Climate Knowledge Center
Overview: The Association of Climate Change Officers is a U.S. coalition of private and public sector community leaders that promotes sustainable building and adaptive policies on the municipal level.
How to Use This Resource: This nonprofit publishes extensive research on adaptation initiatives on the local level, which can be found on its Knowledge Center page. This is an excellent resource for journalists researching climate adaption in U.S. corporations.
Climate Change News Coverage
Overview: The Guardian, one of the world’s leading newspapers, publishes frequently on climate change issues and maintains thousands of its articles in this news archive.
How to Use This Resource: Access the Guardian’s daily climate reporting, as well as special topic coverage, such as from the COP21 Paris climate talks, or on extreme weather and flooding.
Impacts & Adaptation – EPA State and Local Climate and Energy Program
Overview: This website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment, archives all EPA adaptation resources available to U.S. city and state governments.
How to Use This Resource: The resource offers discussion of the benefits of adaptation and adaptation planning, links to specific plans from New York City, Chicago and Miami, among others, and a wide range of resources and tools.
Technical Resources on Climate Impacts
Overview: The Climate Impacts Group, part of the College of the Environment at the University of Washington, provides policymakers with scientific data and practical tools to address climate risks.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find datasets, publications and special reports on climate adaptation initiatives from this organization that focuses specifically in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada.
ClimateWire
Overview: Environment & Energy Publishing provides coverage of environmental and energy policy and markets through five daily online publications that focus on Washington policy and politics, as well as national and global news.
How to Use This Resource: ClimateWire covers news on the politics and business of climate adaptation in the United States and abroad.
European Climate Adaptation Platform (Climate-ADAPT)
Overview: Climate Adapt is a partnership between the European Commission and the European Environment Agency working to adapt Europe to climate change by providing a platform to publish and share information.
How to Use This Resource: This database contains European climate change projections in Europe, maps of regions vulnerable to climate change, national and transnational adaptation strategies, case studies and potential adaptation options.
Climate Change Global Food Security and the U.S. Food System
Overview: The United States Global Change Research Program is a coalition of 13 federal departments and agencies research the human-induced and natural processes of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This 157-page report, part of a peer-reviewed scientific assessment incorporated into the U.S. National Climate Assessment, analyzes how climate change is impacting global food security across multiple sectors. The web site includes a six-minute explanatory video.
Climate Resilient Cities
Overview: Climate Resilient Cities is the overarching program on urban resilience of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), a worldwide network of over 1,000 cities, towns and metropolises with a mission to promote environmental sustainability in government.
How to Use This Resource: This initiative provides information and toolkits on municipal-level disaster risk reduction, food security, policy making and financing. Links on the web site include an adaptation database and planning tool, a white paper on financing resilience and various guidebooks. The site also includes a link to the the Durban Adaptation Charter, which has been signed by leaders from over 100 cities.
Climate Change Research and Impacts
Overview: The International Food Policy Research Institute, a research center of the CGIAR Consortium, a worldwide partnership engaged in agricultural research for development, works with small-scale farmers across the globe to find ways to sustainably adapt to and build resilience toward a changing climate.
How to Use This Resource: This archive of publications contains all research and reports on IFPRI agricultural adaption initiatives.
A New Climate for Peace: Taking Action on Climate and Fragility Risks
Overview: The Group of 7 leading nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States — commissioned this report to identify the largest climate-fragility risks that pose serious threats to the stability of states and societies in the decades ahead.
How to Use This Resource: The report identifies seven “compound climate-fragility risks,” such as extreme weather and sea-level rise, that pose serious threats to the stability of states and societies. Based on an assessment of existing policies on climate change adaptation, development cooperation and humanitarian aid, and peacebuilding, the report recommends actions to reduce climate fragility and increase resilience. The report also includes nine country case studies, while the web site includes a fact book, risk briefs, suggested reading and an events list.
Climate Change and Human Mobility
Overview: The Nansen Initiative is an inter-government effort, primarily funded by Norway and Switzerland, to build consensus around protecting people displaced across borders due to natural disasters, including those linked to climate change.
How to Use This Resource: The Nansen Initiative web site has links to specific regional initiatives in Asia, Africa, the Pacific and Latin America, an archive of dozens of backgrounders and statements, plus policy reviews and research. The initiative also held an event at the Paris climate negotiations to bring together players around climate change and human mobility issues.
Game-changers in the Paris Climate Deal
Overview: Oxfam is an international confederation of organizations working on poverty alleviation and helping with disaster relief in more than 90 countries.
How to Use This Resource: As part of a campaign around the Paris COP21 climate summit, Oxfam has prepared this white paper on what it sees as important outcomes from the negotiations, including adequate financing for adaptation in poorer countries.
U.N. Climate Change Newsroom
Overview: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and has near universal membership. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
How to Use This Resource: At the Paris 2015 Climate Change Conference, convention members are attempting to reach a global agreement on climate action. This website posted regular updates from the Paris conference, including the latest information on negotiations, documents, and live feeds, as well as resources for those journalists covering the conference. You can also find a list of on-demand webcasts and a hashtag tracker.
Global Climate Adaptation Partnership
Overview: The Global Climate Adaptation Partnership is a leading climate change adaptation consultancy, training and knowledge management companies, based in England.
How to Use This Resource: The site provides links to a compendium of adaptation and disaster risk reduction practices, as well as information about a training program, the Oxford Adaptation Academy,
French National Climate Change Impact Adaptation Plan
Overview: The French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, and Energy is a cabinet-level agency responsible for policies on climate change adaptation.
How to Use This Resource: France’s climate plan focused primarily on fortifying national infrastructure and preserving public health.
Combatting Climate Change: The German Adaptation Policy
Overview: The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety is the German governmental body responsible for policies on climate action, urban development, and rural infrastructure
How to Use This Resource: This report outlines the German plan to adapt to climate change. It focuses specifically on infrastructure adaption in agricultural, transportation, and water supply sectors.
Climate Change Information for Adaptation: Climate Trends and Projected Values for Canada from 2010 to 2050
Overview: The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction is a disaster prevention research nonprofit, established by Canada’s property and casualty insurance industry and affiliated with the University of Western Ontario.
How to Use This Resource: This report breaks summarizes climate trends to date and offers future weather projections in 18 major Canadian regions.
Canada’s Ongoing Commitment to Climate Change Adaptation
Overview: Environment Canada is the branch of the Canadian government responsible for conducting scientific research on Canada’s environment and for draft legislation to maintain it.
How to Use This Resource: This policy brief reports on how federal adaptation funds are being allocated in Canada.
City and County of Denver Climate Adaptation Plan
Overview: Denver’s Department of Environmental Health is the municipal agency responsible for protecting Denver’s environment and enhancing sustainability.
How to Use This Resource: Denver has an extensive plan in place to strengthen the city infrastructure. This report examines what the city can do to adapt its buildings and its energy, transportation, and agricultural systems to a changing climate.
Delaware Braces for Climate Change
Overview: The News Journal covers breaking news in the state of Delaware.
How to Use This Resource: This article covers the extent of Delaware’s plans to improve their flood response policy, fortify the coastline’s infrastructure, and invest in a more resilient public transportation system.
Portland and Multnomah County Climate Action Plan
Overview: The Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability develops practical policies to enhance Portland’s climate resiliency and decrease its carbon footprint.
How to Use This Resource: This report outlines the actions that Portland will take in the next five years to reduce carbon emissions and build up infrastructure to withstand extreme weather such as floods, heatwaves, and landslides.
Bloomberg’s Hidden Legacy: Climate Change and the Future of New York City
Overview: Inside Climate News is a Pulitzer prize-winning, nonprofit news organization that covers clean energy, carbon energy, nuclear energy and environmental science.
How to Use This Resource: Mayor Bloomberg’s initiatives to fortify New York City after Hurricane Sandy have since become a model for urban adaptation across the globe. This book details those initiatives.
Can Understanding Rain Enable Change?
Overview: Where the Rain Falls research explores the interrelationships among rainfall, food and livelihood security, and human mobility in a diverse set of research sites in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find research on how this advocacy group improves food and water security through community-based adaptation strategies in developing nations across the globe.
Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation
Overview: Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Life Science conducts research on biotechnology, biomedical engineering, renewable energies and process engineering, nutrition and health, hazard control and rescue engineering and industrial engineering.
How to Use This Resource: This book examines on the micro and macro levels the socioeconomic impacts of climate change and the process of adaptation.
Recent OECD work on Adaptation to Climate Change
Overview: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is a consortium of 34 nations in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Asia that promote international economic development.
How to Use This Resource: This report details what actions the OECD has taken to assist developing countries prepare for climate change, how best to invest in future adaptation, and where funds are needed most.
States of Change: Stories of Climate Change from Close to Home
Overview: Climate Central is an independent organization of scientists and journalists researching and reporting climate change in the United States.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists can use an interactive map to navigate a multimedia collection of stories, research, and data about climate change on a local level, searchable by region, topic or media within the United States.
Digital Coast: Office for Coastal Management
Overview: The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a federal agency dedicated to the preservation of oceans and the atmosphere.
How to Use This Resource: This repository contains U.S. topographic data that users can search by year, area, data provider, elevation product, projection, datum, and format.
Data Snapshots: Reusable Climate Maps
Overview: The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a federal agency dedicated to the preservation of oceans and the atmosphere.
How to Use This Resource: This catalog of maps features filtering options, such as droughts, temperature and severe weather, to help users pinpoint data by location.
Green Climate Fund
Overview: The Green Climate Fund is a global coalition of governments working together under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) to invest in climate-resilient development and help developing countries adapt to a changing climate.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find information on how the fund helps governments channel adaptation investments to developing countries, including a pledge tracker, descriptions of projects being funded, documentation and an online news room. More background about the Green Climate Fund can be found at the UNFCC web site.
Climate Adaptation: Seizing the Challenge
Overview: The World Economic Forum is an independent, international organization that collaborates with decision makers in the political and business spheres to shape global policies.
How to Use This Resource: Sub-Saharan African nations are among the most vulnerable to climate change and the least ready to adapt, according to this World Economic Forum report. Journalists will find data on the climate change and economic factors that weakens these nations.
Community-Based Adaptation to a Changing Climate
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: This report discusses how climate change impacts community services, provides adaptation strategies, and provides links to other federal resources.
Climate-Resilient Development: A Framework for Understanding and Addressing Climate Change
Overview: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers investigates, develops and maintains the nation environmental resources.
How to Use This Resource: This toolkit offers a five-stage program for policymakers and developers to help them assess climate risks and prioritize climate-resilient action.
The Climate Group
Overview: The Climate Group is an international nonprofit that advocates for a low carbon energy economy.
How to Use This Resource: The Climate Group develops climate finance mechanisms and business models which promote innovation, and supportive policy frameworks which are available on this site.
Climate Policy Resources
Overview: The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a private research organization that focuses on the use, regulation, and taxation of land, including implications related to climate change.
How to Use This Resource: Various climate policy resources are published by the Institute. Among them is the Planet of Cities book by Shlomo Angel reports on the developing science of cities and preparing them for expansion and climate change.
Climate Adaptation Planning, Research and Practice
Overview: weADAPT is an online space to access and share climate adaptation information from across the globe.
How to Use This Resource: weADAPt features an archive of relevant adaption reports, as well as an interactive map of initiatives happening across the globe.
Climate Confidential
Overview: Climate Confidential is an independent news source covering environment and technology. Funded by readers, its stories have appeared in The Atlantic and Scientific American.
How to Use This Resource: Find narrative-driven stories about technological innovation in the fight against climate change, drought and public health concerns.
Climate Preparedness Publications
Overview: The Resource Innovation Group is a nonprofit affiliated with the Sustainability Institute at Willamette University. It addresses the human causes and impacts of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: The Resource Innovation Group in Oregon has done substantial research at the nexus of climate change and public health, including developing human resilience. The site includes an archive of that work, as well as information about ongoing workshops in building resilience.
Connecting People to Build Inclusive Urban Climate Change Resilience
Overview: The Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network works to contribute knowledge, create resources, and promote agendas to build inclusive urban climate change resilience.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find an archive of reports, research and data on the progress of climate change adaptation in developing Asian nations.
Weather and Climate Toolkit
Overview: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a federal agency dedicated to the preservation of oceans and the atmosphere.
How to Use This Resource:The toolkit allows the visualization and data export of weather and climate data, including radar, satellite and model data. It also provides tools for background maps, animations and basic filtering.
Federal Action on Climate Change
Overview: Performance.gov provides the public with a view of the inner workings of the Federal Government.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a complete archive of the federal agencies concerned with climate change and the most up-to-date reports on their plans and progress.
Rising Waters, Rising Threat: How Climate Change Endangers America’s Neglected Wastewater Infrastructure
Overview: The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of Americans.
How to Use This Resource: As extreme weather strains sewer systems, wastewater infrastructure is becoming a critical public and environmental health concern. This report investigates the state of the sewage infrastructure and recommends policy to adapt it.
Population Dynamics, Climate Change, and Sustainable Development in Africa
Overview: The African Institute for Development Policy is an an African-led nonprofit, established to help bridge the gaps between research, policy and practice in the areas of population change, public health, and the environment in Africa.
How to Use This Resource: Sub-Saharan African nations need more funds to combat climate change, but weak political systems make it difficult to channel those funds where they are needed. This report analyzed the data and found that improving health, schooling, and economic opportunities would greatly increase the continent’s capacity to adapt.
Protecting Our Capital: How Climate Adaptation in Cities Creates a Resilient Place for Business
Overview: C40 is a network of international cities that share information and collaborate on climate change action.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find data from more than 200 cities on their adaptation initiatives on the micro and macro level.
Climate Change News Updates
Overview: The Ecologist publishes news on climate change and its impacts on agriculture, health, and the energy sector.
How to Use This Resource: The climate change coverage from The Ecologist combines in-depth reporting with fascinating stories of adaptation and survival.
Climate Desk
Overview: The Climate Desk is a journalistic collaboration dedicated to exploring the impacts of a changing climate, including adaptation. The partners are The Atlantic, CityLab, Grist, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Medium, Mother Jones, The New Republic, Newsweek, Slate, and Wired.
How to Use This Resource: The site combines the latest climate-related stories from Climate Desk’s partners, as well as features from its own staff.
Yale Climate Connections
Overview: The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication conducts research on public climate knowledge and provides communicators with tools to engage their audiences.
How to Use This Resource: Yale Climate Connections is a multimedia service that broadcasts daily radio and print stories about climate change.
Climate Showcase Communities Program
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment. EPA’s Climate Showcase Communities Program helps local governments and tribal nations pilot innovative, cost-effective and replicable community-based greenhouse gas reduction projects.
How to Use This Resource: This site and interactive map showcases climate change initiatives happening across the United States, specifically energy efficiency, waste management, and transportation programs. The site includes links to effective practices tip sheets, program model design guides and workshop presentations.
Local Government Climate Adaptation Training
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: This training toolkit was designed to brief local government lawmakers on the local level on climate change science, impacts, and policy solutions available to them.
California Climate Change Assessments
Overview: The California Natural Resources Agency is the state governmental body designated to address climate change adaptation and resiliency.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a portfolio of projects for California’s climate change assessment plans. The state recently released a Climate Change Research Plan that spells out near-term research needed to keep the state on track with its climate goals.
Climate Change Policy & Practice
Overview: Climate Change Policy and Practice is a database of United Nations and Intergovernmental activities that publishes news updates daily.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find the most recent updates on United Nations climate change action and news.
Climate Change and Transportation Research and Activities
Overview: The Transportation Research Board is run through the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. It conducts research at the nexus of climate change and transportation.
How to Use This Resource: This website serves as a gateway to Transportation Research Board activites and products that address transportation infrastructure and the effort to reduce transportation-related emissions of carbon dioxide.
Building Climate Resilient Transportation
Overview: The Federal Highway Administration is run through the U.S. Department of Transportation and is responsible for the upkeep of our roads and highways.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a detailed analysis of climate changes’ impact on the U.S. transportation system and what efforts are in place to combat it on the federal and state level.
Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise in Florida
Overview: The Florida Oceans and Coastal Council is a research organization sponsored by the federal government to develop priorities for ocean and coastal research statewide.
How to Use This Resource: This report on the effects of climate change on Florida’s ocean and coastal resources found the state extremely unprepared, because none of its infrastructure was built to accommodate sea level rise. The Florida Oceans and Coastal Council calls for immediate action in this comprehensive guide.
Climate, Mind and Behavior Symposium
Overview: The Garrison Institute is a nonprofit organization that explores the intersection of contemplation and action in the world.
How to Use This Resource: This symposium and resultant report examine the integration of climate change research findings about what drives human thinking on climate solutions.
Connecting on Climate: A Guide to Effective Climate Change Communication
Overview: The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions is an interdisciplinary center that studies decision-making during climate uncertainty. It is run through Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
How to Use This Resource: This is a guide for communicating about climate change in a manner that is clear but not simplified.
The Climate Center Research on Agriculture
Overview: The University of Michigan Graham Sustainability Institute researches solutions for the long-term social, economic, and environment sustainability of the Great Lakes region in the face of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: The Climate Center delivers reports and datasets on the impacts climate change will have on American agriculture and the adaptation strategies underway.
Paris Climate Change Conference Information Hub
Overview: The Paris 2015 Climate Change Conference was the 21st meeting of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, whose aim is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
How to Use This Resource: The extensive conference information hub is a go-to site for reporters covering the Nov. 30-Dec. 11, 2015 summit, providing agendas, reports, schedules, research pertaining, and more. There’s also a web site on Understanding the UNFCC that includes a detailed discussion of adaptation initiatives.
Business Risk Assessment and the Management of Climate Change Impacts: Eight Philippine Cities
Overview: The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international conservation organization working to reduce the impact of human activity on the environment and wildlife.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find extensive reporting on the business of funding climate change adaptation in the Philippines.
Adapting to Climate Change in Coastal Parks
Overview: The National Park Service is a branch of the United States Department of the Interior and is responsible for the upkeep and protection of national parks.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a comprehensive report on how rising sea levels threaten national parks and what action is underway to address this threat.
Climate Registry for the Assessment of Vulnerability
Overview: The U.S. Geographical Survey is a science organization that provides the government with information on America’s ecosystems, natural hazards and resources, and the impacts of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: Users can search this database – administered by the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center and the advisory group EcoAdapt – for assessments by specific geographic regions, relevant agency, species, ecosystem and other factors.
Climate Adaptation Case Studies Map
Overview: The Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange is a shared information database by EcoAdapt and Island Press. It focuses on managing natural and built systems in the face of rapid climate change.
How to Use This Resource: The Case Studies Database map profiles on-the-ground adaptation investments across the globe and provides links to complete project information.
Coastal Storm Surge Scenarios for Water Utilities
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: This map illustrates worst-case coastal storm scenarios with datasets from the National Hurricane Center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Environmental and Climate Justice Program
Overview: The Environmental and Climate Justice Program is the branch of the NAACP advocating for climate change action in African-American communities.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find information the specific impact climate change has on African-American communities in the United States. The database includes policy reports, toolkits, and blog articles.
Which Coastal Cities Are at Highest Risk of Damaging Floods?
Overview: The World Bank is an intergovernmental financial institution based in Washington D.C. that fights poverty by providing loans to developing countries, sponsoring research and promoting policy change worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: The cost of urban losses from flooding in coastal cities will rise 850 percent in 50 years, according to this World Bank report. Its findings are summarized in this article, which includes a link to purchase the full report. The report is part of a series, “Turn Down the Heat,” that looks at expected rises in sea level and their impact on vulnerable regions around the world.
CityLab: Climate Change
Overview: The Atlantic is one of the top English-Language newspapers in the world and is based in Washington D.C. It provides international cultural commentary with a moderate perspective.
How to Use This Resource: This newsletter uses data analysis and visual storytelling to report on innovation in cities worldwide. Its focus is at the nexus of municipal policy and new technology.
FEMA on Climate Change
Overview: The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency supports citizens and first responders to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate hazards.
How to Use This Resource: FEMA’s climate change site provides access to a wide range of its own tools and data, as well as those from other agencies. Links are provided to information on risk mapping, the federal flood risk management standard, coastal flood risks and hurricanes. Search elsewhere within the FEMA site for information on flood insurance, emergency response, and activities in regions of the country, as well as preparing for emergencies.
State and Local Climate Adaptation Map
Overview: The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions is an independent nonprofit advocating for policy action to address climate change. It is the successor to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
How to Use This Resource: This map shows how American cities and states are adapting to their individual climate challenges. It includes examples of city adaptation actions and provides plan details on a city and state level where available.
Chicago Climate Action Plan
Overview: The Chicago Climate Task Force reports to Chicago’s Office of the Mayor. The consortium of policymakers and climate experts are working together to decrease Chicago’s GHG emissions and adapt the city to new climate patterns.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a complete assessment of Chicago’s response to climate change with reports on policy, risk assessment, and new initiatives, including a nine-point climate adaptation plan.
Climate Change Adaptation: Towards a Resilient City
Overview: The Environment and Energy Division of the City of Toronto develops and implements its environmental and energy policies, as well as promoting sustainable development in the private sector.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find several reports and briefs from the Toronto city government on what climate change risks the city faces and how it is adapting.
Resilient pathways: The Adaptation of the ICT Sector to Climate Change
Overview: Three United Nations Agencies – the International Telecommunications Union, UNESCO and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – collaborated on this report, which calls for updated policy on climate change policy.
How to Use This Resource: This report explores the impacts of climate change on the information and communication technology sector, the potential for adaptation, and recommends new standards that need to be developed in order to protect economic growth.
Climate News Coverage
Overview: Mashable is a global media company that caters to the digital generation. It reports 45 million monthly unique visitors and 25 million social followers.
How to Use This Resource: Mashable’s climate coverage is led by Science Editor Andrew Freedman, one of the most prolific climate reporters in the United States. He covers breaking climate news, writes long-form analyses, and digests complex data on climate change. He publishes on a daily basis.
Climate Change and the Small Business Sector
Overview: Small Business Majority is a network of 12,000 small business owners that conducts polling, focus groups and economic research to better inform policy makers about the concerns of their constituents. The American Sustainable Business Council represents more than 165,000 businesses nationwide and advocates for sustainability in the economic sector.
How to Use This Resource: To illustrate how American businesses are responding to climate change, this report presents six case studies from a wide range of sectors, including roofing, retail, tourism, landscape architecture, agriculture, and small-scale manufacturing.
Climate-Ready Water Utilities Toolkit
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: This toolkit – designed primarily for water utility managers – focuses on fortifying water infrastructure and provides tools, training, and technical assistance needed to adapt to climate change.
U.S. Congress Bills on Climate Change Adaptation Database
Overview: The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to advance climate change and energy policy in the United States.
How to Use This Resource: This database provides a list of every climate change bill in the 113th Congress. It identifies the bill’s sponsor, summarizes its contents, and reports on its status. Bills are organized by topic, which include climate change adaptation, energy, transportation, renewable fuels, and carbon.
Climate Adaptation Publication Database
Overview: The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association advocates for adaptation policy in the San Francisco Bay Area.
How to Use This Resource: Review an archive of research and policy recommendations to reduce carbon emissions and prepare the city for extreme weather and sea level rise.
How Climate Change Action is Giving Us Wealthier, Healthier Cities
Overview: This Carbon Disclosure Project report surveyed 110 municipal governments worldwide to research the effect of climate change action on cities. It found it would enhance the municipalities’ economies, as well as the health of their residents.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find data on the municipal governments: which policymakers are addressing climate change, what they are doing, and how their efforts are working. The study found 91 percent of cities believe cutting greenhouse gas emissions will improve their economies, 55 percent are combatting climate change by promoting walking and cycling, and more than 75 percent of cities reported that their action will improve the health of their residents.
Crowdsourcing Climate Change Adaptation
Overview: Climate CoLab uses crowdsourcing and contests to unite citizens, experts and policymakers and create innovative proposals for climate change action worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: Climate CoLab’s adaptation contest features proposals on preparing for and adapting to climate change. The site also feature numerous other contests and research from internationally recognized experts paired with practical perspectives from local communities.
The Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Program
Overview: Adaptation Scotland is a collaboration of businesses and policymakers funded by, and working for, the Scottish government.
How to Use This Resource: Adaption Scotland details how climate change has and will affect Scotland as well as the Scottish government’s plans to adapt its infrastructure and prepare its populace.
The Climate Impacts: Global and Regional Adaptation Support Platform Database
Overview: CI:Grasp is a climate information service that collects data on current and projected climate stimuli, impacts and adaptation options on a national and regional level.
How to Use This Resource: This enormous database allows journalists to search for worldwide adaptation projects by numerous criteria, such as region, climate change effect, and source.
Climate Change Adaptation: Lessons From Urban Economics
Overview: The NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management specializes in urban economies research, their reports feature important data on how climate change influences urban markets.
How to Use This Resource: This paper develops a dynamic model for measuring the contributions urban residents and businesses make to readying their cities for climate change.
C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
Overview: The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group is a network of international cities that share information and collaborate on climate change action. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a key funder.
How to Use This Resource: The site’s database allows journalists to search among participating cities for adaptation and other initiatives. Its research menu provides access to extensive reports, case studies and data, including on adaptation and on low carbon emissions in cities.
Climate Communication Research and Reports
Overview: Climate Outreach is a European climate change communication organization. It focuses on how to engage in climate change conversations with young people, conservative policymakers or people of faith.
How to Use This Resource: This archive of reports focus on climate change communication, and makes good reading for journalists. In addition, there’s a resource page on communicating climate impacts.
Climate Security 101
Overview: The Climate Security 101 site is a project of the policy institute, The Center for Climate and Security, researching how climate risks affect security. It also posts updates on climate security research and policy documents.
How to Use this Resource: This site’s database on climate change and security features primary documents organized into categories of sources: U.S. Government, intergovernmental bodies, think tanks, etc.
Climate Change Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers
Overview: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific body within the United Nations that reviews scientific, technical and socio-economic information on climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This synthesis report is provides a global perspective of climate change and addresses its causes, future impacts, and future pathways for adaptation.
Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability
Overview: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific body within the United Nations that reviews scientific, technical and socio-economic information on climate change.
How to Use this Resource: This report details the impacts of climate change worldwide to date. It found that while the process of adaptation has already begun, most climate change action is still reactionary.
Risky Business: The Economic Risks of Climate Change to the United States
Overview: The Risky Business Project is an independent assessment of the economic risks posed by a changing climate in the United States. It is the product of economic research firm Rhodium Group, which specializes in analyzing disruptive global trends, led by project co-chairs former New York Major Michael R. Bloomberg, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and philanthropist Tom Steyer.
How to Use This Resource: This extensive and high-profile financial risk-assessment report outlines a range of potential negative impacts if climate change adaptation lags for each region of the United States, as well as for selected sectors of the economy. More extensive reports have since been released on the Midwest, Southeast and California.
National Climate Assessment Report
Overview: The U.S. Global Change Research Program is a coalition of 13 federal departments and agencies research the human-induced and natural processes of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This interactive report details public and private sector adaptation planning happening in the United States. Few adaptation plans have been implemented and several enact only incremental changes.
Climate Change and Cities: First Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network
Overview: The Urban Climate Change Research Network institutionalizes the assessment process of climate change science, tailored for urban needs.
How to Use This Resource: The ARC3 report is a global, interdisciplinary, science-based assessment of the climate change risks unique to cities. The next report in the series was to be published in time for the 2015 Paris UN climate conference.
National Climate Assessment NCANet Toolkit
Overview: The United States Global Change Research Program is a coalition of 13 federal departments and agencies research the human-induced and natural processes of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: Participants of this information-sharing platform contribute their climate change research materials to this easily searchable database. The Adaptation + Mitigation and Built Infrastructure sections cover climate change action on the federal, state, and local level.
USDA Climate Hubs
Overview: The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the federal department responsible for developing and executing law on farming, agriculture, forestry, and food.
How to Use This Website: Each climate hub within this interactive map of the United States links to data on that region’s climate, as well as to practical information about climate resiliency and adaptation toolkits for farmers, ranchers and landowners.
Climate and Disaster Resilience Initiatives
Overview: The United Nations Development Programme researches the climate disaster risk and energy policies of nations and finances resiliency efforts worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: Developing countries are both less able to cope with and more likely to be affected by extreme weather. This database provides information on what adaptation action is being taken by the United Nations Development Programme and where.
Climate-Smart Planning Platform
Overview: The Climate-Smart Planning Platform, from the Climate Policy and Finance Department of the World Bank, assists developing country policymakers with low carbon growth and climate resilient development by connecting them to relevant tools, data, and knowledge.
How to Use This Website: Journalists can use this PDF to understand the challenges of planning for climate adaptation, to collect World Bank sources, and as a gateway to World Bank data on climate and weather data by region or sector.
Global Climate Change Initiative
Overview: The U.S. Agency for International Development is the primary federal agency for the administration of foreign financial aid.
How to Use This Resource: U.S. AID’s work focuses on human security and prosperity overseas, and its climate initiative focuses on clean energy growth and resilient development. Its adaptation program reaches more than 30 countries. The site also has a resilience resource and research database in which journalists will find articles, speeches, videos and webinars on U.S. international adaptation investments.
President Obama’s Plan to Fight Climate Change
Overview: WhiteHouse.gov serves as an archive of news and information pertaining to the President of the United States. It regularly publishes policies, speeches, reports and briefs.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a structured explanation of federal government policies to reduce carbon pollution and encourage investment in clean energy. It also provides links to policy assessment reports, supporting research, and comprehensive fact sheets.
Coastal Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise Map
Overview: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce dedicated to the preservation of oceans and the atmosphere.
How to Use This Resource: This map provides clear data on where sea levels rising will have the largest impact in the United States. The data can be sorted by erosion rate, tide range and wave height.
Climate Change Adaptation by Federal Agencies: An Analysis of Plans and Issues for Congress
Overview: The Congressional Research Service is the public policy research agency within the U.S. Congress.
How to Use This Resource: This report reviews federal agencies and their plans to adapt their infrastructure and operations to future climate change.
Virtual Classroom – Marine and Environmental Reporting
Overview: The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting is an organization within the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography that provides science training to journalists.
How to Use This Resource: In the Climate Science section, journalists will find ample research on how climate change is affecting oceans and how those oceanic changes in turn affect coastal communities and the global climate.
States at Risk: America’s Preparedness Report Card
Overview: Climate Central is an independent organization of scientists and journalists researching and reporting climate change in the United States.
How to Use This Resource: This interactive report identifies the major climate threats facing the U.S – flooding, extreme heat, drought, and wildfire – and for each state provides a risk assessment score based on the extremity of weather and adaptive actions in place.
City-level Resiliency Finance Resources
Overview: The Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance is a group of more than forty organizations that help cities invest in climate-resilient infrastructure.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find news updates, research reports and case studies from this new organization’s work worldwide.
COP21 Paris Agreement
Overview: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and has near universal membership. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
How to Use This Resource: This document (in PDF form) is the final draft of the Paris Summit agreement, officially adopted on December 21, 2015, of the 21st Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC.
The Business Case for Responsible Corporate Adaptation
Overview: Caring for Climate is a joint initiative of the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Environmental Programme and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, working to mobilize business leaders to implement climate change adaptation policies.
How to Use This Resource: This report provides recommendations on climate adaptation from the United Nations to businesses with the aim of fighting poverty and environmental degradation worldwide. It includes chapters on the business benefits of adapting responsibly and on overcoming barriers to corporate adaptation, as well as 17 case studies of business adaptation around the world.
National Adaptation Plans
Overview: A national adaptation plan process, part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, enables parties to formulate and implement the plans as a way to identify adaptation needs, and to develop and implement strategies and program to address them.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a complete database of UNFCCC plans to adapt Least Developed Countries to a changing climate. This resource page also includes links to technical guidelines and publications.
Vulnerability and Adaptation Projects and Initiatives
Overview: The World Resources Institute is a global research organization that works with more than 50 countries, including Brazil, China, Europe, India, Indonesia, and the United States. Its experts and staff work with policymakers to sustain natural resources and create economic opportunity.
How to Use This Resource: This site archives information on all World Resources Institute adaptation projects in vulnerable regions across the globe. Projects include adaptation finance, promoting effective adaptation in India, and adaptation decisionmaking. Individual project pages include links to publications and related material, such as maps and data.
The Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage
Overview: The Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is a protocol to address loss and damage associated with climate change impacts in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This page leads to various resources related to loss and damage, including an overview of milestones, various decision documents and meeting schedules, as well as access to a database of examples of existing loss and damage measures.
#COP21 Images
Overview: The photo-sharing social media site Instagram uses hashtags to create on-the-fly collections of images, such as with #COP21 for the Paris climate talks.
How to Use This Resource: Scan the page to review and share from a collection of tens of thousands of images from the Paris summit. Use the search function to check for other Paris or climate-related hashtags.
IISD Reporting Services Coverage of COP21
Overview: The International Institute for Sustainable Development, or IISD, is a Canadian non-profit focused on a range of sustainability issues, including resilience.
How to Use This Resource: IISD’s Reporting Services features extensive documentation from the Paris climate summit and previous UN climate negotiations, including coverage of main conferences and side events. Also featured are briefing videos on Paris. The main IISD site has a COP21 page with many backgrounders as well.
The Transformative Actions Program
Overview: The Transformative Actions Program (TAP) is an effort by cooperative networks of local and subnational governments to implement projects at the local and regional level. It was launched and is managed by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.
How to Use This Resource: Reporters can access a project pipeline of as many as 100 TAP projects and action plans. And at the COP21 climate change negotiations in Paris, TAP organized a Cities & Regions Pavilion that featured more than 120 local and regional projects, as well as a Climate Summit for Local Leaders.
100 Resilient Cities
Overview: The global nonprofit Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative invests in climate resilience worldwide by providing select cities with financial and logistical guidance, and access to solutions, service providers and partners to help develop and implement resilience strategies.
How to Use This Resource: The website provides detailed reports on member cities via a database that allows users to select cities based on region and specific challenges. The site also maintains an active blog.
Adaptation Platform
Overview: Natural Resources Canada is the branch of the Canadian government responsible protecting the country’s natural resources, with a focus on agricultural and clean energy policy.
How to Use This Resource: The Adaptation Platform unites Canadian government and industry decision makers to collaborate on national adaptation priorities.
Adaptation Measures Reporting: Quantifying Our Efforts
Overview: International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives — Canada is an association of local governments with a mission to promote environmental sustainability in government.
How to Use This Resource: This database provides reports and statistics on the local governments across Canada that are implementing adaptation measures to combat climate change.
Hoboken Resiliency & Readiness Plan
Overview: The City of Hoboken Mayor’s Office is one the leading municipal governments in the fight for climate adaptation. Mayor Dawn Zimmer has invested millions of dollars into Hoboken flood resiliency and is a member of President Obama’s Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Local Government Advisory Committee.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a comprehensive report on the climate risks facing Hoboken, N.J., primarily flooding and the need for better storm surge protection infrastructure.
2016 AAAS Annual Meeting on Global Science Engagement Symposia
Overview: The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing science to improve the human experience.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a detailed agenda for this meeting of leading climate change experts, to be held in February in Washington D.C. It will cover a broad array of climate change topics with a focus on natural preservation and resilient infrastructure.
The New Orleans Index at Ten: Measuring Greater New Orleans’ Progress toward Prosperity
Overview: The Data Center provides independent data analysis on disaster recovery and regional economic analysis in Southeast Louisiana.
How to Use This Resource: New Orlean’s recovery after Hurricane Katrina is a case study in the successes and failures of resilience investment. This report examines how the city used climate change adaptation to bolster the city’s economy yet why certain communities are still struggling to recover.
Community Disaster Resilience
Overview: The National Institute of Standards and Technology is a research group within the United States Department of Commerce. Its focus is at the nexus of physical science and new technology.
How to Use This Resource: This site contains a community resilience planning guide with implementation guidelines as well as links to information on disaster resilient building.
Two Years after Superstorm Sandy: Exploring Resilience in Twelve Neighborhoods
Overview: The Associated Press-National Opinion Research Center for Public Affairs Research is a joint collaboration between the University of Chicago and the AP to creative unbiased journalism that is rigorously researched.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a report on Hurricane Sandy recovery that focuses on the critical role social factors play in community resilience.
Retrofitting Buildings for Flood Risk
Overview: The New York City Department of City Planning is the department responsible for the oversight of the city’s physical and socioeconomic planning.
How to Use This Resource: This report provides a comprehensive analysis of retrofit options available for buildings in the New York City floodplain.
New York State Hurricane Sandy Response Programs
Overview: The Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery was formed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to centralize recovery and rebuilding efforts in areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
How to Use This Resource: This site details the New York State programs dedicated to housing recovery, small business, and community reconstruction.
Superstorm Sandy News, Articles, and Research
Overview: City Limits is a nonprofit news source for investigative journalism on the inner workings of New York City.
How to Use This Resource: Hurricane Sandy plays a key role in the continuing conversation on climate adaptation. This archive of the storm’s news coverage is a valuable resource for journalists to track its impact on the local level in New York City.
The Rotterdam Approach
Overview: The Rotterdam Climate Initiative offers a platform for companies, academies, citizens, and government bodies to work together on fortified water supply infrastructure.
How to Use This Resource: This website archives the numerous reports from the city of Rotterdam on how it plans to cut its CO2 emissions and promote sustainable business in the Netherlands.
Green Infrastructure Toolkit
Overview: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a federal agency within the United States Department of Commerce dedicated to the preservation of oceans and the atmosphere.
How to Use This Resource: This toolkit provides local-level data about the coastal risks of climate change and provide an extensive menu of techniques to mitigate those risks.
Adaptation Case Studies Database
Overview: The United Kingdom Climate Impacts Programme is a research group run out of the School of Geography And The Environment at Oxford University. It assists governments to adapt to climate change through practice-based research.
How to Use This Resource: UKCIP regularly publishes their case studies on innovative climate adaptation policy, which is searchable by sector and by risk.