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Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) joined community leaders to celebrate the Virginia Climate Center at George Mason University. Connolly secured nearly $2,000,000 in federal funding for the Center, which started operations in January of this year.

The event featured opening remarks from Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, the Dean of the College of Science at George Mason University, as well as a panel discussion with Congressman Connolly, Dr. Miralles-Wilhelm, and the Director of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, Dr. James Kinter. The program concluded in a town hall meeting, with Connolly taking questions from the audience of 100 people. 

“Climate change is already here impacting our community and our lives,” said Connolly. “Earlier this month we experienced dangerous pollution levels from Canadian wildfire smoke, an example of the increase in extreme weather events and worsening air quality that we will continue to see as long as we rely on fossil fuels.” 

“That is why it was so crucial that we established the Climate Center to ensure our community increases resilience to climate change,” Connolly continued. “I’m proud to have secured funding to establish the Center and I’m proud to be a part of passing transformative legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. We have an incredible opportunity to build a more sustainable, resilient, and just future and I am optimistic that our country and Northern Virginia is up to the challenge.”

“When we talk about global climate change, we sometimes think it’s someplace else,” said Dr. Kinter. “It’s a global problem, so I don’t need to worry about it. But really what we’re trying to do with the Virginia Climate Center is employ that adage ‘think globally but act locally.’ Global climate change has an impact here in Virginia. It has impacts right here in Fairfax City, Fairfax County, and right here on the George Mason campus.”  

“If you look across the nation, nationally, this is somewhat of a pioneering experiment,” said Dr. Miralles-Wilhelm. “What we’re trying to do here in Virginia is a state-sponsored Climate Center with a local connection. But climate change doesn’t stay in Virginia or any particular state. It’s a global phenomenon. It’s a large-scale phenomenon. And to try to understand the impacts and how we can adapt to it is very, very important.”

The Virginia Climate Center serves as a climate extension service to help communities in the Commonwealth increase resilience to the impacts of climate change. The Center’s data-driven decision support will save tax dollars and improve the livelihoods of Virginians, increasing resilience to severe weather, air pollution, drought, and floods with an emphasis on the underprivileged communities that are most susceptible to adverse effects of climate change.

Connolly secured $1,978,612 in federal funding for the Virginia Climate Center in the FY 2022 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act. More information about that funding request is available here.