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.
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.
Sea Level Rise Planning
Overview: The National Wildlife Refuge System, part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, is dedicated to protecting 150 million acres of land and water from the Caribbean to the Pacific, plus more than 418 million acres of national marine monuments.
How to Use This Resource: This site explains the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model, which is the foundation of sea-level rise planning for the refuge system on the national level. The model provides maps and tables projecting sea-level rise scenarios between 2025 and 2100.
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.
National Climate Change and Wildlife Center
Overview: The National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (NCCWSC) is a part of the U.S. Geological Survey, and acts as the managing entity for the eight Department of the Interior Climate Science Centers (CSCs). Together, the NCCWSC and CSCs partner with natural and cultural resource managers and scientists to help fish and wildlife and their ecosystems adapt to the impacts of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: The site provides access to year-by-year lists of funded projects, and a range of scientific tools and databases, such as the Climate Registry for the Assessment of Vulnerability (CRAVe). It also features an up-to-date list of reports, and a series of fact sheets and maps.
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.”
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.
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.
Environmental Migration Portal
Overview: The Environmental Migration Portal is a database for information on climate-caused migration patterns and impacts. It was created as part of the Migration, Environment and Climate Change project funded by the European Union.
How to Use This Resource: The site includes links to the group’s research on climate change, adaptation and migration, as well to current projects, such as on migration and adaptation in South Asia. A helpful set of five infographics chart the relationship between migration and environmental change by outlining how extreme weather renders vulnerable territories virtually inhabitable.
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.
Research and Reports on African Resiliency
Overview: The Africa Progress Panel is a group of advocates, led by former secretary-general of the United Nations Kofi Annan, that fights for sustainable development in Africa.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find research and reports on the African Progress Panel’s advocacy for Africa’s role as a climate change leader. Annual reports provide extensive reference to adaptation issues. And there is also ample information on the panel’s contributions during the COP21 Paris summit.
National Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation of Climate Change Adaptation in Europe
Overview: This report, prepared by the European Environmental Agency, the division of the European Union dedicated to providing independent information and research on the environment and its impacts on European nations, provides information on adaptation monitoring, reporting and evaluation systems at the national level in Europe.
How to Use This Resource: The 68-page report, sourced from an expert workshop held in spring 2015, is designed for policymakers and adaptation experts, as well as public and utility authorities, and businesses. It includes numerous country-by-country case studies, as well as tables with overviews of national organizations involved in adapatation.
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.
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.
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.
Inside the Paris Climate Talks
Overview: Twitter collects tweets about major developing news events, such as the Paris climate summit, in a feature called Twitter Moments.
How to Use This Resource: Reporters can view, share and embed in their own sites these top “moments” from COP21, as selected by Twitter. Moments are also useful to identify key Twitter accounts to follow from the event.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit
Overview: The toolkit was developed in 2014 by a partnership of federal agencies and organizations, initially providing federal resources to help address coastal flood risk and food resilience. The site is expanding to address health, ecosystems, water resources, energy supply and infrastructure, transportation and more, as well as to include information from state and local governments, business, academia and NGOs.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a catalog of free tools to access and analyze climate data and a visualization tool that maps climate stressors and impacts. The toolkit also has case studies, explainers, training courses and resilience planning tools, as well as the ability to search the federal government’s climate science databases.
Heat in the Heartland: Climate Change and Economic Risk in the Midwest
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 special report outlines how rising temperatures in the Midwest will impact the economies of its major cities.
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 Adaptation Project: Canada
Overview: The University of Waterloo is a public research university with a main campus located in Ontario, Canada.
How to Use This Resource: This site reports on Canadian adaptation challenges and works to prioritize which ones need immediate attention. It focuses especially on water supply infrastructure and human health.
Municipal Risk Assessment Tool
Overview: The Insurance Bureau of Canada is an association that represents Canada’s private home, auto and business insurers. It works to enhance the public’s understanding of the insurance industry.
How to Use This Resource: The technology on this site was developed by insurers and city governments to map Canada’s water supply infrastructure and record where it is most vulnerable.
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 in a Changing Climate: Sector Perspectives on Impacts and Adaptation
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: This report documents the state Canada’s climate adaption process in the food production, human health, water supply and transportation 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.
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.
National Energy Policy News
Overview: InsideClimate News is a Pulitzer prize-winning news organization that covers clean energy and the how climate adaptation law, policy and public opinion are shaped.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find in-depth reporting at the nexus of energy policy and climate change adaption in the United States.
Adaptation News
Overview: The Daily Climate is an independent media organization working to increase public understanding of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This website curates articles on climate change adaptation, with a focus on international policies, from the world’s top news sources and makes them readily accessible in one location.
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.
Yale Project on Climate Change Communication
Overview: The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies conducts research to sustain and restore the long-term health of the planet and the people who inhabit it.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find up-to-date research and reports on how the public perceives climate change risk and how those perceptions influence adaptation policy worldwide.
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.
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.
Texas Coastal Communities Planning Atlas
Overview: The Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities is a joint initiative between the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University and Texas A&M University at Galveston. The institute works to help prepare coastal communities adapt to extreme coastal weather.
How to Use This Resource: The Coastal Atlas is a detailed web-based program that maps data on the state of the Texas coast, specifically its flood zones, population density, and infrastructure at risk.
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.
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.
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.
Excessive Heat Event Coordination Plan
Overview: The Heat Task Force of Greater Milwaukee is a diverse collection of municipal, county, and state government agencies, as well as private, non-profit, and community organizations to combat extreme heat in vulnerable city regions.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a detailed plan from Milwaukee how on city mitigates extreme heat in an urban setting.
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.
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.
Green Infrastructure for Climate Resiliency
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal organization that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use this Resource: This toolkit provides practical resources for improving and fortifying water supply and energy infrastructure.
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.
Extreme Weather and Climate Readiness: Toolkit for State and Territorial Health Departments
Overview: The Climate Change Collaborative is a project from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to help prepare its agencies for the effects of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: In this report, journalists will find information on how the nation’s key public health programs are integrating climate readiness into their policies.
Climate Change Threatens Health: Serious Threats Where You Live and What to Do About Them
Overview: The Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC is one of the largest and most influential environmental action groups in the United States.
How to Use this Resource: This mapping system charts which communities are most vulnerable to climate-related health threats and the actions being taken to prepare them.
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.
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.
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.
National Stormwater Calculator
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal organization that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: This desktop application estimates the annual amount of rainwater and frequency of runoff from a specific site anywhere in the United States.
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.
U.S. Energy Sector Vulnerabilities to Climate Change
Overview: The U.S. Department of Energy is a cabinet-level agency that develops policies on energy finance, infrastructure, and safety.
How to Use This Resource: This report examines current and potential future impacts of climate trends on the U.S. energy sector.
Health and Human Services Climate Adaptation Plan
Overview: The United States Department of Health and Human Services is a cabinet-level agency responsible for protecting human health.
How to Use This Resource: This report assesses the full impact that climate change will have on American health. It outlines plans to update its facilities and practices to better serve vulnerable communities within the United States.
Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse
Overview: The U.S. Department of Transportation is the Federal agency responsible for the upkeep and regulation of air, road, and rail travel systems.
How to Use This Resource: This database includes information on climate change’s impact on transportation infrastructure, means by which the national transportation system can adapt, and best practices for curtailing its carbon emissions. Journalists can also explore an extensive section on climate adaptation and transportation.
Adapting to Change
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 database includes a complete guide to agencies within United States’ federal government dedicated to climate adaptation, as well as providing a toolkit for policymakers. The site menu also provides access to information about climate impacts.
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.
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.
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.
Adaptation Strategies and Adaptation Mitigation Nexus
Overview: The Asian-Pacific Adaptation Project is an organization within the United Nations Environmental Programme, working to build climate change resilience in Asian nations.
How to Use This Resource: This archive holds reports, news updates and data on adaptation strategies in the Asian-Pacific region.
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.
Finance Research and Data
Overview: The Inter-American Development Bank provides financial and technical support for countries in South and Latin America to reduce poverty and inequality in a sustainable, climate-friendly way.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find reports and data on adaptation finance in Latin and South America.
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.
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.
North Carolina Sea Level Rise Assessment Report
Overview: The North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Panel is a group of volunteer scientists conducting research on behalf of the Coastal Resources Commission.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will an in-depth analysis of the science behind rising sea levels, the impact it will have on North Carolina, and initiatives in place to fortify the state infrastructure.
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.
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.
Data.gov
Overview: Data.gov is an online database that is managed by the U.S. General Services Administration.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find government-sponsored data on the projected impacts of climate change on the nation’s infrastructure, public health and natural resources.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Beach Nourishment: How Beach Nourishment Works
Overview: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers investigates, develops and maintains the nation environmental resources.
How to Use This Resource: This report explains how climate change and human activity erode the coastline and what might be done to restore it and reduce flood risk.
The Big One: The East Coast’s USD 100 Billion Hurricane Event 
Overview: Swiss Reinsurance Company is a reinsurance company based in Zurich.
How to Use This Resource: In 1821, a powerful hurricane decimated the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast United States. If it were to strike today, it would potentially cost more than $100 billion in property losses. This report examines what data exists from that storm to predict the impact of future mega-storms.
Introduction to Storm Surge
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: Storm surge is an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm. And as climate change intensifies the power of tropical storms, storm surge will become one of the greatest challenges facing coastal cities. This fact sheet explains the science behind the surge.
Hurricane Katrina News Updates
Overview: Nola.com is a breaking news website that covers New Orleans in partnership with the Times-Picayune.
How to Use This Resource: Nola.com offers extensive news coverage of New Orleans’ rehabilitation after it was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Ocean Acidification: From Knowledge to Action Summary Report
Overview: Washington State Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification is a research group convened by Washington States’s Office of the Governor.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a comprehensive overview of what causes ocean acidification, the negative impact it has on local economies, and what policies and practices might curtail 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 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.
Living on Earth
Overview: Living on Earth with Steve Curwood is a weekly environmental news and information program distributed by the Minneapolis-based Public Radio International.
How to Use This Resource: Living on Earth provides a wide range of environmental news, and frequently focuses on climate change (the site’s search function yields many reports). Special climate change features look at the changing language of climate, climate change and New York’s future, and Louisiana storm protection.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Africa’s Adaptation Gap: A Technical Report
Overview: The United Nations Environment Programme represents the environment within the United Nations system.
How to Use This Resource: Africa’s Adaptation Gap Report is a stark analysis of where Africa stands in relation to its adaptation goals. The continent serves as a cautionary indicator of what may happen should the emissions gap remain.