A TIMELY FUNDING MECHANISM FOR CLIMA TE RESILIENCE EFFORTS

The Natural Resilience Fund© TM

(NRF)

The Problem

Due to climate change, we in our area (as well as most of the world) are

recognizing that there is a significant need for climate resilience to adapt to future changes in our environment.

A little about the Founder – Eric Kaufman

As a co-founder of the New York Wheel (the 630 foot Staten

Island Observation Wheel that is in development - www.plazacap.com). I became interested in climate resilience because our project is partially located in a flood zone on Staten Island. After spending the last 12 months studying climate resilience and brainstorming with top experts in this field, it became evident to me that we need an entity such as the Natural Resilience Fund, Inc. (NRF) to figure out how to deal with the effects of climate change.

I have an MBA from the Wharton School and have been in commercial real estate for the past 31 years. In fact, I am taking an enormous pay cut to start this Fund because I believe so strongly in the need for a not-for-profit like the NRF.

Mission Statement

The Natural Resilience Fund will establish a financing

mechanism that engages the public, leverages existing resources and completes Public recovery, rehabilitation and resilience projects in New York with an emphasis on New York City. The platform can easily be expanded to other States.

The financing mechanism seeks to offer tax credits on the

federal, state and local levels as a way of generating contributions from private individuals, not-for-profits and corporations who are most directly affected.

What Is Climate Resilience?

Resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to respond to disturbances such as fires, flooding, heat waves, droughts, and other events, by resisting damage via rapid recovery.

A way to handle the effects of climate change in a positive

and harmonious union.

A nexus to bridge the wonderful platforms that have been suggested by our state and city governments.

A platform to help our environment today and ensure a healthy sustainable future for our children.

Imagine

Why?

Federal, state and local programs have identified recovery,

rehabilitation and resilience projects that cost in the tens of billions of dollars but remain unfunded.

Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC alone is estimated at $20 billion with a funding gap of $4.5 billion.

The Investment Tax Credit

Tax credits are typically used to encourage investment by

the private sector especially in underinvested areas or in ways that form important policy perspective considerations.

The immediate supply of money by the private sector through tax credits will promote jobs, improve infrastructure and help to create a stronger economy by offsetting the reduced tax income of city, state and federal governments.

What Is New In Our Platform?

Our program is widely available to all taxpayers, not only

developers and large companies. The concept is to have people who are affected by Climate Change events like Superstorm Sandy participate directly in solutions and gain tax benefits as well.

The NRF intends to fill funding gaps for approved government

climate resilience projects and not for commercial ventures. The projects will be funded as grants and will not bear interest or require repayment. It is anticipated that The NRF would fund up to 10% of a Public Project’s total cost.

How much Money Can the NRF Raise?

Assuming approximately 9.5 million tax payers in New

York with a 1.5% participation rate at an average of $500 per taxpayer, the annual dollar amount of The NRF would be:

$71.25 million per year If 100,000 tax payers in New York invested $10,000 per

taxpayer in The NRF, the annual dollar amount would be:

$1 BILLION PER YEAR!

What would the money be used for?

• Uses that increase the resiliency of infrastructure,

commercial and residential buildings, invest in design and construction of natural methods that mitigate disaster throughout New York State.

The Bloomberg Climate Resiliency Plan for New York City

http://www.nyc.gov/html/sirr/html/report/report.shtml.

A potential NRF allocation

NOTICE May 1, 2013 -- Funding dropped for USGS monitoring network in the five boroughs of New York City.

Data collection from 197 groundwater stations, 10 surface-water stations, 1 meteorological station, and 131 water-quality stations in the five boroughs of New York and extreme western Nassau County was suspended May 1, 2013 due to elimination of the program by a funding partner. Historic data from these stations will continue to be available on the USGS National Water Information System: Web Interface. A complete list of stations to be discontinued is available at: real-time water data page or map. For more information or to help support these sites please contact Ron Busciolano (rjbuscio@usgs.gov) or Stephen Terracciano (saterrac@usgs.gov) at the USGS New York Water Science Center, Coram Program Office at 631-736-0783.

Estimated requirement: $3 million per year.

Next Steps…

Establish a seed fund of $300,000 to effectuate City, State

and Federal level strategy.

Host a panel determining fund allocation for the proposed expert projects. Identify, secure and build a paid technical staff with philanthropic, engineering, climate experts & public Advisory Board.

Please sign our Petition: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/the-natural-resilience

M A K E Y O U R C H E C K O R M O N E Y O R D E R P A Y A B L E T O : T H E N A T U R A L R E S I L I E N C E F U N D , I N C .

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Y O U C A N A L S O D O N A T E B Y C R E D I T C A R D B Y V I S I T I N G O U R W E B S I T E A T :

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To Make a Contribution