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.
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.
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.
FEMA on Climate Change
Overview: The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency supports citizens and first responders to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate hazards.
How to Use This Resource: FEMA’s climate change site provides access to a wide range of its own tools and data, as well as those from other agencies. Links are provided to information on risk mapping, the federal flood risk management standard, coastal flood risks and hurricanes. Search elsewhere within the FEMA site for information on flood insurance, emergency response, and activities in regions of the country, as well as preparing for emergencies.
#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.
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.
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.
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.
Adaptation Clearinghouse Database
Overview: The nonpartisan Georgetown Climate Center is a branch of Georgetown Law and advocates for climate adaptation, clean energy, and transportation policies in the United States.
How to Use This Resource: The Adaptation Clearinghouse is a database of Georgetown Climate Center research, reports, maps and resources. It is searchable by policy area, organizations, topic and keyword.
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.
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.
Adaptation Platform
Overview: Natural Resources Canada is the branch of the Canadian government responsible protecting the country’s natural resources, with a focus on agricultural and clean energy policy.
How to Use This Resource: The Adaptation Platform unites Canadian government and industry decision makers to collaborate on national adaptation priorities.
Adaptation 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
Overview: The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group is a network of international cities that share information and collaborate on climate change action. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a key funder.
How to Use This Resource: The site’s database allows journalists to search among participating cities for adaptation and other initiatives. Its research menu provides access to extensive reports, case studies and data, including on adaptation and on low carbon emissions in cities.
Cal-Adapt: Exploring California’s Climate Change Research
Overview: Cal-Adapt provides access to the state’s scientific research and data. It the product of a collaboration between UC Berkeley’s Geospatial Innovation Facility, the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research Program, and Google.org.
How to Use This Resource: This database provides interactive data and maps on the effects of climate change on California at the local level.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Climate Adaptation Planning, Research and Practice
Overview: weADAPT is an online space to access and share climate adaptation information from across the globe.
How to Use This Resource: weADAPt features an archive of relevant adaption reports, as well as an interactive map of initiatives happening across the globe.
Climate 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.
Climate and Disaster Resilience Initiatives
Overview: The United Nations Development Programme researches the climate disaster risk and energy policies of nations and finances resiliency efforts worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: Developing countries are both less able to cope with and more likely to be affected by extreme weather. This database provides information on what adaptation action is being taken by the United Nations Development Programme and where.
Climate Change Adaptation by Federal Agencies: An Analysis of Plans and Issues for Congress
Overview: The Congressional Research Service is the public policy research agency within the U.S. Congress.
How to Use This Resource: This report reviews federal agencies and their plans to adapt their infrastructure and operations to future climate change.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Change Indicators in the United States
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: Journalists will ample data, interactive maps and exhaustive reports to support scientist’s belief that climate change is caused by human activity. This data is organized by topics such as greenhouse gases, oceans, and ecosystems.
Climate Change News Updates
Overview: The Ecologist publishes news on climate change and its impacts on agriculture, health, and the energy sector.
How to Use This Resource: The climate change coverage from The Ecologist combines in-depth reporting with fascinating stories of adaptation and survival.
Climate 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 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 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.
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 Confidential
Overview: Climate Confidential is an independent news source covering environment and technology. Funded by readers, its stories have appeared in The Atlantic and Scientific American.
How to Use This Resource: Find narrative-driven stories about technological innovation in the fight against climate change, drought and public health concerns.
Climate 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.
Climate Knowledge Center
Overview: The Association of Climate Change Officers is a U.S. coalition of private and public sector community leaders that promotes sustainable building and adaptive policies on the municipal level.
How to Use This Resource: This nonprofit publishes extensive research on adaptation initiatives on the local level, which can be found on its Knowledge Center page. This is an excellent resource for journalists researching climate adaption in U.S. corporations.
Climate News Coverage
Overview: Mashable is a global media company that caters to the digital generation. It reports 45 million monthly unique visitors and 25 million social followers.
How to Use This Resource: Mashable’s climate coverage is led by Science Editor Andrew Freedman, one of the most prolific climate reporters in the United States. He covers breaking climate news, writes long-form analyses, and digests complex data on climate change. He publishes on a daily basis.
Climate 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.
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 Resilient Cities
Overview: Climate Resilient Cities is the overarching program on urban resilience of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), a worldwide network of over 1,000 cities, towns and metropolises with a mission to promote environmental sustainability in government.
How to Use This Resource: This initiative provides information and toolkits on municipal-level disaster risk reduction, food security, policy making and financing. Links on the web site include an adaptation database and planning tool, a white paper on financing resilience and various guidebooks. The site also includes a link to the the Durban Adaptation Charter, which has been signed by leaders from over 100 cities.
Climate 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 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.
Climate-Ready Water Utilities Toolkit
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: This toolkit – designed primarily for water utility managers – focuses on fortifying water infrastructure and provides tools, training, and technical assistance needed to adapt to climate change.
Climate-Smart Planning Platform
Overview: The Climate-Smart Planning Platform, from the Climate Policy and Finance Department of the World Bank, assists developing country policymakers with low carbon growth and climate resilient development by connecting them to relevant tools, data, and knowledge.
How to Use This Website: Journalists can use this PDF to understand the challenges of planning for climate adaptation, to collect World Bank sources, and as a gateway to World Bank data on climate and weather data by region or sector.
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.
Coastal Storm Surge Scenarios for Water Utilities
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: This map illustrates worst-case coastal storm scenarios with datasets from the National Hurricane Center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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.
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.
Crowdsourcing Climate Change Adaptation
Overview: Climate CoLab uses crowdsourcing and contests to unite citizens, experts and policymakers and create innovative proposals for climate change action worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: Climate CoLab’s adaptation contest features proposals on preparing for and adapting to climate change. The site also feature numerous other contests and research from internationally recognized experts paired with practical perspectives from local communities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Extreme Weather Research
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: Climate Central scientists survey and conduct research on climate change, then partner with journalists to report their findings. The result is this database of scientific research covering topics such as energy, sea level rise, wildfires and drought.
FEMA News
Overview: The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency supports citizens and first responders to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate hazards.
How to Use This Resource: This archive allows users to search FEMA press releases by region and state.
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.
Floodplain Management
Overview: The Association of State Floodplain Managers promotes policies that would mitigate losses, costs, and human suffering caused by flooding.
How to Use This Resource: The site includes reports on FEMA and federal flood risk policies, as well as on floodplain management strategies to addresses how American communities are adapting to extreme flooding on a local and state level.
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,
Global Climate Change Initiative
Overview: The U.S. Agency for International Development is the primary federal agency for the administration of foreign financial aid.
How to Use This Resource: U.S. AID’s work focuses on human security and prosperity overseas, and its climate initiative focuses on clean energy growth and resilient development. Its adaptation program reaches more than 30 countries. The site also has a resilience resource and research database in which journalists will find articles, speeches, videos and webinars on U.S. international adaptation investments.
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.
Glossary of Climate Change Terms
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: Journalists can use this glossary as a reference guide when mining climate change research. It covers both policy and scientific lexicons.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Special Report: Paris Climate Talks
Overview: Environment & Energy Publishing (E&E) 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: E&E’s coverage of the Paris climate talks provides multiple reports daily, as well as a Paris Notebook, and video briefings. Coverage of climate change can also be found in a special series, “Greater Expectations.”
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.
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.
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.
Strategic Sustainability Performance and Adaptation Plans
Overview: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the Department of Defense agency responsible for investigating and maintaining the nation’s environmental resources.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find the most recent U.S. Army Corps of Engineers progress reports on its climate change risk assessment research, as well as video and other resources on climate resilience.
Surging Seas: Sea Level Rise Analysis
Overview: Climate Central is an independent organization of scientists and journalists researching and reporting climate change primarily in the United States.
How to Use This Resource: This set of interactive tools and maps provides accurate sea level rise and coastal flood hazard data down to the neighborhood scale in the United States, as well as globally.
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.
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.
The Climate Ready Estuaries program
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: The Climate Ready Estuaries program works with the National Estuary Programs and coastal management communities to assess vulnerabilities and implement adaptation strategies. This database provides access to risk assessment and coastal adaptation toolkits as well as information on ongoing and future projects.
The Summit – Coverage of the 2015 Paris Climate Talks
Overview: The Christian Science Monitor is an international news organization based in Boston that regularly covers climate change in the United States and abroad.
How to Use This Resource: This site collects all coverage of the 2015 Paris Conference from the news site.
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.
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.
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.
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.
USDA Climate Hubs
Overview: The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the federal department responsible for developing and executing law on farming, agriculture, forestry, and food.
How to Use This Website: Each climate hub within this interactive map of the United States links to data on that region’s climate, as well as to practical information about climate resiliency and adaptation toolkits for farmers, ranchers and landowners.
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.
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.
Water Utility Response On The Go
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: This toolkit for water utilities makes EPA resources easily accessible in the midst of an extreme weather event. It is mobile-friendly and includes weather tracking tools, planning information, and a damage reporting form.
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.
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 Change Adaptation Roadmap
Overview: The U.S. Department of Defense serves as the principal defense policy advisor to the president and works under his direction. It embodies the U.S. military and a civilian force of thousands.
How to Use This Resource: Extreme weather will affect both the Department of Defense’s ability to defend the United States and increase the immediate risks it faces. This report outlines what those “threat multipliers” are and what the Department of Defense can do to address them.
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.
Flood Resilience: A Basic Guide for Water and Wastewater Utilities
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 database of information on the U.S.’s water utilities infrastructure provides a basic overview of its current state, identifies vulnerable regions, and reports on projects currently underway to fortify it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Natural Catastrophes: A Canadian Economic Perspective
Overview: TD Economics is the analysis branch of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, one of the largest multinational banks in North America.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find statistics and data on the increased frequency, intensity and impact of floods and wildfire in Canada.
Quadrennial Defense Review
Overview: The U.S. Department of Defense serves as the principal defense policy advisor to the President and works under his direction. It embodies the United States military and a civilian force of thousands.
How to Use This Resource: This reports includes an in-depth analysis of climate change’s impact as a “threat multiplier” to national security, as well as a discussion of preparations and adaptation to climate change.
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.