Overview: The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific psychological organization in the United States. It works to advance the application of psychological knowledge nationwide.
How to Use This Resource: This report details psychological ramifications of climate change on human welfare.
Canada in a Changing Climate: Sector Perspectives on Impacts and Adaptation
Overview: Natural Resources Canada is the branch of the Canadian government responsible protecting the country’s natural resources, with a focus on agricultural and clean energy policy.
How to Use This Resource: This report documents the state Canada’s climate adaption process in the food production, human health, water supply and transportation sectors.
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 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.
Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability
Overview: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific body within the United Nations that reviews scientific, technical and socio-economic information on climate change.
How to Use this Resource: This report details the impacts of climate change worldwide to date. It found that while the process of adaptation has already begun, most climate change action is still reactionary.
Climate Change Action Plan
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: This report articulates the unilateral actions that parks can pursue to increase resilience within their ongoing facility management operations. The Action Plan also details the challenges on the horizon and possible solutions to mitigate them. Also see the Park Service’s climate change resource page and its resources on wildland fire.
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 Change Adaptation: Lessons From Urban Economics
Overview: The NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management specializes in urban economies research, their reports feature important data on how climate change influences urban markets.
How to Use This Resource: This paper develops a dynamic model for measuring the contributions urban residents and businesses make to readying their cities for climate change.
Climate Change Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers
Overview: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific body within the United Nations that reviews scientific, technical and socio-economic information on climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This synthesis report is provides a global perspective of climate change and addresses its causes, future impacts, and future pathways for adaptation.
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.
Connecting on Climate: A Guide to Effective Climate Change Communication
Overview: The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions is an interdisciplinary center that studies decision-making during climate uncertainty. It is run through Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
How to Use This Resource: This is a guide for communicating about climate change in a manner that is clear but not simplified.
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.
Excessive Heat Event Coordination Plan
Overview: The Heat Task Force of Greater Milwaukee is a diverse collection of municipal, county, and state government agencies, as well as private, non-profit, and community organizations to combat extreme heat in vulnerable city regions.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a detailed plan from Milwaukee how on city mitigates extreme heat in an urban setting.
Extreme Weather and Climate Readiness: Toolkit for State and Territorial Health Departments
Overview: The Climate Change Collaborative is a project from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to help prepare its agencies for the effects of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: In this report, journalists will find information on how the nation’s key public health programs are integrating climate readiness into their policies.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Resilience to Extreme Weather
Overview: The Royal Society is a Fellowship of the world’s top scientists. It is headquartered in London with branches across the globe.
How to Use This Resource: This document is an examination of people’s resilience to extreme weather such as floods, droughts and heat waves. It looks at possible improvements that might save lives by comparing the systems already in place.
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.
Resilient pathways: The Adaptation of the ICT Sector to Climate Change
Overview: Three United Nations Agencies – the International Telecommunications Union, UNESCO and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – collaborated on this report, which calls for updated policy on climate change policy.
How to Use This Resource: This report explores the impacts of climate change on the information and communication technology sector, the potential for adaptation, and recommends new standards that need to be developed in order to protect economic growth.
Retrofitting Buildings for Flood Risk
Overview: The New York City Department of City Planning is the department responsible for the oversight of the city’s physical and socioeconomic planning.
How to Use This Resource: This report provides a comprehensive analysis of retrofit options available for buildings in the New York City floodplain.
RISE: An Ideas Competition Addressing Sea Level Rise
Overview: Simon Fraser University Public Square is an initiative to provide diverse community leaders with a platform to discuss issues of public concern.
How to Use This Resource: This competition was designed to foster innovation to address the problem of rising sea levels in Vancouver. The site now hosts the competitor’s plans.
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.
Texas Coastal Communities Planning Atlas
Overview: The Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities is a joint initiative between the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University and Texas A&M University at Galveston. The institute works to help prepare coastal communities adapt to extreme coastal weather.
How to Use This Resource: The Coastal Atlas is a detailed web-based program that maps data on the state of the Texas coast, specifically its flood zones, population density, and infrastructure at risk.
The 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.
Two Years after Superstorm Sandy: Exploring Resilience in Twelve Neighborhoods
Overview: The Associated Press-National Opinion Research Center for Public Affairs Research is a joint collaboration between the University of Chicago and the AP to creative unbiased journalism that is rigorously researched.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a report on Hurricane Sandy recovery that focuses on the critical role social factors play in community resilience.