Resources

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Ready Estuaries Program works to build capacity in different National Estuary Programs to prepare for and adapt to climate change. Twelve National Estuary Programs received grants and/or technical assistance in 2008 and 2009.

As a response to global, national, and state initiatives and to south Florida’s vulnerability to climate change, Broward County initiated a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a resolution to support the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement in 2007.

The Global Marine Hotspots Network was created because the oceans are not warming evenly and those areas that are warming the fastest – ocean warming ‘hotspots’ – can be considered as the world’s natural laboratories to provide the knowledge and tools to enable us to adapt wisely, efficiently, and effectively to meet the challenges of a warming environment.

Pilot workshops were conducted in March 2009 to educate and train coastal managers and planners in Washington State on climate change impacts and adaptation strategies.

The Tongass Futures Roundtable brings together a diverse group of stakeholders to discuss economic, cultural, and ecological issues pertaining to the Tongass National Forest and Southeast Alaska. The Tongass National Forest is the world’s largest remaining intact temperate rainforest and houses multiple endangered and rare flora and fauna. The Roundtable has worked with the U.S.

The Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER) developed and hosted a climate change risk assessment workshop in 2009 to build capacity for First Nation communities. The workshop was designed to provide an overview of climate change impacts and opportunities and to engage participants in discussing adaptation options for local and regional climate change issues.

This project - Climate Change and The Florida Keys - was modeled after a similar one conducted in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. It identifies community perceptions on how to address mitigation and adaptation, and analyzes the likely socioeconomic and biophysical impacts of climate change on the region.

In October 2010, the U.S. Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force released a series of recommendations to President Obama on how federal agencies could coordinate and collaborate on a national adaptation strategy. The Task Force released two progress reports in 2010 and 2011, and plans to continue to support implementation of the recommendations.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program’s mission is “to build a knowledge base that informs human responses to climate and global change through coordinated and integrated federal programs of research, education, communication, and decision support.” The Program produces assessments of climate change and its implications, participates in the U.S.