground zero of America’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century. The fires claimed 102 lives, displaced over 13,000 others and burned more than 3,000 homes, destroying centuries of cultural history and devastating the economy of an entire region, with losses estimated at nearly $13 billion.
Years of declining rainfall had left Maui dangerously dry, an example of how climate change supercharges conditions that make wildfires more common and more catastrophic. As global temperatures continue to increase, droughts all over the world are becoming more frequent, severe, and prolonged. America’s western states continue to grapple with the worst mega-drought in the past 1,200 years and the number of wildfires in the U.S. has tripled since the 1980’s, with the fires growing in size, speed, and destructive power.
When the fires erupted on Maui, we took immediate action. Within hours, I issued a state of emergency. We activated the Hawaii National Guard, coordinated emergency shelter efforts, and mobilized agencies statewide.
The days that followed were among the most difficult in Hawaii’s modern history. Search and rescue teams fanned out through fields of smoking debris. Emergency responders worked around the clock to locate survivors, enduring searing heat and toxic fumes. We coordinated with FEMA, HUD and many other federal, state and local partners to meet the housing, food and infrastructure needs of survivors.
In the weeks that followed, we accelerated deployment of mental health support, housing vouchers, and trauma counseling for displaced residents. I announced a moratorium on the sale or development of fire-damaged lands in West Maui to prevent outside speculation from forcing survivors to sell. And we made a commitment to rebuild Lahaina in a survivor-led, culturally grounded way that honors history while preparing for future resilience.
In addition to immediate emergency relief, we knew that recovery would require deep accountability and forward-looking reform. I directed the Attorney General to commission an independent review by national fire experts. We had to do more to protect our people and our land from the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events.
In an aerial view, burned structures and cars are seen two months after the devastating Maui wildfire on October 09, 2023 in Lahaina, Hawaii. Mario Tama—Getty Images
The devastation on Maui forced a reckoning: how do we address the underlying risk, not just the aftermath? How do we raise long-term, reliable funds to harden our infrastructure, restore natural buffers, reduce wildfire fuel loads, and prepare our water, transportation, and energy systems for the new climate reality?
Out of that need, we introduced legislation to create the Climate Impact Fee, also known as Hawaii’s “Green Fee.” The concept was simple but powerful: if tourism, which depends on our natural beauty, contributes to our environmental footprint, then a small portion of visitor lodging taxes should help pay for climate resilience. The burden is modest, just 0.75% added to the state’s Transient Accommodations Tax, but the return is transformative.
Under State Senate Bill 1396, signed into law in May 2025, this surcharge is projected to generate at least $100 million annually. That revenue will be dedicated exclusively to mitigate climate impact. It cannot be swept into unrelated spending. Instead, it will support coastal restoration, firebreak construction, invasive species control, stormwater system upgrades, and other climate-buffering projects, with a state climate advisory council and annual legislative review providing oversight.
We also expanded the fee to cruise passengers, prorated by their time in port. Altogether, this is the first fully integrated, statewide system in the United States to fund climate adaptation through tourism. And critically, it is forward-funded. We no longer have to wait for disaster to strike and hope for emergency appropriations. We are investing now, before the next devastating storm, fire, or drought.
Hawaii’s Climate Impact Fee is not just a local solution, it’s a model that other states can adapt to their needs. Whether you’re a coastal community facing sea-level rise, a western state battling record wildfires, or a lowland region vulnerable to flooding rivers, the message is the same: none of us can afford to pretend we are still in the past. We have to prepare for the future now.
Three features make this model uniquely replicable in other states:
- Dedicated funding with legal guardrails: The funds are protected by statute and can only be used for resilience and mitigation. That ensures long-term political credibility and shields against budgetary raids.
- User-pay, place-benefit design: By connecting the fee to visitor accommodations, we are tying impact and responsibility together. Other states can use park fees, energy surcharges, development taxes or insurance premiums to achieve the same logic.
- Transparency, oversight, and public trust: Because the legislation builds in oversight, annual reviews, and community involvement in project selection, we are reinforcing public trust and ensuring that funds go where they’re needed most.
In time, the Climate Impact Fee could serve as a model for a national network of state-led climate resilience financing strategies, bottom-up models that recognize climate adaptation is now core public infrastructure.
The last few years have shown us that none of our communities are immune to these risks, no matter how affluent or isolated we may be. There is no city, town, or village on earth that is safe from the kind of extreme weather disaster that we experienced in Hawaii.
The trauma, loss, and grief we suffered in the fires on Maui still remain with us. But out of that pain came a promise: we would never again allow inaction or lack of preparation to leave us that vulnerable. We would act not just to protect ourselves, our islands and our culture, but also generations to come.
