Reducing Climate Risks through Adaptation Actions

The Congressionally-mandated Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report builds on previous assessment efforts to highlight the risks posed to American society by a changing climate. The report highlights numerous case studies of adaptation actions being undertaken across the country to minimize climate-related risks. Adaptation—defined as actions taken at the individual, local, regional, and national levels to reduce impacts from today’s weather and climate conditions, and to prepare for future changes—mainly occurs at a local level, with governments, businesses, communities, and individuals responding to different specific impacts based on their geography, vulnerability, and capacity. The Adaptation chapter (Chapter 28) of NCA4 advances the adaptive risk management process by describing progress, best practices and lessons learned, and the risk reduction potential from incremental and moving beyond incremental change. The chapter also surveys methodological approaches being employed and how both the economic and broader social welfare benefits of adaptation may be assessed. This presentation will highlight approaches, case studies, and best practices underway across the nation, including regional and urban efforts spanning different sectors including water, energy, health, agriculture, ecosystems, and disaster risk reduction. The chapter was written by a team of authors with wide-ranging expertise in infrastructure, national security, the private sector, natural resource management, urban systems.