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.
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.
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.
Building Resilience for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Agriculture Sector
Overview: The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are intergovernmental agencies focused on sustainable agricultural development worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: This report includes more than two dozen research papers on climate resilience and adaptation in agriculture sectors worldwide.
Building a Stronger Coast
Overview: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services is the agency dedicated to protecting oceanic ecosystems.
How to Use This Resource: This website features state fact sheets, an infographic on coastal resilience, restoration and repair videos, and an interactive story map of Hurricane Sandy recovery projects, with detailed profiles of each and a database of media resources that is searchable by state.
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.
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.
Natural Disasters: Saving Lives Today, Building Resilience for Tomorrow
Overview: The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is an international research organization based in London that campaigns for sustainable policies worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: The rapid increase of people living in cities and is worsening the world’s susceptibility to natural disasters. This report details the ramifications of that susceptibility and makes economic and policy recommendations to improve urban resiliency.
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.
Next City: Inspiring Better Cities
Overview: Next City is a nonprofit that advocates for environmental change in cities through journalism and events around the world.
How to Use This Resource: This newsletter publishes daily articles on breaking climate news happening in cities across the globe.
Resilient Cities: A Grosvenor Research Report
Overview: Grosvenor is a privately owned property group with properties across the globe that advocates for sustainable growth and climate adaptation.
How to Use This Resource: This report ranked the major cities of the world by climate resiliency. American cities dominated the top of the list and only two European cities, Stockholm and Zurich, made the top 10. The lowest ranking cities were those with high population forecasts and shoddy infrastructure, such as Mexico City. This data will be useful to journalists looking for contextual information.
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.
Sustainable Cities: Building Cities for the Future
Overview: The United Kingdom’s Climate Action Programme and the American C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group partnered to publish this report on innovative climate change adaptation in Adelaide, Chicago, Copenhagen, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find detailed analyses of city-level initiatives in carbon neutrality, public transportation, ecological architecture, and other such green topics.
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.
Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding: Strategy Stronger Communities, A Resilient Region
Overview: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Hurricane Sandy is a federal agency that oversees disaster relief funding and investment in resilient infrastructure.
How to Use This Resource: This report has extensive data on Hurricane Sandy’s impact on Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and the Shinnecock Indian Nation. It also clearly outlines the strategies federal government has taken and will take to repair and strengthen the coastline’s infrastructure.
Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management
Overview: The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery is a World Bank organization assisting policymakers to prepare low-income countries for future climate change events.
How To Use This Resource: Journalists can mine this 200-page report for information on flood risk assessment and the development of low-risk infrastructure.
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.
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.
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.
New York-New Jersey Waterfront Resilience
Overview: The Waterfront Alliance is a coalition of nearly 900 New York and New Jersey organizations working to adapt the region’s waterways and 700 miles of shoreline for oncoming climate changes.
How to Use This Resource: The site provides access to the alliance’s public testimony and white papers, as well as to its Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines, or WEDG program, an incentive-based ratings system for resilient building and design. There’s also a report on the region’s recovery efforts since Hurricane Sandy.
Risk Reduction Action and Research
Overview: The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) coordinates disaster reduction activities of the United Nations. It was founded in 1999 and focuses primarily on building resilience against climate change.
How to Use This Document: This website contains extensive data and research collected by the UNISDR, as well as updates on its activities. Of note are the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a Climate Risk Early Warning Systems initiative launched at COP21 and a report on “The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
State of the Planet – Climate
Overview: The Columbia University Earth Institute unites scientific research, education and practical solutions to promote sustainability worldwide. It is comprised of more than 30 research centers and about 850 scientists, postdoctoral fellows, staff and students.
How to Use This Resource: In addition to its main section on climate, which includes latest blog posts from the center’s experts and menus to search by topic, researcher, research center and archives, this website also has an area dedicated to policy and science relevant to the Paris 2015 UN climate summit.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Know Your Zone
Overview: New York City’s Office of Emergency Management is a coordinating agency that prepares for emergencies, coordinates emergency response, and shares emergency information.
How to Use This Resource: This site contains practical information about New York City’s hurricane response policies and includes maps of hurricane evacuation zones, potential hurricane hazards, and preparation techniques.
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.
Flood Insurance
Overview: The Center for NYC Neighborhoods is a nonprofit dedicated to preventing foreclosure, rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy, and promoting affordable homeownership.
How to Use This Resource: This toolkit for New York City residents provides up-to-date information on flood insurance and risk assessment in the five boroughs. It includes an interactive map and a full report on flood insurance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Special Initiatives
Overview: Eye on Earth is a coalition of global leaders, innovators and decision-makers working to unite policymakers, converge consensus, and foster further global collaboration toward climate adaptation.
How to Use This Resource: This database provides policymakers with an information-sharing platform to share their knowledge of fighting climate change. Sorted by topic, the site features extensive research on disaster response, water security, and emission reduction, among others.
Fostering Community Disaster Resilience: A Fact Sheet for Journalists and News Organizations
Overview: The Disaster and Community Crisis Center at the University of Missouri focuses on enhancing mental and behavioral health preparedness, recovery, and resilience in children, families, and communities affected by disaster.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a comprehensive guid on the best practices for reporting in a disaster; how to prepare, report, and do no harm.
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.
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.
Assessing Health Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Guide for Health Departments
Overview: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. It uses its prevention expertise to advise cities and states on investigating, preparing for, and responding to the health ramifications of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This report outlines how the nation’s health services are assessing risk and preparing to adapt to climate change.
Adaptation Professionals Database
Overview: The American Society of Adaptation Professionals helps build climate resilience for communities across the country by providing a platform for climate adaptation leaders to share knowledge, plans, and resources.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists can use this database to find climate adaption experts and professionals by region within the United States.
National Disaster Resilience Competition
Overview: The Department of Housing and Urban Development is the cabinet-level agency responsible for the development of quality and affordable housing in the United States.
How to Use This Resource: Forty states and communities are competing in the final phase of the challenge to develop disaster resilience strategies and projects. This site provides a comprehensive guide to what action those governments are taking.
Mitigation and Adaptation Policies
Overview: The Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet is a NASA-sponsored project that archives timely news and data on Earth’s changing climate.
How to Use This Resource: This database makes NASA-sponsered data available to the general public with a special focus on adaption and mitigation.
Climate Change Resource Center
Overview: The U.S. Forest Service is the agency within the Department of Agriculture responsible for the preservation and upkeep of national forests and park
How to Use This Resource: This archive contains detailed reports on how the changing climate is impacting national forests, and the best practices for protecting them.
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.
Impacts and Adaptations Research Hub
Overview: Climate Access is a network for those engaging the public in the transformation to low-carbon, resilient communities.
How To Use This Research: This archive holds extensive reports on adaptation efforts across the globe and is searchable by region and by climate change impacts.
Global Sustainability and Resilience
Overview: The Wilson Center is a non-partisan policy forum that addresses global issues through independent research to draft actionable policy recommendations.
How to Use This Resource: The Global Sustainability and Resilience Program is an overarching initiative that combines the ongoing efforts of the Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program, China Environment Forum, Maternal Health Initiative, and Urban Sustainability Laboratory. There is extensive research, access to experts and events. Regular updates are found on the NewSecurityBeat.org blog.
Compact of Mayors News and Research
Overview: The Compact of Mayors is the world’s largest coalition of city leaders addressing climate change by pledging to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, tracking their progress and preparing for the impacts of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This archive of news updates and reports from the Compact of Mayors follows adaptation progress in cities across the globe.
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.
North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study Report
Overview: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers investigates, develops and maintains the nation environmental resources.
How to Use This Resource: This report and interactive map details the results of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study of coastal storm and flood risk to vulnerable populations, property, ecosystems, and infrastructure affected by Hurricane Sandy in the North Atlantic region.
Adaptation Resources in New Jersey
Overview: NJADAPT is an online tool to help government officials and the general public understand how a changing climate is affecting New Jersey. It is run through Rutgers University.
How to Use This Resource: This website features an adaptation toolkit, a directory of New Jersey-based adaptation resources, and university research on climate change impacts.
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.
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.
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.
Heat Island Effect Database
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: Heat islands are built-up areas that are hotter than nearby rural areas. They increase summertime peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, heat-related illness and mortality, and water quality. This is database of the ongoing research and strategies for mitigation.
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.
Progress Report: Targets and Initiatives 2
Overview: Greenworks Philadelphia is the City’s first comprehensive sustainability plan. Its drafting incorporated existing work within the Philadelphia government and external partners.
How to Use This Resource: This report details the Philadelphia government’s policies to combat climate change and make the city more resilient.
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.
Center for Government Excellence
Overview: The Johns Hopkins University Center for Government Excellence improves upon government decision-making by providing grassroots evidence, transparent accountability, and citizen engagement.
How to Use This Resource: Journalist will find meticulously researched metadata in this Johns Hopkins database on its partner cities such as New Orleans, Seattle, and Chattanooga.
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.
Resilience to Extreme Weather
Overview: The Royal Society is a Fellowship of the world’s top scientists. It is headquartered in London with branches across the globe.
How to Use This Resource: This document is an examination of people’s resilience to extreme weather such as floods, droughts and heat waves. It looks at possible improvements that might save lives by comparing the systems already in place.
Disaster and Crisis Coverage
Overview: The International Center for Journalists is a non-profit organization that promotes journalism worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: This report serves as a practical guide for journalists preparing to report on natural disasters during a crisis.
Hurricane Sandy Rebuild By Design Competition
Overview: In response to Hurricane Sandy, U.S. HUD Secretary Donovan launched Rebuild by Design, a design competition model to develop innovative, actionable solutions for a more resilient region in the Northeast.
How to Use This Resource: Each of the projects profiled here found new ways to use design as a means to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy. This work is at the vanguard of urban resiliency action.
Seizing the Global Opportunity
Overview: The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate is an independent think tank, commissioned by Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Norway, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom, to address the financial concerns caused by climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This report explores initiatives that would result in both stronger economic growth and a better climates in developing countries.
Dawn of the Smart City? Perspectives from New York, Ahmedabad, Sao Paulo and Beijing
Overview: The Wilson Center is a non-partisan policy forum that addresses global issues through independent research to draft actionable policy recommendations.
How to Use This Resource: This collection of essays examines the application of smart technology innovations in New York, Sao Paulo, Beijing and Ahmedabad to combat the risks of climate change.
United States Federal Adaptation Resources
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: Journalists will find a database of adaptation resources such as reports, bill proposals, and datasets for policymakers on the federal, state and municipal level.
Practicing Architecture: Resilience by Design
Overview: The American Institute of Architects is the leading professional membership association for licensed architects, emerging professionals, and allied partners in the United States. It serves as a voice for the architecture profession and promotes service across the nation.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a comprehensive database of reports, guidelines, and toolkits on the future and best practices of resilient and sustainable architecture.
Transportation, Waste, Water and Energy Resources in Boston
Overview: Greenovate Boston is a citywide initiative to engage the community in climate adaptation and sustainability.
How to Use This Resource: This database provides up-to-date information on sustainable and climate-friendly resources and organizations in Boston. The site also provides links to climate adaptation policy, reports and news in the Boston area.
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.
Regional Climate Action Plan Database
Overview: The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact is an ongoing collaborative effort among the region’s counties to foster sustainability and climate resilience.
How to Use This Resource: This database contains surveys and case studies of activities that Southeast Florida municipalities and counties are engaged in to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast
Overview: The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority was established after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, in order to unify the state entities involved with protecting the coastline. For the first time in state history, Louisiana is uniting infrastructural and environmental agencies to produce a more climate-resilient community.
How to Use This Resource: Louisiana is one of the most vulnerable states, as well as one of the most innovative. This master plan details projects that provided relief to areas hit by Hurricane Katrina and lays groundwork for large-scale efforts to fortify the coastline in time for the next extreme storm.
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.
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.
Businesses Acting on Rising Seas
Overview: 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: Businesses suffer significant losses because of climate change, which inflates healthcare, energy and transportation costs. The organization has initiatives in Massachusetts and South Carolina to unite business owners around adaptation to rising seas.
Cambridge Climate Change Planning
Overview: The Community Development Department is the planning agency for the City of Cambridge in Massachusetts. Its climate adaptation mission is to assess the extent of Cambridge’s vulnerability and draft comprehensive policy to strengthen the city’s resiliency.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find the complete Cambridge plan to adapt to and prepare for climate change.
Resilience and Adaptation in New England
Overview: The Northeast Regional Ocean Council is a state and federal partnership that assists the region’s states, federal agencies and local organizations to address oceanic issues.
How to Use This Resource: This presentation from the EPA Region 1 Climate Mapping Effort in May, 2015 details the efforts of the Northeast Regional Ocean Council to adapt the New England coastline to climate change.
Low Carbon Transformation Research
Overview: Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership is a University of Cambridge institution that publishes scholarly articles on issues of global concern with a strong focus on climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This archive of reports and scholarly articles focuses on the need to adapt to cleaner energy sources and details initiatives taking place in the financial sector.
Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative
Overview: The National Academies Press publishes the reports of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and operates under a United States Congress charter.
How to Use This Resource: This book focuses on the particular challenges of crafting federal policies on climate resiliency that suite a vast amount of Americans communities, each with their own individual needs.
National Landmarks at Risk
Overview: The Union of Concerned Scientists is an independent consortium of scientists and advocates that work to develop and promote sustainable policies worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: Climate change has put many of the United States’ iconic landmarks and heritage sites at risk. This report is a selection of case studies that illustrate the urgency of the problem. According to its findings, the Statue of Liberty, the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Boston Historical Districts, and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado could all face dire fates without action.
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.
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.
Environmental Action Database
Overview: The London city government has prioritized six concerns that it will address in its climate adaptation policy: air quality, water, waste, climate change, green spaces and biodiversity.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find updated information on climate change action in London. There are reports on municipal initiatives,competitions, and policy, as well as links to relevant research.
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.
Global Risks 2014: Understanding Systemic Risks in a Changing Global Environment
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: In a ranking of the top 10 global risks facing humanity, climate change is the cause of almost half, according to this risk assessment report from the World Economic Forum. It details the various ways extreme weather puts the planet at risk.
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.
The Resilient Social Network
Overview: The Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute is a federally funded research and development center that produces independent analysis on homeland security.
How to Use This Resource: Within hours of Sandy’s landfall in New Jersey, Occupy Wall Street members had created a social media network of humanitarian volunteers that would eventually grow to 60,000 members. This report studies how such grassroots activism might be utilized by the government when the next disaster strikes.
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.
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.
Sustainability DC: Sustainable DC Plan
Overview: Sustainable DC is the District of Columbia’s major planning effort to make the city a sustainable one. It is led by the Department of Energy and Environment and the Office of Planning with input and participation of thousands of D.C. community members.
How to Use This Resource: The Sustainability DC Plan details how the capital intends to improve its infrastructure and adapt to the changing climate.
East Coast Harbors Affected by Hurricane Sandy
Overview: The New York – New Jersey Harbor Coalition is a campaign of local and national advocacy organizations working to improve and adapt the region’s waterways.
How to Use This Resource: The maps on the Harbor Coalition provides valuable data on the East Coast harbor, how it was impacted by Hurricane Sandy, and what plans are in the work to repair and improve it.
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.
Infrastructure Update Three Years Later: Progress Being Made Toward A More Resilient New York
How to Use This Resource: This archive of reports examines how New York City’s infrastructures, such as its transportation systems and public housing, fare after being hit by Hurricane Sandy. It is updated monthly.
Adaptation in Action: Grantee Success Stories from CDC’s Climate and Health Program
Overview: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. It uses its prevention expertise to advise cities and states on investigating, preparing for, and responding to the health ramifications of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This progress report on the CDC’s climate change adaptation program details what health risks are caused by climate change and which programs have been most effective in combatting them.
Mayors Challenge
Overview: Bloomberg Philanthropies is a nonprofit led by Michael Bloomberg, former New York City mayor, that promotes municipal climate change adaptation.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists interested in innovative city responses to climate change should examine Stockholm’s biochar project and Houston’s new recycling technology.
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.
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.
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.