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Report Offers Climate Adaptation Recommendations for New York City
by Rena Ragimova
Today the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) released a report titled Climate Change Adaptation in New York City: Building a Risk Management Response, which examines the ways climate change may affect the city and how the region can prepare for these impacts. In his foreword, Mayor Bloomberg acknowledges the importance of steps toward preventing climate change, but stresses that it is now essential to take practical steps to adapt to a changing environment. Key recommendations (pulled from the press release) in the report include the following:
- Adopting a risk-based approach to building climate change resilience;
- Soliciting ongoing advice from a body of experts on climate change issues
- Monitoring climate change and impacts over time
- Including multiple layers of government and the private sector in adaptation planning
- Reviewing standards and codes to determine their ability to withstand changes in the City’s environmental baseline
- Working with the insurance industry
- Developing strategies for near- and mid-term impacts, as well as longer-term impacts
- Focusing on early strategies that have near-term benefits or meet multiple goals.
Heat waves and extreme storms may be unavoidable for New York, but the city's Adaptation Task Force is working to prepare the infrastructure, educate residents and prevent climate change from devastating New York's population and assets. This particular report outlines specific tools to help identify climate vulnerabilities and develop adaptation strategies and recommendations on fostering an effective climate resilience program. Many of these initiatives have already been adopted by the City as part of PlaNYC.
This sentiment echoes the ideas presented by the national report, America’s
Climate Choices, which we highlighted last week. More and more,
cities and counties are looking at how climate change will affect their
particular area and what steps they need to take to adapt to the
changing environment.
You can find the full text of this
and other reports from PlaNYC on their website.
