C2ES advances emerging resilience strategies, provides leading policy analysis, and convenes key stakeholders to build broad support for action and investment in the resilience of local communities across the United States.
C2ES advances emerging resilience strategies, provides leading policy analysis, and convenes key stakeholders to build broad support for action and investment in the resilience of local communities across the United States.
Communities are addressing a growing range of challenges arising from chronic climate impacts like sea-level rise or extreme weather conditions exacerbated by climate change, like flooding or drought.
These physical impacts are also affecting cities’ economies and their ability to be competitive in a changing climate, as we explore in our report The Resilience Factor: A Competitive Edge for Climate-Ready Cities. For example, cities are facing real, but largely unquantified financial impacts that drain local budgets and put municipal credit ratings at risk. Climate impacts can also hinder cities’ ability to attract new businesses by damaging private-sector assets and real estate, and by disrupting supply chains, utility systems, and transportation networks. Further, city competitiveness also relies on offering a high quality of life for all residents, but climate change is threatening this too, especially for historically marginalized communities.
Fortunately, cities have tools to address the physical and economic risks of climate change and actually enhance their competitive edge. These include, for example: upgrading infrastructure to ensure it can withstand extreme weather, changing transit routes, updating building codes, improving neighborhood cohesion, engaging in resilience planning across city departments, economic agencies, communities, and the private sector, and prioritizing investments in vulnerable and marginalized communities.
To be effective, local resilience efforts must build the capacity of the entire community – including individual residents, neighborhoods, businesses, city planners and first responders – to cope with both chronic stresses like increasing temperatures and acute shocks like extreme weather events. Resilience is not new for most cities; it is an ongoing effort to align city functions and resources in ways that benefit residents, businesses, and the environment today and in the future.
Cities across the United States have begun to plan for climate change by taking steps to improve resilience. Cities have developed resilience plans, like the Greater Miami area’s Resilient305 strategy, while others have inserted resilience planning into master plans (e.g. Keene, New Hampshire) and hazard mitigation plans (e.g. San Diego County, CA and Providence, RI). New Orleans developed a resilience strategy that includes new design standards for public works, an updated zoning ordinance, and resilience outcomes embedded within the city’s budgeting process.
Businesses similarly seek to build the capacity of their facilities, operations and supply and distribution chains to withstand long-term and short-term climate impacts. City governments and businesses can work together to strengthen climate resilience and protect their citizens, customers and employees.
C2ES’ Climate Resilient Communities Accelerator supports climate and economic resilience of regions across the United States by addressing critical climate hazards, engaging vulnerable communities, activating private sector leaders, and identifying policy and economic development opportunities across neighboring jurisdictions. The Accelerator supports regional partnerships and networks, connects local communities to leaders in the private sector and federal government, and provides tailored information for emerging solutions.
At C2ES, we recognize that the private sector plays a critical role in building community resilience to climate change. Through our Corporate Climate Resilience Pathways initiative, we partner with businesses to promote the assessment of climate risks, the development of adaptation strategies, and the advancement of their own operations and supply chains. By facilitating collaboration between companies, local governments, and community stakeholders, we identify opportunities for the private sector to support and invest in the resilience of the broader community.