Rural towns that need to incorporate climate science into city plans often lack the budgets to do so. Image: Shutterstock
In September of 2015, President Obama chartered the creation of a committee dedicated to translating the findings of the periodic National Climate Assessment into to practical advice so that towns, counties, states and businesses could consider how to take appropriate actions. In August of 2017, President Trump allowed this committee’s charter to expire, thereby dissolving it.
Down But Not Out
The Federal Advisory Committee for the National Climate Assessment has been reborn as the Independent Advisory Committee (IAC), thanks to support from Columbia University’s Earth Institute and the administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York.
Led by Dr. Richard Moss, the former chairman of the federal committee, the Independent Committee has reconvened and released the report that they had originally set out to write (with a briefer summary here).
A key finding of the report is that businesses, policymakers and other stakeholders need better support in understanding the science of climate change and incorporating findings into their plans.
Science in Action
To this end, the committee has launched the Science for Climate Action Network, or SCAN, an online platform to connect stakeholders at all levels with appropriate climate experts.
“Local governments and communities need help to use climate science to evaluate how mitigation and adaptation opportunities interact with their broader goals,” said Moss.”This new approach will make it easier to develop science-based pathways to address climate threats to local economic growth, infrastructure, and public health.”
The idea, says Moss, is to develop sets of means-tested practices through “careful comparative analysis of what is and isn’t working among groups working on a shared challenge.” In this way, knowledge about what does and doesn’t work for a given situation can be shared with others experiencing similar challenges.
Topics that SCAN is likely to address include incorporating climate risk into economic development planning and managing changing urban flood risk.
Getting the Message Out
Getting small towns and cities to engage in productive collaborations with climate scientists may prove challenging. While large and wealthy cities like New York and Los Angeles have budgets to support climate resilience research and have entire offices dedicated to that, small towns rarely do.
Another challenge will be that of raising awareness of SCAN. Few people read academic journals like the one that published the IAC’s report, particularly those that lack an office dedicated to incorporating climate knowledge into their development plans. Many of these smaller towns are important agricultural centers. Failures to improve climate resiliency here will have widespread knock-on effects.
SCAN certainly addresses a need in modern society. We certainly hope that it will prove effective.