Adapting to a Changing Climate - Strategies for Community Planning

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Adapting to a Changing Climate: 

Strategies for Community Planning

Below are links to slides and a recording of a Climate Smart Communities webinar that provide an introduction to the state of local climate adaptation planning in the United States and ideas for the types of adaptation strategies you can pursue as you work to create a more resilient community.

The information provided comes from research conducted by Dr. Missy Stults looking at how local governments are planning for climate change and what opportunities exist for improving the next generation of climate adaptation plans.  A portion of the presentation draws upon a recently released paper that assesses the quality of local climate adaptation planning and one, soon to be released, that looks at the types of strategies included in local adaptation plans.

In addition, real-world examples of adaptation in practice are provided to help understand the array of activities available to help build local resilience to climate change. 

Adapting to a Changing Climate: Strategies for Community Planning

RECORDING plus SLIDES: Click Here

SLIDES Only (PDF):  Click Here

Public Meeting: OUR Outer Harbor - Wednesday, Nov.30

SUSTAINABILITY: Business Will Move Ahead on Environmental and Social Issues, Independent of U.S. Political Leadership

Sustainable Business Will Move Ahead With or Without Trump’s Support

"The big trends didn’t disappear on election day and, more important, they do not depend on the U.S. government."

By Andrew Winston

Harvard Business Review | November 18, 2016

Andrew Winston is the author, most recently, of The Big Pivot. He is also the co-author of the best-seller Green to Gold and the author of Green Recovery. He advises some of the world’s leading companies on how they can navigate and profit from environmental and social challenges.

If we take the incoming president of the United States at his word, things look dire for the cause of sustainability. Donald Trump and many of his advisers appear hostile to action on climate change and to progress on many social issues that companies have already embraced, such as diversity and LGBT rights. Even if Trump himself stays ambivalent on some of these issues, Republican leaders have much clearer aims, including extensive plans to slash environmental protections.

Will the seismic shift in U.S. political leadership have a chilling effect on corporate action around environmental and social issues? The short answer is no. Companies will continue to pursue sustainability in the United States because the macro forces driving the movement remain strong. The big trends didn’t disappear on election day and, more important, they do not depend on the U.S. government. Let’s unpack what’s really been propelling most companies forward, which comes down to five megatrends.

The Economics of Clean Tech

In short, Trump cannot stop all momentum on the clean economy. The economics are too good. The cost to build and produce solar and wind power, for example, has dropped 60%–80% since 2010, making it cheaper than grid electricity in most states. And, most critical, this economic reality holds even without subsidies. Of course, government aid is helping accelerate the transition, but given the economic boost that clean energy provides to many states, support for wind and solar looks relatively safe in Congress. GOP Senator Chuck Grassley said that if Trump tries to eliminate the wind tax credit, the president-elect will “do it over my dead body.”

A Changing Climate

I’m not talking about the politics of and governmental action on climate change, such as the Paris Accord, carbon trading schemes, or efficiency standards. I mean actual extreme weather and climate change. These things are not theoretical and are costing business and society today. When Kellogg’s CEO, John Bryant, spoke at the Paris meeting, in December 2015, he told the assembled executives and diplomats that addressing climate change was “mission critical” for the company. (I was onstage with him and heard it very clearly.) One of his reasons why is what he described as a “fragile supply chain,” wherein weather shocks can damage grain production — a nice way of saying we don’t know if we can grow enough food. Across other sectors, unprecedented floods and storms around the world have done many billions of dollars of damage to factories, distribution centers, and local economies.

More companies are recognizing climate’s systemic risks. A week before the election, the CEO of General Mills, Ken Powell, spoke about his commitment to acting on climate. He put it in simple, CEO-friendly terms: “I am accountable for enterprise risk,” he said, “and clearly there’s a strong scientific consensus that climate is a risk.” For these reasons and more, hundreds of U.S. CEOs signed a letter to the president-elect that urged him to stay the course on global climate action and building the clean economy.

The Demands of Millennials

They are, after all, the largest generation on the planet and will make up 50% of the global workforce by 2020. On average, they hold some starkly different views about business than their predecessors did. A global survey of these 20- and 30-somethings earlier this year showed that 87% believe “the success of a business should be measured in terms of more than just its financial performance.” A Morgan Stanley survey confirmed that Millennials, and particularly those who are active investors, are three times as likely to seek employment with a company that cares about social and environmental issues. The jury is still out on whether this group will shop differently as it gets richer and deeper into adulthood, but every company I work with is feeling pressure from younger workers. In their role as employees, Millennials clearly want sustainability.

Radical Transparency and Social Media

We’re all growing accustomed to finding any information we want at any time. This includes wanting to know what’s in everything we buy, how it was made, who made it, and so on. The food and consumer products sectors are feeling this megatrend most acutely. The “clean label” movement is shaking up these industries, forcing companies to reduce ingredients and use fewer processed and artificial inputs. As General Mills’ Powell said, consumer expectations “have never been higher.”

Turbocharging this trend is social media, with which people can gather, spread stories, and generally make a company miserable if it doesn’t have its act together. In essence, as one CEO of a consumer-facing Fortune 50 company told me, customers can destroy your brand on Twitter (I’m paraphrasing only slightly). As he put it, products can’t just taste or look good — they have to tell a story and prove that they’re “responsibly sourced, manufactured, and distributed.” This shift in expectations is driving companies to understand their supply chains better, which then translates into pressure on those companies to aggressively manage their environmental and social issues.

Global Commitment and Competitive Pressure

Multinationals operate in many countries where governments publicly support strong action on climate — and 193 countries in the world signed the Paris Accord. It’s hard to say what will happen to that agreement, but even uncertainty about the commitment of the United States likely will not sink it. All of the signatories are meeting right now at the UN climate change conference in Morocco, and they’re making it clear that they are powering on. China sent a message publicly that climate change is no hoax, and France’s President Sarkozy mused about imposing import tariffs on countries that don’t “respect the rules” on carbon reduction. In essence, companies that don’t continue the sustainability journey are going to fall behind and become uncompetitive in global markets.

On top of all these megatrends is incredible innovation, making solutions to our challenges cheaper and more accessible. But even without those technological shifts, the five megatrends here create an overwhelming case to continue the sustainability journey. The bottom line is, as always, the bottom line. The business case for sustainability has been proved over and over again. The companies managing their environmental and social issues and helping their customers navigate these issues are creating business value in multiple ways: They’re saving money, driving innovation, attracting talent, and building the brand. None of that has changed, and there’s still tremendous value to unlock. Sustainability has never been solely about government pressure anyway — it’s just good for business.

All of this optimism aside, it would be naïve to think that the president of the United States can’t affect the course of progress toward a clean, sustainable world. And while we can’t know exactly what the next administration will do, that it will not be driving sustainability is a safe assumption. So business has a critical role now more than ever to make up for the headwinds that a hostile administration can generate.

Businesses will need to ensure the stability of the basic underpinnings of a thriving economy and society — that is, clean air and water, a stable climate, abundant and renewable natural resources, an educated and engaged pool of talent, robust global and local markets filled with people with enough wealth to buy your products, and much more.

If the new administration does not protect or enhance those pillars of a strong economy, or even actively undermines them, then business must take action, make up for the slack, and render federal action irrelevant. If government is derelict in its duties, business has to lead.

Follow Andrew Winston on Twitter @AndrewWinston

HAPPY THANKSGIVING from Re-ENERGIZE Buffalo!

A Time to be Thankful for Family, Friends, Food and More.

The image is Norman Rockwell's painting "Freedom from Want" (1943), which is often referred to as 'The Thanksgiving Picture'. Rockwell inserted a partial self-portrait in the lower right corner.

The painting was inspired by the speech delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Congress in his State of the Union address (1941). Roosevelt spoke about Four Freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom from fear, freedom of worship, and freedom from want.

Now, more than ever, let's be thankful for our Freedoms, and celebrate them!

PUBLIC MEETING: Northern Access Pipeline Coalition

Letter to President-Elect - 'Climate Change is Not a Hoax,' Scientist Says

Dear president-elect: Climate change is not a hoax, and we're all in this together

The Sunday Edition | November 13, 2016

 Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and associate professor of political science at Texas Tech University, where she is director of the Climate Science Center. Here is her letter to president-elect Donald Trump, commissioned by The Sunday Edition. 

Dear Mr. president-elect:

I think I speak for many in the U.S., in Canada, and around the world, when I say that you've surprised us, you've shocked us, and you've even scared us. Why? Because your words and your actions will affect us all. Your neighbours here in Canada. Policy makers in Europe. Clean energy investors in China. Refugees in Syria.

And climate negotiators who gathered in Marrakesh just this week, to put legs on the hope that was, and still is, offered by the Paris Agreement.

You've given a voice to the fear and anger, the anxiety and frustration of millions of U.S. citizens. That surprises us, shocks us, and even scares us too. But to heal a suppurating boil, we can't just slap some cover-up on it. It has to be lanced. And my hope, from the bottom of my heart, is that by doing so, you will start the healing process.

I'm a climate scientist. Thanks to decades and even centuries of careful research, we know climate is changing, we're responsible, and the impacts are serious. I've helped write U.S. national climate assessments that document how climate change is affecting the country's water, its energy, ecosystems, infrastructure, and even people's health.

This thing is not a hoax; it's real.

But what I've learned, in over a decade spent talking with and listening to thousands of people who disagree with me on climate, is that far more connects us than divides us.

That's what I've learned.

I care, because there are huge and real economic risks of inaction. I care, because it affects national security. The US military calls climate change a threat multiplier. I care, because two thirds of the world's biggest cities lie within just a meter or so of sea level, and we literally cannot pick them up and move them somewhere safer.

And I care because, most of all, climate change isn't fair. It disproportionately affects the poor and the weak, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged, the very people who contributed least to the problem but bear the brunt of its impacts.

I know that in the past, people could simply say, "What's the point, when China isn't doing anything?" But for two years running, now, China has cut its coal use. They're shutting half-built coal plants and they currently lead the world in wind and solar energy. There are solutions and, regardless of what we think about climate, those solutions can grow the economy, clean up our air and water, and ensure our energy future.

But these solutions require two big things: one, that we listen to each other, instead of talking over each other, and two, that we work together instead of tearing each other apart.

Yours in hope,

Katharine Hayhoe

Published in The Sunday Edition

 

Clean Energy Opportunity Should Trump Ideology

Trump victory won’t halt the U.S. clean energy boom 

DAN WOYNILLOWICZ AND MERRAN SMITH

Special to The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Nov. 14, 2016 5:00AM EST

Last updated Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016 5:02PM EST

Dan Woynillowicz is policy director and Merran Smith is executive director of Clean Energy Canada, a national climate and energy think tank based at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue.

If you work in clean energy, chances are your inbox and Twitter feed have been overwhelmed with stories about the implications of a Donald Trump presidency for the renewable energy sector. If you were watching markets, no doubt you took note of falling stock prices for clean-energy companies.

The prospects seem grim. And that won’t affect just U.S. companies. Canadian energy companies, from Enbridge to Alterra Power, have been growing through investments in renewable power south of the border. This investment creates jobs at headquarters here in Canada, not to mention value for their Canadian shareholders.

There’s no doubt that Mr. Trump and opponent Hillary Clinton had differing views on climate change and the opportunity clean energy offers. A lot of people lump the two together: If you want to reduce carbon pollution, build more clean energy. Since Mr. Trump thinks climate change is a hoax, that pretty much eliminates the case for clean energy – right?

Not so fast.

The reality is that clean energy has been booming in the United States for a whole bunch of reasons that don’t have much to do with climate change. Things such as health, security and innovation, which lead to high levels of support amongst Republicans – yes, Republicans – for harnessing the power of American water, wind and sun.

Those federal tax credits for wind and solar? They were passed last December by a Republican Congress with bipartisan support. Revoking them would require a legislative effort that may not be looked upon kindly by the many Republican lawmakers who have renewable energy manufacturing and development in their states. Lawmakers like Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, who said this summer: “If he wants to do away with it, he’ll have to get a bill through Congress, and he’ll do it over my dead body.” He won’t be the only one: looking across the country – and the electoral map – the top-10 wind-energy producing congressional districts are represented by Republicans.

Besides, much of the renewable energy boom has been driven by state policy. You might recall that back when he was governor of Texas, George W. Bush passed legislation requiring utilities to buy renewable energy.

It led to a building boom that has made the state the largest producer of wind power in the United States. Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma and North Dakota lead the United States in the proportion of electricity generated by wind, and all are led by Republican governors. Ditto North Carolina, which trails only California in the development of new solar projects.

Up in New Hampshire, which also went for Mr. Trump, the newly elected Republican governor won on a platform that included support for the Northern Pass transmission line, which would move clean hydroelectricity from Quebec into New Hampshire and the New England power grid.

Not only is this good news for Hydro-Québec, but it’s also good news for New England states, as it will provide base-load power that can enable more development of in-state wind and solar.

Down in Florida, as Floridians delivered their support to Trump, they also voted to maintain unlimited oppostate-level policies in red states and blue states that aren’t going to disappear, and they are driving significant investment in clean energy.

Just last year, the United States saw $56-billion (U.S.) in clean-energy investment, second only to China. That kind of investment creates a lot of jobs: Almost 210,000 Americans are now employed in the solar industry, double the 2010 figures. This represents more people than those employed in oil and gas extraction. The U.S. Bureau of Labor notes that wind turbine technician is the fastest-growing occupation in the country. Would Mr. Trump put these good jobs in jeopardy? Doubtful.

Looking at dollars and cents – and customers’ wallets – it’s also worth highlighting that the unsubsidized cost of wind and solar just keeps falling, down 61 per cent and 82 per cent respectively, between 2009 and 2015.

And these trends will continue, making clean energy the competitive choice. It’s one of the big reasons that so many major U.S. companies are committing to renewable energy and signing big contracts for wind and solar.

If we learned anything from Mr. Trump’s campaign, it was that we should expect the unexpected.

Most people, and the stock markets, seem to think Mr. Trump will be bad for clean energy’s prospects in the United States. They may very well be right.

Or, it might just turn out that clean energy will continue to rise. For clean energy, opportunity should trump ideology.

Link to The Globe and Mail

Could Trump's Desire for Popularity Create an Opportunity for Climate Action?

Trump Loves to Be Loved. Climate Leaders Hope That Could Be the Opportunity They Need

Most Americans want the U.S. to take action on climate, and, at the COP22 meeting in Marrakech, leaders say the best hope for continued American action on climate is to appeal to Trump’s desire for popularity.

By Lucia Graves | Pacific Standard Magazine 

As a candidate, Trump has called global warming a hoax, said he wants to dismantle the Paris Agreement, and vowed to halt all funds to United Nations world climate programs. He’s also called for increased extraction of oil, coal, and natural gas reserves at a time when climate leaders are seeking to limit emissions by transitioning to renewable forms of energy.

But at the global climate talks in Marrakech, Morocco, climate leaders are espousing something more optimistic than the headlines suggest.

Of course nobody expects Trump to emerge as a climate leader when he takes over the White House on January 20th; at COP22, his unexpected election last week has cast an undeniable pall over what had been a relatively cheerful post-Paris landscape.

But Trump does like to be popular.

That desire has caused skeptics to call him a chameleon, a charlatan, and a huckster. But diplomats see it as an opportunity: Given decidedly high public support [66%] among Americans for U.S. involvement in a global climate pact, Trump too might read the tea leaves. And, publicly, that’s what the world’s representatives in Marrakech are betting on.

It’s what Al Gore was alluding to when he recently expressed the hope that Trump will work with the “overwhelming majority of us who believe that the climate crisis is the greatest threat we face as a nation.” And it’s what Royal meant when said she would “dare to believe” that Trump’s promises on the campaign trail were, at least in part, a kind of theater. Even China seems to be on board with this particular line of criticism: “I believe a wise political leader should take policy stances that conform with global trends,” Xie Zhenhua, the country’s climate chief, told Reuters at the beginning of the month.

But perhaps it’s Morocco’s Minister of the Environment Hakima El Haité who put it best. “We have for many months listened to the candidate Trump. Today we have to deal with the President Trump,” she told me on Sunday, as she was leaving an event just north of the city in the Palmeraie, a stretch of palm-studded desert. “Those are two personalities.”

She’s right. One of the joys and the terrors — but mostly terrors — of having a president-elect who has reinvented himself as a real estate tycoon, playboy, and reality-television star, is there’s no definitively knowing what he’ll do. By a slim margin, Republican voters remain opposed to U.S. cooperation in the global effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions, but, again, that isn’t the case for the general electorate. And Trump didn’t even win the popular vote to begin with.

Another mildly encouraging fact for reformers: He’s flipped his opinion over the years on practically every area of policy, and climate change is certainly among them. On the latter, he’s gone from insisting global warming is a hoax to complaining that it threatens one of his golf courses. Most recently, he’s conceded climate change is a scientific reality. He just won’t allow that humans are to blame for it.

Perhaps the biggest problem with climate leaders’ stubborn optimism is that the reasons to doubt Trump’s good intentions on climate go well beyond toxic campaign promises. Already he has named Myron Ebell, a noted climate contrarian who has called the Clean Power Plan illegal, to take on the Environmental Protection Agency. Some reports even say that Trump’s transition team has already come up with ways to bypass the supposed four-year process for withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.

But negotiators so far are turning a deaf ear to all that. They won’t be felled by anonymous arrows; there’s simply too much at stake. They’re waiting to hear directly from Trump.

The above contains excerpts. Read the full report at Pacific Standard Magazine

TALK: Are Electric Buses Right for Buffalo and WNY?