ICLEI's Municipal Adaptation Workshop

ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, was proud to partner with the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers to host the first ever U.S. Municipal Adaptation Workshop. The Workshop was held May 30th, 2008 at Northeastern University's Egan Center, in Boston, Massachusetts and provided an outstanding opportunity to learn more about regional climate impacts as well as mechanisms for preparing for those impacts.

The Municipal Climate Adaptation Workshop convened key local government stakeholders from around the region to discuss the impacts of a changing climate and opportunities for enhancing the resiliency of local communities. ICLEI’s unique expertise in local climate protection and facilitating action oriented workshops helped to ensure that participants received useful and regionally relevant information to return to their communities ready to take action.

The Workshop included:

• Up-to date forecasted regional climate impacts;

• Training on conducting a community vulnerability assessment;
• Break-out sessions on planning for public health, coastal, freshwater, and ecological impacts;
  
• Hands-on adaptation action prioritization exercise;
• Assessment of the financial implications of inaction; and
• Exclusive peer networking forum on local climate protection best practices.

Workshop sessions were structured such that attendees were able to begin obtaining the knowledge and skills necessary to begin enhancing resiliency to a changing climate in their respective communities.

If you are interested in reviewing the agenda or the presentations from the Workshop, please see the links below.  Additionally, we strongly encourage those of you who attended the event to complete and evaluation. Please send your completed evaluations electronically to missy.stults@iclei.org.

• Agenda (.doc)
• Event Evaluation
• Presentations

1. Center for Clean Air Policy_Josh Foster
   
2. Coastal Break-Out Session_Ron Rozsa
3. Coastal Break-Out Session_Julia Knisel
4. Ecological Break-Out Session_Hector Galbraith
5. Ecological Break-Out Session_Kristin Marcell
6. Freshwater Break-Out Session_Paul Kirshen
7. Public Health Break-Out Session_Paul Epstein
8. Public Health Break-Out Session_Dennis McBride
   

ICLEI would like to thank the Center for Clean Air Policy for their generous financial support. Additional thanks are extended to the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers, the City of Boston, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Northeastern University for their support in organizing this event.