SB2678 HD1

SECTION 1. The legislature finds, as declared in the Hawaii Commitments presented to the World Conservation Congress in 2016, that "[w]e must undertake profound transformations in how human societies live on Earth, with particular attention to making our patterns of production and consumption more sustainable. We must recognize that human health and wellbeing depend on healthy ecosystems. We must recognize that every form of life has value – regardless of its worth to humans." Hawaii has been a leader in conservation efforts for decades through its commitment to environmental and sustainability policies. In the 1970s, the State enacted the State Environmental Policy, chapter 344, Hawaii Revised Statutes, as a mechanism to set environmental goals. While comprehensive, it lacked measurable indicators and enforcement means. Our understanding of the challenges facing our natural environment worldwide has changed remarkably since the 1970s and the laws enacted in Hawaii in recent decades have served as a starlight for other jurisdictions and set a global example on how to adopt policies on sustainability.

More recently, several approaches to sustainability have emerged in Hawaii, including the Aloha+ Challenge, the governor's Sustainable Hawaii Initiative, and other initiatives inspired by the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage and Mālama Hawai‘i.

In July of 2014, the State launched The Aloha+ Challenge: He Nohona ‘Ae‘oia, A Culture of Sustainability, a statewide commitment to sustainability, with the leadership of the governor, four county mayors, the office of Hawaiian affairs, the legislature, and Hawaii Green Growth public-private partners across the State. The Aloha+ Challenge builds on the State's history of systems thinking, Hawaiian culture and values, and successful track record on sustainability to outline six ambitious goals to be achieved by 2030:

(1) Clean energy: Achieve seventy per cent clean energy, with forty per cent from renewables and thirty per cent from efficiency;

(2) Local food: At least double local food production for local consumption;

(3) Natural resource management: Reverse the trend of natural resource loss mauka to makai by increasing freshwater security, watershed protection, community-based marine management, invasive species control, and restoration of native species;

(4) Waste reduction: Reduce the solid waste stream prior to disposal by seventy per cent through source reduction, recycling, bioconversion, and landfill diversion methods;

(5) Smart sustainable communities: Increase livability and resilience in the built environment through planning and implementation at the state and county levels; and

(6) Green workforce and education: Increase local green jobs and education to implement these goals.

To increase the efforts of the Aloha+ Challenge, the governor launched the Sustainable Hawaii Initiative in 2016, which includes five goals:

(1) Double local food production by 2020;

(2) Implement the State's interagency biosecurity plan by 2027;

(3) Protect thirty per cent of the highest priority watersheds by 2030;

(4) Manage thirty per cent of nearshore ocean waters by 2030; and

(5) Achieve one hundred per cent renewable energy in electricity by 2045.

In May of 2014, Hōkūle‘a began a three-year voyage across the world's oceans carrying the message of Mālama Honua – to care for the Earth. Building on the legacy of the Polynesian way finders, the Hōkūle‘a Worldwide Voyage inspired actions of conservation across the Hawaiian islands and beyond, resulting in the connection of a lei of aloha around the globe.

At the global level, the United Nations sustainable development goals, the Hawaii Commitments presented to the World Conservation Congress in 2016, and the Paris Climate Agreement have been adopted to guide global efforts. The sustainable development goals, otherwise known as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which were born at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, and came into force in 2015, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The seventeen sustainable development goals are interconnected and work in the spirit of partnership and pragmatism to make the right choices now to improve life, in a sustainable way, for future generations. They provide a clear framework for action to guide countries in accordance with their own priorities and the environmental challenges of the world at large. They tackle the root causes of poverty and unite us to make a positive change for both people and planet.

Dealing with the threat of climate change impacts how we manage our fragile natural resources. Achieving gender equality and better health helps eradicate poverty, and fostering peaceful and inclusive societies will reduce inequalities and help economies prosper. The sustainable development goals are voluntary commitments to make the world a better and more prosperous place.

During September 2016, more than ten thousand leaders from government, civil society, indigenous communities, faith and spiritual traditions, the private sector, and academia gathered in Hawaii for a meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress. Delegates to the Congress adopted the Hawaii Commitments to achieve the transformation required to promote a "Culture of Conservation". The Hawaii Commitments consist of seven identified challenges and proposed solutions, including:

(1) Linking spirituality, religion, culture, and conservation;

(2) Engaging and empowering youth;

(3) The challenge of sustaining the global food supply and conserving nature;

(4) The challenge of preserving the health of the world ocean;

(5) The challenge of ending wildlife trafficking;

(6) The challenge of engaging with the private sector; and

(7) The challenge of climate change.

The Hawaii Commitments build on the Paris Climate Agreement and the sustainable development goals to allow different global voices to come together and find common ground in the spirit of partnership, collaboration, and sustainability.

In order for Hawaii to continue to serve as a starlight for the rest of the world in setting policies on sustainability and to serve as a global leader on issues of conservation and sustainability, it is essential that the State demonstrate its full commitment to its own policies and goals, as well as the goals set on the international stage at United Nations conferences and summits on sustainability.

Therefore, the purpose of this Act is to codify the State's commitment to conservation and sustainability within the Hawaii State Planning Act contained within the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

SECTION 2. Chapter 226, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding four new sections to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§226- Sustainable development goals; strengthening implementation. In pursuance of the State's sustainability goals, and notwithstanding any law to the contrary, all agencies shall, insofar as practicable, take action to assist the State in strengthening the means of implementation of the sustainable development goals in this chapter by 2030 by:

(1) Building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships to encourage and promote effective public, public-private, and civil society partnerships;

(2) Mobilizing additional financial resources from multiple sources in furtherance of the State's sustainability goals;

(3) Significantly increasing investment in conservation action from both public and private sector sources, pursuant to the World Conservation Congress Hawai‘i Commitments of 2016;

(4) Enhancing cooperation on and access to science, technology, and innovation, and enhancing knowledge-sharing on mutually agreed terms;

(5) Promoting the development, transfer, dissemination, and diffusion of technology and innovation that are shown to promote environmental conservation and sustainability;

(6) Strengthening domestic resource mobilization to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection;

(7) Enhancing statewide macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy coherence;

(8) Enhancing policy coherence for sustainable development;

(9) Respecting each agency's policy and leadership space in order to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development;

(10) Enhancing capacity-building support to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely, and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location, and other relevant characteristics; and

(11) Building on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product.

§226- Sustainable development goals; industry, innovation, and infrastructure. In pursuance of the State's sustainability goals, and notwithstanding any law to the contrary, all agencies shall, insofar as practicable, take action to assist the State in achieving the sustainable development goal of building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and fostering innovation by 2030 by:

(1) Developing high quality, reliable, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access to infrastructure for all;

(2) Promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and significantly raising industry's share of employment and gross domestic product;

(3) Increasing the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets;

(4) Upgrading and developing infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes;

(5) Enhancing scientific research, upgrading the technological capabilities of industrial sectors statewide, including encouraging innovation, and substantially increasing the research and development workforce and public and private research and development spending;

(6) Supporting local technology development, research, and innovation, including by ensuring a policy environment conducive to industrial diversification and value addition to commodities; and

(7) Significantly increasing access to information and communications technology for the State's residents and striving to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet.

§226- Sustainable development goals; reducing inequalities. In pursuance of the State's sustainability goals, and notwithstanding any law to the contrary, all agencies shall, insofar as practicable, take action to assist the State in achieving the sustainable development goal of reducing inequalities by 2030 by:

(1) Progressively achieving and sustaining income growth of the bottom forty per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average;

(2) Empowering and promoting the social, economic, and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, or economic or other status;

(3) Ensuring equal opportunity and reducing inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies, and action in this regard;

(4) Adopting policies, especially fiscal, wage, and social protection policies, and progressively achieving greater equality; and

(5) Facilitating orderly, safe, regular, and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies.

§226- Sustainable development goals; peace, justice, and strong institutions. In pursuance of the State's sustainability goals, and notwithstanding any law to the contrary, all agencies shall, insofar as practicable, take action to assist the State in achieving the sustainable development goal of promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development; providing access to justice for all; and building effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels by 2030 by:

(1) Significantly reducing all forms of violence and related death rates statewide;

(2) Ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence against and torture of individuals;

(3) Promoting the rule of law at all levels and ensuring equal access to justice for all;

(4) Significantly reducing illicit financial and arms flows, strengthening the recovery and return of stolen assets, and combating all forms of organized crime;

(5) Substantially reducing corruption and bribery in all their forms;

(6) Developing effective, accountable, and transparent institutions at all levels;

(7) Ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory, and representative decision-making at all levels;

(8) Broadening and strengthening the participation of citizens in the institutions of state and local governance;

(9) Ensuring public access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms; and

(10) Strengthening relevant state institutions to prevent violence and combating terrorism and crime."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2112, and shall be repealed on June 30, 2030.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2678
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018		S.D. 3
STATE OF HAWAII		H.D. 1