‘We can’t afford to stay put’: Higgins plans for climate action despite pushback

Climate Change admin July 1, 2026 0 Comments

‘We can’t afford to stay put’: Higgins plans for climate action despite pushback

Eileen Higgins finds herself in an unusual position as the first Democrat mayor of Miami in decades: she’s being asked to improve upon a Republican’s fairly good track record on climate change.

In a city plagued with rising seas and temperatures — whose woes were once immortalized by Rolling Stone in a cover story declaring “Goodbye, Miami” — it made headlines when Republican Mayor Francis Suarez declared sea level rise a crucial issue and directed his administration to spend hundreds of millions addressing flooding.

But the bipartisan honeymoon period on climate action didn’t last long. Now, with the federal and state government yanking back plenty of that funding and directly barring the city from enacting some of its more aggressive climate plans, Higgins is left with a narrow road to tread toward progress.

Last week, Higgins was one of three U.S. mayors to attend London Climate Week, where one of the main topics of conversation was moving the ball forward despite pushback.

“If all you do is say ‘they won’t let me,’ then you’ll stay put. And we can’t afford to stay put,” she said. “I never think I can’t do something; I just go do what we’re allowed to do, and what we’re allowed to do is quite a lot.”

Higgins told the Herald her vision for resilience in her administration is to continue to push forward on the city’s flooding projects, $700 million of which have either been built or are under construction, she said. Plenty of that was funded by the Miami Forever Bond, OKed by voters in the same election that swept Suarez in for his first term.

But reporting from the Coconut Grove Grapevine late last year suggests that the flooding projects that make up about half of the $400 million bond are the farthest behind compared to the affordable housing and parks projects. The city attributed the delay to the pandemic, staff turnover and changes to the original plans.

Higgins said her solution is to speed up permitting by slashing red tape — both for these types of large, city projects and for home and business owners trying to install resilient upgrades.

“Reducing permitting time is a top priority for me,” she said. “If our stormwater projects and flood prevention projects take two to three years in permitting, that’s another two to three rainy seasons. It also increases the costs of these projects.”

The city recently launched a pilot project called SAVE (Stormproof Assistance and Value Enhancements). It offers a 50% discount on permits for resilience upgrades like impact windows, living seawalls or smart thermostats. It applies to remodeling projects for single family homes, condominiums, apartments and duplexes.

The goal is to both slash costs and speed up these types of projects, which will help lower energy and insurance bills for Miami residents.

Higgins also says that improving resilience will mean changing the city’s building code to allow innovative new technology. Right now, she said, her administration is working on making it easier to install permeable pavement, which helps absorb floodwater in flood-prone spots.

During her time as a county commissioner, Higgins said she worked to improve the county’s building code on living shorelines, compost facilities and shifting zoning for town houses to allow more green space.

“There’s going to be hundreds of innovations in climate and resilience that are going to be coming down the pipeline as our world heats and changes, and we are going to find a way to put them into code,” she said. “We’re going to figure it out. We’re going to do it.”

Another priority for Higgins is waste, she said. Miami-Dade is facing a trash crisis after the main waste facility burned down and replacing it turned into a political dogfight.

The county is about to conclude its three-month pilot program for composting, which featured several dropoff locations in Miami. And in March, a Higgins-sponsored policy to eliminate single-use plastics and Styrofoam from contracts with city vendors passed unanimously.

With just a few months of her term under her belt, Higgins said she’s determined to move the ball forward on resilience wherever possible, including finding as many grants as possible to stretch city dollars further.

“I feel good about our team, we are really weaving climate resilience into what we’re doing,” she said. “We’re certainly on the path to thinking differently in the face of the headwinds that may come from the state and federal governments.”