Vermont Resilience Implementation Strategy

The Vermont Resilience Implementation Strategy (the Strategy), published in 2025, provides a comprehensive roadmap for the state to strengthen its resilience to climate-related risks. With support from the Resilience Implementation Strategy Steering Committee, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources’ Climate Action Office coordinated the development of the Strategy to build on existing climate, hazard mitigation, and land-use plans, identify gaps in current efforts, and prioritize concrete actions for implementation. The Strategy serves as a guiding tool for state agencies, municipalities, and policymakers to align funding, policy decisions, and resilience investments in a way that promotes environmental protection, economic stability, and equitable outcomes for Vermont communities. 

The Strategy’s vision builds on work begun in 2013 in response to Tropical Storm Irene, when the Resilient Vermont Project brought together government, nonprofits, and citizens to imagine a more resilient future and develop the state’s 2013 Roadmap to Resilience. Twelve years later, Vermont had implemented new policies and programs, welcomed new residents, and faced new (and worsening) disasters. The 2025 strategy builds on the 2013 Roadmap and the progress made in the interim period, including the Climate Action Plan, which the Vermont Climate Council first developed in 2021 and updated in July 2025 as required by the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2020.

The Strategy is organized around six core components that serve as the building blocks for state action: (1) government systems, (2) community-centric approaches, (3) early warning systems and fast response, (4) economic and environmental sustainability, (5) infrastructure design and reinforcement, and (6) nature-based solutions. 

What distinguishes the 2025 Strategy is its implementation focus. While previous plans identified what needed to happen, this plan specifies how, when, who needs to be involved, and how much investment is required. It separates actions into Tier 1 (high urgency, ready to implement) and Tier 2 (important but needing more planning). It assigns lead agencies for each action and estimates both one-time and ongoing costs for all Tier 1 actions, as determined by the State Treasurer’s Office. The 2025 Strategy identifies 126 priority actions organized into the above-mentioned six core components, with estimated costs for the 48 of the highest priority actions (including all 40 deemed Tier 1) requiring approximately $270 million in one-time investments and $95 million in ongoing annual needs.  

Recognizing that the investment and capacity required to implement these highest priority actions would prevent concurrent implementation for all of them, the steering committee also identified five key initiatives that would deliver the greatest impact, which are incorporated within the Tier 1 priority actions they believed would have significant risk-mitigation benefits and reduce costs after major weather events: 

  • The Flood Resilient Communities Fund, a program run by Vermont Emergency Management that allows communities to make proactive investments to reduce flood damage. The strategy calls for sustained annual investments of at least $5 million. 
  • Dam Safety Coordination, a relatively small investment ($175,000 annually) to convene regional tabletop exercises on dam safety and emergency action and improve preparedness in the event of a dam failure due to extreme weather. 
  • The Municipal Climate Resilience Fund, which provides no-cost financing immediately after disasters in order to lessen the financial burden of climate disaster response efforts while municipalities await FEMA reimbursements.
  • Hydraulic Studies, which for a relatively low cost could help the state better understand how riverbeds near populated areas have shifted following floods and evaluate potential solutions to reduce future flood risk.
  • An Education Outreach Campaign, would help Vermonters understand their flood risk and insurance options and ultimately increase the number of flood insurance policies in the state, without adding any new costs to the state. 

The Climate Action Office is developing a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation tool to support overall understanding of the Strategy. The tool is intended to help the public track implementation of the actions set forth in this Strategy and identify if the intended outcomes toward improving community resilience are achieved.

The steering committee brought together expertise from across Vermont’s government, with representatives from the following departments and agencies: Transportation; Public Service; Agriculture, Food and Markets; Housing and Community Development; Health; Natural Resources; Emergency Management; the Office of Disaster Recovery; the State Treasurer's Office; and the State Climate Office. This cross-agency collaboration ensured that resilience planning was not siloed within environmental departments but integrated perspectives from multiple sectors.

The Resilience Implementation Strategy was launched as an initiative by the Governor and State Treasurer, with a directive to revisit the Strategy every two years to ensure it remains responsive to emerging priorities, new funding opportunities and shifts in federal funding, and evolving science. A full update is required by December 2029 to assess progress and identify the next set of priority actions. Through regular updates, the Strategy provides an adaptive framework for guiding Vermont's resilience investments over time. Vermont’s Climate Superfund Act of 2024 adds another layer, mentioning the need for a “Resilience Implementation Strategy” to help prioritize climate adaptation projects eligible for funding from the Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program. This work is expected to begin in early 2026, building on the foundation established in the Resilience Implementation Strategy.

Publication Date: September 17, 2025

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