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October 26, 2020
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) released a new report, A Resilient Future for Coastal Communities: Federal Policy Recommendations from Solutions in Practice, which highlights 30 specific policy recommendations to support community resilience to extreme weather, erosion, flooding, sea level rise, and other hazards exacerbated by climate change. Coastal communities are at the frontlines of climate change, and 40 percent of Americans—130 million people—live along our ocean and Great Lakes shorelines.
EESI's report—designed as a practical resource for Congress, federal agencies, and the public—represents a distillation of the findings, recommendations, and case studies identified during EESI’s Congressional briefing series on Regional Coastal Resilience. Between June 2019 and June 2020, EESI organized 16 briefings featuring 42 coastal resilience experts, practitioners, and community leaders from Alaska, the Caribbean, the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, Hawaii, the Northeast, the Southeast, and the West Coast. These briefing panelists covered topics ranging from climate data to nature-based solutions to coastal retreat.
“When you bring together 42 of the nation’s leading thinkers and doers to talk about how coastal communities are making themselves more resilient to the impacts of climate change, it is no surprise that they will have a lot to say,” said EESI Executive Director Daniel Bresette. “As we progressed through the briefing series, we realized that we needed a new way to make all the insights, ideas, and success stories more accessible and actionable for policymakers. Hopefully, this report will help move the needle on adaptation and resilience policy because coastal communities all across the United States are losing ground, literally, in the fight against climate change.”
The new report is organized into six major sections—Community at the Forefront, Land Use and Development, Cultural Heritage, Climate Adaptation and Resilience Data, Disaster Preparedness, and Financing Adaptation and Resilience. In addition to its 30 recommendations—brought to life by specific examples of climate solutions in practice—the report offers six guiding principles intended to inform the implementation of all coastal resilience policy. Among these are the need to conduct planning based on the climate of the future (rather than the climate of the past), to integrate climate justice and equity in resilience and adaptation initiatives, and to focus on interagency and intra-agency coordination to support on-the-ground adaptation and resilience work, including creating new opportunities for local jobs.
“With 40 million and rising in the floodplain today, we need a national resilience road map now more than ever. EESI has done just that. A Resilient Future for Coastal Communities brings together critical insights from across the country about what is needed to reduce our risks to the acute and slow-moving disasters associated with climate change,” said Kate Boicourt, Director of Resilience, Waterfront Alliance, and Improving Coastal Resilience in the Northeast panelist.
“EESI’s work putting this report together is extremely valuable and should be applauded. It shows that while we live in many different places, we all share a massive challenge of adapting to climate change to achieve safe and vibrant communities, a sustainable environment, and social and environmental justice,” said Charles Lester, Director, Ocean and Coastal Policy Center, Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, and Resilience along the West Coast panelist.
“Our nation is experiencing unprecedented unemployment, affordable housing shortage and economic downturn. Communities across the nation face unprecedented risk from flooding and storms, with millions of units of affordable housing at risk from substantial damage. A Resilient Future for Coastal Communities provides us with a roadmap on how we can safeguard our housing and communities in the nation’s floodplains,” said Laurie Schoeman, National Director for Resilience and Disaster Recovery, Enterprise Community Partners, and Resilient Housing and Communities panelist.
“It’s time for all hands on deck to prepare our communities for the changes we know are coming. EESI’s report shows what’s needed from many important players—Congress, federal agencies, communities, and the academics and NGOs that support them. I’m looking forward to seeing their good suggestions in action,” said Amy Snover, Director, Climate Impacts Group; University Director, Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Washington; and Bridging the Gap Between Science and Decision-Making panelist.
EESI will host a special online briefing on October 29 with four original series panelists who contributed their experience and expertise to the report to discuss the report's key findings and recommendations:
Federal Action for Resilient Coasts: New EESI Report Provides Blueprint
Thursday, October 29, 2020
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Please RSVP to receive updates: www.eesi.org/102920report#rsvp
Live webcast will be streamed at: www.eesi.org/livecast
A Resilient Future for Coastal Communities was made possible by The Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust.
Download the report: www.eesi.org/CoastalResilienceReport
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