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.
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.
Canada’s Ongoing Commitment to Climate Change Adaptation
Overview: Environment Canada is the branch of the Canadian government responsible for conducting scientific research on Canada’s environment and for draft legislation to maintain it.
How to Use This Resource: This policy brief reports on how federal adaptation funds are being allocated in Canada.
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 Change Evidence & Causes
Overview: The Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences co-authored this status report on climate change science.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists can reference this document to help clarify what climate science is established, where consensus is growing, and where there is still uncertainty.
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.
Hoboken Resiliency & Readiness Plan
Overview: The City of Hoboken Mayor’s Office is one the leading municipal governments in the fight for climate adaptation. Mayor Dawn Zimmer has invested millions of dollars into Hoboken flood resiliency and is a member of President Obama’s Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Local Government Advisory Committee.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a comprehensive report on the climate risks facing Hoboken, N.J., primarily flooding and the need for better storm surge protection infrastructure.
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.
Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding: Strategy Stronger Communities, A Resilient Region
Overview: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Hurricane Sandy is a federal agency that oversees disaster relief funding and investment in resilient infrastructure.
How to Use This Resource: This report has extensive data on Hurricane Sandy’s impact on Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and the Shinnecock Indian Nation. It also clearly outlines the strategies federal government has taken and will take to repair and strengthen the coastline’s infrastructure.
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.
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.
Rising Seas
Overview: National Geographic Magazine is the official magazine of the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C. It covers issues pertaining to geography, history and world culture.
How to Use This Resource: In this multimedia project by National Geographic, reporter Tim Folger examines the process of deciding what is worth protecting on our nation’s coastline and what must be abandoned. His reporting is complemented by several valuable datasets on rising sea levels.
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.
The Resilient Social Network
Overview: The Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute is a federally funded research and development center that produces independent analysis on homeland security.
How to Use This Resource: Within hours of Sandy’s landfall in New Jersey, Occupy Wall Street members had created a social media network of humanitarian volunteers that would eventually grow to 60,000 members. This report studies how such grassroots activism might be utilized by the government when the next disaster strikes.
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.
Updating Maryland’s Sea-level Rise Projections
Overview: The Maryland Climate Change Commission is a state government agency devoted to implementing policy to fortify Maryland’s infrastructures.
How to Use This Resource: Maryland has 3,100 miles of tidal shoreline and low-lying rural and urban lands, which leave the state highly vulnerable to rising sea levels. This report is filled with data about how the Maryland coast will change and what needs to be done to adapt.
Which Coastal Cities Are at Highest Risk of Damaging Floods?
Overview: The World Bank is an intergovernmental financial institution based in Washington D.C. that fights poverty by providing loans to developing countries, sponsoring research and promoting policy change worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: The cost of urban losses from flooding in coastal cities will rise 850 percent in 50 years, according to this World Bank report. Its findings are summarized in this article, which includes a link to purchase the full report. The report is part of a series, “Turn Down the Heat,” that looks at expected rises in sea level and their impact on vulnerable regions around the world.