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Summary
T
he global climate is changing, and impacts of climate change are being ob-
served across the United States. Over the past 50 years, temperatures have risen
nearly 2°F (1°C), some extreme weather events such as heavy precipitation and
heat waves have increased in frequency and intensity, sea level has risen along most of
the coast, and sea ice has been disappearing rapidly. These changes are all expected to
continue, which means that in many respects the climate of the future will be different
from the climate of the past.
In order to address the challenges associated with climate change, Congress directed
the National Research Council to “investigate and study the serious and sweeping
issues relating to global climate change and make recommendations regarding the
steps that must be taken and what strategies must be adopted in response to global
climate change.” As part of the response to this request, the America’s Climate Choices
(ACC) Panel on Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change was charged to “describe,
analyze, and assess actions and strategies to reduce vulnerabilities, increase adaptive
capacity, improve resilience, and promote successful adaptation to climate change in
different regions, sectors, systems, and populations” (see Appendix B for the full state-
ment of task).
America’s climate change adaptation choices involve deciding how to cope with
climate changes that we cannot, or do not, avoid so that possible disruptions and
damages to society, economies, and the environment are minimized and—where
possible—so that impacts are converted into opportunities for the country and its citi-
zens. In some cases, such as in Alaska, the need to adapt has already become a reality.
In most cases, however, adapting today is about reducing vulnerabilities to emerging
or future impacts that could become seriously disruptive if we do not begin to identify
response options now; in other words, adaptation today is essentially a risk manage-
ment strategy.
Vulnerabilities to climate change impacts exist all across America and differ by re-
gion, sector, scale, and segment of our society. Consider, for example, the likelihood
of reduced surface water supply in America’s West because of reduced snowfall and
snowpack in the western mountains and, at least in the Southwest, prospects for
reduced total rainfall. These changes interact with the region’s current vulnerabilities
to drought conditions and the many competing demands for limited water resources.
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A D A P T I N G T O T H E I M PA C T S O F C L I M AT E C H A N G E
Options for adapting to the prospect of more severe water shortage in the West and
Southwest include improving efficiencies in water use, reducing the need for water for
competing purposes (e.g., power plant cooling), finding ways to reduce evaporation
from reservoirs, learning more about potentials and limits of groundwater withdrawal,
increasing mechanisms for interbasin water transfers, revisiting approaches to water
rights, and developing technology for affordable desalination of sea water. These are
examples of options that can be considered by decision makers responsible for water
resources in the context of the local or regional socioeconomics, combining relatively
low-cost near-term actions with preparations to evaluate more substantial actions in
the longer term. While it is difficult to know precisely the impacts that will occur in the
future, adaptation offers a way to prepare and minimize the risks to social, economic,
and natural systems associated with these impacts.
Adaptation to reduce vulnerabilities associated with likely impacts of climate change
cannot be accomplished by the federal government or any other single decision
maker alone. The challenges are too diverse, the contexts are too different, and too
many parties have knowledge and capacities to contribute. Given the diversity of
climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and available adaptation options across the United
States, the report concludes that adaptation planning and action will be required
across all levels of government as well as within the private sector, nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), and community organizations. Accordingly, this report outlines
a framework that engages decision makers across all levels of governance and across
public and private entities through the development of a national adaptation strategy.
Within this national strategy, the federal government plays a unique and critical role
in providing technical and scientific resources that are lacking at the local or regional
scale, reexamining policies that may inhibit adaptation, and supporting scientific re-
search to expand our knowledge of impacts and adaptation.
FuTuRE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANgE THAT CALL FOR ADAPTATION
Effective adaptation depends on an understanding of projected climatic changes
at geographic and temporal scales appropriate for the needed response. Projected
changes include average and extreme temperature; average and extreme precipita-
tion; the intensity, frequency, duration, and/or location of extreme weather events; sea
level; and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. Because of the complex
interactions between these climate changes and nonclimate factors, such as demo-
graphics, economics, land use, and technology, the impacts of climate change will
be highly diverse. For example, future climate changes will interact with underlying
vulnerabilities in many coastal communities. In areas that have been highly developed,
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Summary
the ability to cope with flooding has been reduced as wetlands have been drained.
With projected sea level rise and increases in storm surge, the impacts of flood dam-
age and coastal erosion could be exacerbated. Thus, effective approaches to adapta-
tion will be case- and place-specific.
Society’s ability to cope with the impacts of climate change and avoid unacceptable
levels of social and environmental costs decreases as the severity of climate change
increases. At moderate rates and levels of climate change, adaptation can do a great
deal. At severe rates and levels of climate change, however, limits of many adaptation
options might be reached; resulting adaptations are likely to be much more disruptive
and costly. In this very direct and profound sense, adaptation to the impacts of climate
change and actions to reduce greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere are partners
in America’s response to concerns about climate change, not alternatives.
Many scientific challenges remain in assessing vulnerabilities and impacts associated
with climate change. The level of scientific confidence in understanding and project-
ing climate change increases with increasing spatial scale while the relevance and
value of the information to decision makers declines. Therefore, a finer-scale under-
standing of climate change risks and vulnerabilities is needed. In addition, multiple
stresses will interact with climate change in determining its impacts and, because
vulnerability varies greatly from place to place, the same climate condition in different
locations may call for different adaptive responses.
OPTIONS FOR ADAPTINg TO IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANgE
If the United States is to cope effectively with the impacts of climate change, it will
need an array of adaptation options from which to choose. Until very recently, adapt-
ing to climate change has been a low national priority, and limited research has been
completed to identify options for adaptation and evaluate their benefits, costs, po-
tential, and limits. In the short term, the nation can draw lessons from past experience
with adaptations to climate variability, experience (albeit limited) with climate change
adaptation that has been undertaken in some regions of the world, a limited number
of careful analyses of adaptation possibilities, and an onrush of creative thinking in
connection with emerging efforts to do adaptation planning. But, in many cases, the
options that we can identify for adaptation to impacts of climate change lack solid
information about benefits, costs, potentials, and limits for three reasons: an inability
to attribute explicitly many observed changes at local and regional scales to climate
change (and therefore to document effects of adaptation in reducing those impacts),
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the diversity of impacts and vulnerabilities across the United States, and the relatively
small body of research that focuses on climate change adaptation actions.
This report provides examples of the range of options currently available for adapting
to climate variability and extremes in key climate-sensitive sectors, such as agriculture,
energy, and transportation. Although these examples alone may not be sufficient for
coping with future climate change, they offer a starting point for devising adaptation
strategies. While the report provides a long list of options to be considered for vari-
ous sectors, Table S.1 illustrates the range and diversity of options for coastal regions.
For example, options to cope with sea level rise near coastal areas include hardening
of coastal infrastructure so that it can handle higher water levels and storm impacts,
sharing risks among vulnerable locations through insurance, and altering develop-
ment and land-use practices to relocate vulnerable infrastructure or activities away
from the coasts. Some of the adaptation options can be implemented in the near term
at relatively low cost or provide additional benefits. Early actions that can be deployed
most easily in such an environment are likely to be low-cost strategies with win-win
outcomes, actions that end or reverse maladapted policies and practices, and mea-
sures that avoid prematurely narrowing future adaptation options. In addition, the
integration of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to climate
change impacts in a common sustainability agenda reduces risks of maladaptation.
In the long term, adaptation to climate change calls for a new paradigm that takes
into account a range of possible future climate conditions and associated changes
in human and natural systems instead of managing our resources based on previ-
ous experience and the historical range and variability of climate. This does not mean
waiting until uncertainties have been reduced to consider adaptation actions. Actions
taken now can reduce the risk of major disruptions to human and natural systems; in-
action could serve to increase these risks, especially if the rate or magnitude of climate
change is particularly large. Mobilizing now to increase the nation’s adaptive capacity
can be viewed as an insurance policy against an uncertain future. Because adapta-
tion options are much more limited to cope with impacts of relatively severe climate
change in the longer run, an important part of a national approach to adaptation is
examining the prospects for these more severe impacts and considering possible lim-
its to adaptation. Some projected impacts are likely to be beyond the scope of adapta-
tion, unless adaptation involves major structural change to government and society.
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Summary
DEvELOPINg ADAPTATION STRATEgIES
Although many ideas are available about ways to adapt to climate variability and
change, few of these options have been assessed for their effectiveness under pro-
jected future climate conditions and for their potential interactions across sectors and
with other stressors. Little attention has been given to the processes that decision
makers might use to make appropriate adaptation decisions. This report suggests
some approaches to choosing among the many options to manage the risks associ-
ated with climate change, using examples from recent adaptation activities initiated
primarily at the state and local levels.
In brief, the report suggests that the adaptation process is fundamentally a risk-man-
agement strategy. Managing risk in the context of adapting to climate change involves
using the best available social and physical science to understand the likelihood of
climate impacts and their associated consequences, then selecting and implement-
ing the response options that seem most effective. Because knowledge about future
impacts and the effectiveness of response options will evolve, policy decisions to
manage the risk of climate change impacts can be improved if they are done in an
iterative fashion by continually monitoring the progress and consequences of actions
and modifying management practices based on learning and recognition of changing
conditions.
The report proposes a sequence of steps for pursuing adaptation. To begin, decision
makers across a variety of agencies and institutions (e.g., federal, tribal, state, and
local governments; private-sector firms; and community organizations and NGOs)
would identify their vulnerabilities and assess risks associated with the impacts of
climate change. This information would need to be communicated among stakehold-
ers and relevant decision makers to raise their awareness of current and potential
problems. Using a risk-management approach, adaptation options for managing the
risks associated with climate impacts can then be identified, evaluated, and imple-
mented (Figure S.1).
The report also identifies some “lessons learned” about important elements to devel-
oping a strategy, including establishment of clear objectives, opportunities to incorpo-
rate adaptation plans into existing management goals and procedures, the ability to
identify co-benefits associated with adaptation measures, and the presence of strong
leadership.
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TABLE S.1 Possible options for adapting to climate change that have been identified in the ocean and coastal sector.
Climate Change Impact Possible Adaptation Action
Federal
State
Local Government
Private Sector
NGO/Individuals
Accelerated sea Gradual inundation of Site and design all future public works projects to take into
level rise and low-lying land; loss of account projections for sea level rise.
lake level coastal habitats, Eliminate public subsidies for future development in high hazard
changes especially coastal areas along the coast.
wetlands; saltwater
Develop strong, well-planned, shoreline retreat or relocation
intrusion into coastal
plans and programs (public infrastructure and private
aquifers and rivers;
properties), and poststorm redevelopment plans.
increased shoreline
erosion and loss of Retrofit and protect public infrastructure (stormwater and
barrier islands; changes wastewater systems, energy facilities, roads, causeways, ports,
in navigational bridges, etc.).
conditions
Adapt infrastructure and dredging to cope with altered water
levels.
Use natural shorelines, setbacks, and buffer zones to allow inland
migration of shore habitats and barrier islands over time (e.g.,
dunes and forested buffers mitigate storm damage and erosion).
Encourage alternatives to shoreline “armoring” through “living
shorelines” (NRC).
Develop strategic property acquisition programs to discourage
development in hazardous areas, encourage relocation, and/or
allow for inland migration of intertidal habitats.
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Changes in ecosystem Plan and manage ecosystems to encourage adaptation (see
Changes in sea
structures ecosystem options).
ice
Exacerbate coastal Facilitate inland migration and relocation of coastal
erosion; severe storms communities.
reach coast
Increased Increased storm surge Strengthen and implement building codes that make existing
intensity/ and flooding; increased buildings more resilient to storm damage along the coast.
frequency wind damage; sudden
Increase building “free board” above base flood elevation
coastal storms coastal/shoreline
alterations
Identify and improve evacuation routes in low-lying areas (e.g.,
causeways to coastal islands).
Improve storm readiness for harbors and marinas.
Establish marine debris reduction strategy.
Establish and enforce shoreline setback requirements.
Ocean Potential changes in Reduce CO2 emissions (Limiting).
acidification ocean productivity and
food web linkages; Support ocean observation and long-term monitoring programs.
degradation of corals,
shellfish, and other Evaluate and manage for ecosystem and infrastructure impacts.
shelled organisms;
potential impacts on
coastal infrastructure
(i.e., construction
materials)
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Establish monitoring and mapping efforts to measure changes in
Changes in Changes in salinity;
physical, biological, and chemical conditions along the coast.
physical and changes in circulation;
chemical changes in seawater
Utilize approaches that do not endanger species that are
characteristics temperature; changes
harvested or endangered.
of marine in salinity and
systems temperature
Ensure flexibility in management plans to account for changes in
stratification; changes in
species distributions and abundance.
estuarine structure and
processes (e.g., salt Implement early warning and notification systems for shellfish
wedge migration); and beach closures, salinity intrusion in coastal rivers (for
changes in ecosystem industry impacts and water resource management, i.e.
structure (“invasive,” freshwater intakes), and for unusual events such as hypoxia.
nonnative species),
species distributions,
population genetics,
and life history
strategies (including
migratory routes for
protected and
commercially important
species); increased
frequency and extent of
harmful algal blooms
and coastal hypoxia
events
Changes in Increased runoff and Improve non-point source pollution prevention programs.
precipitation non-point source Improve stormwater management systems and infrastructure.
pollution or
Improve early warning systems for beach and shellfish closures.
eutrophication; changes
in coastal hydrology
and related ecosystem
impacts; increased
coastal flooding
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NOTE: Most adaptations are local and need to be tailored to local conditions. The suitability of each adaptation option must therefore be
evaluated in the context of local conditions. Where possible, the table refers to assessments and syntheses that consider multiple adaptation
options and provide references to specific studies.
SOURCE: Reference citations are abbreviated as follows to conserve space: NRC (NRC, 2007c), Limiting (ACC: Limiting the Magnitude of Future
Climate Change [NRC, 2010c]).
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A D A P T I N G T O T H E I M PA C T S O F C L I M AT E C H A N G E
3. Develop an adaptation
strategy using risk-based
prioritization schemes
2. Assess the 4. Identify opportunities
vulnerabilities and for co-benefits and
risk to the system synergies across sectors
1. Identify current and 6. Monitor and
5. Implement
future climate changes reevaluate implemented
adaptation options
relevant to the system adaptation options
FIguRE S.1 The planning process is envisioned to incorporate the following steps: (1) identify current
and future climate changes relevant to the system, (2) assess the vulnerabilities and risk to the system, (3)
develop an adaptation strategy using risk-based prioritization schemes, (4) identify opportunities for co-
benefits and synergies across sectors, (5) implement adaptation options, and (6) monitor and reevaluate
implemented adaptation options.
LINKINg ADAPTATION EFFORTS ACROSS THE NATION
Adapting to climate change impacts is and will be an ongoing process. It cannot be
thought of simply as a set of actions to be taken right now, although this report does
identify some effective short-term actions. Adapting calls for the development of a
multiparty, public-private national framework for becoming more adaptable over time,
including improving information systems for telling us what is happening, both with
climate change impacts and with adaptation experiences; working together across
institutional and social boundaries to combine what each party does best; and mak-
ing it a part of our national culture to continually review the effectiveness of current
risk-management strategies as we learn more about projected climate changes and
impact vulnerabilities.
In this sense, adaptation poses enormous challenges across sectors, jurisdictions, and
levels of governance. Successful adaptation to climate change involves a multitude
of interested partners and decision makers: federal, state, and local governments; the
private sector, large and small; NGOs and community groups; and others. The issue is
how to create a framework in which all of the parties work together effectively, tak-
0
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Summary
ing advantage of the strengths of each and assuring that the activities reinforce each
other rather than getting in each other’s way.
There are three general kinds of alternative approaches for meeting this need:
1. A strong federal government adaptation program, nested in a body of federal
government laws, regulations, and institutions. With this approach, the fed-
eral government would take the lead in identifying adaptation actions in the
national interest, mandate appropriate responses while providing resources to
support them, set goals for improvements in the nation’s adaptive capacities,
and ensure coordination with other national programs and parties nationwide.
2. A grassroots-based, bottom-up approach that is very largely self-driven.
Adaptation planning and actions would be decentralized. Decisions would be
made without significant federal encouragement or coordination, except for
programs of the federal agencies themselves. Current adaptation efforts are
largely occurring in this manner.
3. An intermediate approach, where planning and actions are decentralized but
the federal government plays a significant role as a catalyst and coordinator
at the outset, providing information and technical resources and continually
evaluating needs for additional risk management at a national level.
The panel considered all three approaches, in consultation with social scientists, prac-
titioners, and stakeholders, and found that the intermediate approach was the alterna-
tive with the strongest scientific support, because adaptation requires place-based
approaches in combination with technical and scientific capacity typically developed
at the federal level. Based on its review of recent reports and in consultation with
stakeholders, the panel also concludes that practitioners and stakeholders favor the
intermediate approach. Elaborating on this approach, the panel found that emerg-
ing adaptation efforts in the United States are not well coordinated, and as a result
adaptation choices could result in unintended consequences and inconsistent, inef-
ficient investments and outcomes. A national adaptation program is needed, guided
by a strategy that focuses on cooperation and collaboration among different levels of
government and between government and other key parties.
A national adaptation program itself will need to be adaptive, continually working to
increase its own effectiveness. Solutions need to be developed that promote response
to changing conditions, informed by ongoing information collection and dissemi-
nation, as opposed to a rigid response intended to be permanent. An ongoing as-
sessment of progress (in terms of both outcomes and process) is an integral part to
the success of this program. Other critical features of adaptive management involve
learning from past and emerging experiences, recognizing the complexity and the
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A D A P T I N G T O T H E I M PA C T S O F C L I M AT E C H A N G E
interrelated nature of sectoral interests such as water, agriculture, and energy, and
understanding the relationships between adaptation activities and the need to limit
GHG emissions. Over time, there will be a need to adapt to our own adaptations (and
maladaptations) as well as to our efforts to limit the magnitude of climate change.
THE INTERNATIONAL CONTExT FOR AMERICA’S ADAPTATION EFFORTS
Engaging in international dialogues and actions about climate change adaptation
could have several benefits for the United States. First, it would help address questions
of global equity as developing countries bear the consequences of climate change
resulting from developed countries’ emissions. Second, it would open an opportunity
for the United States to provide assistance for international humanitarian concerns as
part of existing development goals. Third, international engagement could help to ad-
dress national security issues that will arise from climate change. Fourth, coordination
among countries could improve the effectiveness of adaptation efforts by reducing re-
dundant activities or those that act at cross-purposes. Fifth, international engagement
offers the United States opportunities to exchange lessons learned from the adapta-
tion experiences. And sixth, international engagement would open expanded global
market opportunities for U.S. adaptation technologies, systems, and services.
For these reasons, it is important to integrate climate change adaptation objectives
into a range of foreign policy, development assistance, and capacity-building efforts.
Overall, devising solutions and making decisions about adaptation options should be
placed within a broad international context.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOgy ADvANCES NEEDED
TO SuPPORT ADAPTATION CHOICES
America’s climate choices in adapting to impacts of climate change are limited by the
nation’s insufficient knowledge of adaptation, tools, and options related specifically to
climate change. The report suggests a broad agenda of science and technology needs.
Examples range from a better understanding of how adaptation measures may inter-
act with one another and contribute to overall goals for sustainability to research and
development related to water use efficiency improvement. Significant improvements
in capacities for adaptation analysis and assessment, adaptation option identification
and development, and adaptation management and implementation are needed to
broaden and strengthen our adaptation choices. Finally, to better manage and imple-
ment adaptation measures, it is important to improve risk-analysis techniques and
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Summary
observing systems that measure the magnitude of climate change and the effective-
ness of adaptation actions.
As a component of a cross-agency climate change research program, the report sug-
gests that climate change adaptation research and development should be pursued
as a shared partnership among the federal government, other levels of government,
the private sector and other NGOs, and the academic research community. Ideally, the
program’s scope would include studies of autonomous adaptation as well as planned
adaptation; it should explicitly include monitoring and learning from ongoing experi-
ences with adaptation in practice to build the knowledge base that can guide future
adaptation planning and implementation; and it should expedite advances in ad-
aptation science and technology that have promise in reducing critical national and
regional vulnerabilities to climate change impacts in the coming decades.
CONCLuSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Because impacts of climate change are already being observed in the United States
and elsewhere in the world, and because these impacts will increase in severity even
if GHG emissions are reduced substantially in the near term, the United States needs
to improve its ability to adapt to impacts of climate change. Concerns about these im-
pacts are generating increasing interest in adaptation and wide-ranging discussions
about potential actions that might be taken by individuals, sectors, cities, and states—
in some cases without sufficient information about the options that are available.
It is the judgment of this panel that anticipatory climate change adaptation is a highly
desirable risk-management strategy for the United States. Such a strategy offers
potential to reduce costs of current and future climate change impacts, not only by
realizing and supporting adaptation capacities across different levels of government,
different sectors of the economy, and different populations and environments, but
also by providing resources, coordination, and assistance in ensuring that a wide range
of distributed actions are mutually supportive. Placed in a larger context of sustainable
development, climate change adaptation can contribute to a coherent and efficient
national response to climate change challenges that encourages linkages and part-
nerships across boundaries between different sectors and institutions in our society.
The report presents a number of findings and recommendations (see Box S.1) regard-
ing the need for a national climate change adaptation effort. It emphasizes the term
“national” rather than “federal” because adaptation is an inherently diverse and disag-
gregated process. Adaptation options themselves are immensely diverse, and choos-
ing “how” and “when” to adapt from a long list of possible options requires careful
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evaluation of the socioeconomic context, the vulnerability of the sector or region, the
resources available, and the scale at which the impact is likely to be felt. There is no
one-size-fits-all adaptation option for a particular climate impact across the nation;
instead, decision makers within each level of government, within each economic sec-
tor, and within civil society need to weigh the many tradeoffs between the available
adaptation choices. Most decisions about how and when to implement adaptation
options will require local input, and in many (if not most) cases, adaptation projects
will occur at the local level. In addition, there is a very limited knowledge base evalu-
ating adaptation measures. For all of these reasons, this report does not recommend
specific adaptation measures to be implemented, aside from recommendations for
several federal agencies. Rather, examples of adaptation measures that can be consid-
ered are discussed and a process for decision makers to develop and evaluate options
for adapting is detailed.
The recommendations begin with a call for all decision makers—within national, state,
tribal, and local agencies and institutions, in the private sector, and NGOs—to identify
their vulnerabilities to climate change impacts and the short- and longer-term adapta-
tion options that could increase their resilience to current and projected impacts. They
call for the development of a collaborative national adaptation strategy and program,
including a significant climate change research effort as part of an integrated climate
change research initiative. They suggest adaptation planning and implementation
by U.S. states and tribes, local governments, and the private sector, nongovernmental
institutions, and society at large, in a spirit of national partnership; and they suggest
U.S. support for international adaptation programs. Finally, they suggest incorporating
adaptation objectives into a number of existing federal government programs.
In conclusion, the process of adapting to likely climate change impacts poses a
daunting challenge and the stakes are high. Nevertheless, there are a large number
of adaptation options that can be identified and initiated now. In many cases, these
options would be relatively inexpensive, would be low-risk, would be consistent with
sustainability principles, and would have multiple ancillary benefits. The recommenda-
tions listed in Box S.1 provide a solid framework within which the nation can initiate
a national effort to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate. Along with initiating
near-term adaptation measures, it is important to consider adaptation to climate
change impacts as a process that will require sustained commitment and a durable
yet flexible strategy for several decades to come.
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Summary
bOx S.1
Recommendations
Recommendation 1: All decision makers—within national, state, tribal, and local agencies and
institutions, in the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—should identify
their vulnerabilities to climate change impacts and the short- and longer-term adaptation options
that could increase their resilience to current and projected impacts.
Recommendation 2: The executive branch of the federal government should initiate devel-
opment of a collaborative national adaptation strategy, which might take the form of a national
adaptation plan. The strategy (or plan) should be developed in partnership with congressional
leaders, selected high-level representatives of relevant federal agencies, states, tribes, business
and environmental organizations, and local governments and community leaders.
Recommendation 3: Federal, state, and local governments, together with nongovernmental
partners, should work together to implement a national climate change adaptation program
pursuant to the national climate adaptation strategy.
Recommendation 4: As part of an integrated climate change research initiative, the federal
government should undertake a significant climate change adaptation research effort designed
to provide a reliable foundation for adapting to the impacts of climate change in a larger context
of sustainability.
Recommendation 5: Adaptation planning and implementation at the state and tribal level
should be initiated regardless of whether the federal government provides the necessary leader-
ship. States and tribes will need to take a significant leadership and coordination role, especially
in areas where cities and other local interests have not yet established adaptation efforts. State
and tribal governments should develop and implement climate change adaptation plans to
guide policy and coordinate with federal, regional, local, and private-sector efforts pursuant to
the national climate adaptation strategy.
Recommendation 6: Local governments should develop and implement climate change
adaptation plans pursuant to the national climate adaptation strategy, in consultation with the
broad range of stakeholders in their communities.
Recommendation 7: The private sector, NGOs, and society at large should assess their own
vulnerabilities and risks due to climate change and actively engage and partner with the respec-
tive governmental adaptation planning efforts to help build the nation’s adaptive capacity.
Recommendation 8: The United States should engage as a major player in adaptation ac-
tivities at the global scale. The United States should support the establishment of a collaborative,
sufficiently funded, international adaptation program that can be sustained over time.
Recommendation 9: Adaptation objectives should be incorporated into existing U.S.
government programs and policies that have international components such as (1) agriculture,
trade policy, and food security; (2) energy policy; (3) transportation policy; (4) international aid
and disaster relief; (5) national security; and (6) intellectual property agreements for technology
transfer to other countries.
Recommendation 10: Federal, state, and local entities and the private sector should take
actions now to address current, known climate change impacts and risks and/or to provide ef-
fective risk management at a relatively low cost.
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