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.
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.
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.
City-level Resiliency Finance Resources
Overview: The Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance is a group of more than forty organizations that help cities invest in climate-resilient infrastructure.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find news updates, research reports and case studies from this new organization’s work worldwide.
Climate 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 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
Infrastructure Update Three Years Later: Progress Being Made Toward A More Resilient New York
How to Use This Resource: This archive of reports examines how New York City’s infrastructures, such as its transportation systems and public housing, fare after being hit by Hurricane Sandy. It is updated monthly.
Mapping the Impacts of Climate Change
Overview: The Center for Global Development is Washington D.C. think tank that researches how policies of powerful nations affect the developing world.
How to Use This Resource: This map ranks countries by four climate criteria: Extreme weather, sea level rise, agricultural productivity loss and overall. It draws from new Center for Global Development adaptation research that is available as a dataset and a report on the site.
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.
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.
Next City: Inspiring Better Cities
Overview: Next City is a nonprofit that advocates for environmental change in cities through journalism and events around the world.
How to Use This Resource: This newsletter publishes daily articles on breaking climate news happening in cities across the globe.
Practicing Architecture: Resilience by Design
Overview: The American Institute of Architects is the leading professional membership association for licensed architects, emerging professionals, and allied partners in the United States. It serves as a voice for the architecture profession and promotes service across the nation.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a comprehensive database of reports, guidelines, and toolkits on the future and best practices of resilient and sustainable architecture.
Regional and Country Profiles
Overview: Eldis is an information service publishes diverse research on development issues worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: This database is an excellent resource for current reports on financing climate change adaptation in the developing world.
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.
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.
Seizing the Global Opportunity
Overview: The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate is an independent think tank, commissioned by Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Norway, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom, to address the financial concerns caused by climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This report explores initiatives that would result in both stronger economic growth and a better climates in developing countries.
State and Local Climate Adaptation Map
Overview: The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions is an independent nonprofit advocating for policy action to address climate change. It is the successor to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
How to Use This Resource: This map shows how American cities and states are adapting to their individual climate challenges. It includes examples of city adaptation actions and provides plan details on a city and state level where available.
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.
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.
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.
The Climate Impacts: Global and Regional Adaptation Support Platform Database
Overview: CI:Grasp is a climate information service that collects data on current and projected climate stimuli, impacts and adaptation options on a national and regional level.
How to Use This Resource: This enormous database allows journalists to search for worldwide adaptation projects by numerous criteria, such as region, climate change effect, and source.
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.
Transportation, Waste, Water and Energy Resources in Boston
Overview: Greenovate Boston is a citywide initiative to engage the community in climate adaptation and sustainability.
How to Use This Resource: This database provides up-to-date information on sustainable and climate-friendly resources and organizations in Boston. The site also provides links to climate adaptation policy, reports and news in the Boston area.
U.S. Congress Bills on Climate Change Adaptation Database
Overview: The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to advance climate change and energy policy in the United States.
How to Use This Resource: This database provides a list of every climate change bill in the 113th Congress. It identifies the bill’s sponsor, summarizes its contents, and reports on its status. Bills are organized by topic, which include climate change adaptation, energy, transportation, renewable fuels, and carbon.
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.
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.
Dawn of the Smart City? Perspectives from New York, Ahmedabad, Sao Paulo and Beijing
Overview: The Wilson Center is a non-partisan policy forum that addresses global issues through independent research to draft actionable policy recommendations.
How to Use This Resource: This collection of essays examines the application of smart technology innovations in New York, Sao Paulo, Beijing and Ahmedabad to combat the risks of climate change.
Global Risks 2014: Understanding Systemic Risks in a Changing Global Environment
Overview: The World Economic Forum is an independent, international organization that collaborates with decision makers in the political and business spheres to shape global policies.
How to Use This Resource: In a ranking of the top 10 global risks facing humanity, climate change is the cause of almost half, according to this risk assessment report from the World Economic Forum. It details the various ways extreme weather puts the planet at risk.
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 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.
Playing with Fire: How Climate Change and Development Patterns Are Contributing to the Soaring Costs of Western Wildfires
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: Journalists will find a data-packed report on the causes and costs of wildfires in the western region of the United States.
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.
Resilient Cities: A Grosvenor Research Report
Overview: Grosvenor is a privately owned property group with properties across the globe that advocates for sustainable growth and climate adaptation.
How to Use This Resource: This report ranked the major cities of the world by climate resiliency. American cities dominated the top of the list and only two European cities, Stockholm and Zurich, made the top 10. The lowest ranking cities were those with high population forecasts and shoddy infrastructure, such as Mexico City. This data will be useful to journalists looking for contextual information.
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.
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.
Climate Change and the Small Business Sector
Overview: Small Business Majority is a network of 12,000 small business owners that conducts polling, focus groups and economic research to better inform policy makers about the concerns of their constituents. The American Sustainable Business Council represents more than 165,000 businesses nationwide and advocates for sustainability in the economic sector.
How to Use This Resource: To illustrate how American businesses are responding to climate change, this report presents six case studies from a wide range of sectors, including roofing, retail, tourism, landscape architecture, agriculture, and small-scale manufacturing.
Climate, Mind and Behavior Symposium
Overview: The Garrison Institute is a nonprofit organization that explores the intersection of contemplation and action in the world.
How to Use This Resource: This symposium and resultant report examine the integration of climate change research findings about what drives human thinking on climate solutions.
Disaster and Crisis Coverage
Overview: The International Center for Journalists is a non-profit organization that promotes journalism worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: This report serves as a practical guide for journalists preparing to report on natural disasters during a crisis.
East Coast Harbors Affected by Hurricane Sandy
Overview: The New York – New Jersey Harbor Coalition is a campaign of local and national advocacy organizations working to improve and adapt the region’s waterways.
How to Use This Resource: The maps on the Harbor Coalition provides valuable data on the East Coast harbor, how it was impacted by Hurricane Sandy, and what plans are in the work to repair and improve it.
How Climate Change Action is Giving Us Wealthier, Healthier Cities
Overview: This Carbon Disclosure Project report surveyed 110 municipal governments worldwide to research the effect of climate change action on cities. It found it would enhance the municipalities’ economies, as well as the health of their residents.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find data on the municipal governments: which policymakers are addressing climate change, what they are doing, and how their efforts are working. The study found 91 percent of cities believe cutting greenhouse gas emissions will improve their economies, 55 percent are combatting climate change by promoting walking and cycling, and more than 75 percent of cities reported that their action will improve the health of their residents.
Natural Disasters: Saving Lives Today, Building Resilience for Tomorrow
Overview: The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is an international research organization based in London that campaigns for sustainable policies worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: The rapid increase of people living in cities and is worsening the world’s susceptibility to natural disasters. This report details the ramifications of that susceptibility and makes economic and policy recommendations to improve urban resiliency.
Overwhelming Risk: Rethinking Flood Insurance in a World of Rising Seas
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: As sea levels and flood risks rise, coastal development and a growing population put more people in harm’s way. This report studies how flood insurance reform can better manage growing risk.
Sustainable Cities: Building Cities for the Future
Overview: The United Kingdom’s Climate Action Programme and the American C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group partnered to publish this report on innovative climate change adaptation in Adelaide, Chicago, Copenhagen, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find detailed analyses of city-level initiatives in carbon neutrality, public transportation, ecological architecture, and other such green topics.
The Plumbing of Adaptation Finance: Accountability, Transparency, and Accessibility at the Local Level
Overview: The World Resources Institute is a global research organization that focuses on the critical elements of achieving sustainability worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: This report analyzes adaptation financing in Nepal, the Philippines, Uganda, and Zambia to examine how much finance is available within developing countries and whether the needs of the most vulnerable are being met.
Business Risk Assessment and the Management of Climate Change Impacts: Eight Philippine Cities
Overview: The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international conservation organization working to reduce the impact of human activity on the environment and wildlife.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find extensive reporting on the business of funding climate change adaptation in the Philippines.
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.