Climate Resilient Communities campaign helps counties adapt in face of global warming

By Dan Miller
Staff Writer

You can work now to reduce greenhouse gases. You can work now to go “green.” That’s good for the long-term. In the short-term, however, you should be learning to adapt, officials say.

“We know [the effects of climate change] are coming, so it’s a responsible step on the part of local government, and state and federal government to start looking at what we need to do to adapt, at the same time continuing efforts to mitigate or reduce emissions,” said former NACo president and Miami-Dade County Clerk Harvey Ruvin. 

Adaptation, according to Ruvin, refers to actions that can be taken in anticipation of impacts of climate change. By adapting, communities can try to manage unavoidable effects, including droughts and coastal erosion. For example, a county dependent on groundwater might build a desalinization plant in anticipation of rising sea levels contaminating its freshwater.

Miami-Dade is the first county participant in ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability’s Climate Resilient Communities campaign — an adaptation-focused initiative that hopes to help local governments improve their resiliency in the face of climate disruptions and catastrophes (see sidebar).

Annie Strickler, communications director for ICLEI, says the organization strives to be one of the first organizations to help counties through the process of adaptation planning.

“With adaptation, we’re still at the front stages,” she said. “Adaptation was something that a lot of people didn’t want to talk about for a long time because we needed to focus on curbing emissions first and foremost. I think people have been more willing over the past couple of years to consider adaptation.”

The California-based arm of ICLEI launched the campaign in 2005 to help local governments assess their adaptation needs and prepare for the effects of climate change. The program works with participants to determine how to integrate climate-preparedness strategies into existing hazard mitigation plans, reduce the costs associated with disaster relief and prioritize vulnerabilities such as infrastructure, zoning and water capacity.

Miami-Dade has already begun its planning process by forming a Climate Change Advisory Task Force. Staffed by major stakeholders within the county with expertise in a variety of areas, the committees that make up the task force address topics such as natural systems adaptations (including beaches, ecosystems and water supply); economic, social and health issues; and an intergovernmental affairs committee to facilitate communication between the county and other communities as well as the state and federal governments.

“The stage we’re at now is beginning to do a very comprehensive review of all of our capital planning, all of our financial and budgetary planning, analysis of our natural systems, all of our infrastructure to see where they might be vulnerable to impacts of climate change,” Ruvin said.

For example, he noted, in south Florida, drinking water comes from underground aquifers that could be contaminated by rising sea levels.

“We don’t want to wake up 30 years from now and wish we had started taking actions 30 years earlier such as starting to build desalinization plants and things of that nature,” he said.

Strickler stresses that local governments shouldn’t view greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation strategies as an either/or situation.

“You can’t just choose mitigation or adaptation strategies,” she said. “They go hand-in-hand. While we’re working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, many if not all communities need to prepare for impacts that are currently happening or will happen in the years and decades to come.”

She also indicated that by having local governments look at their planning processes now, counties can save money by implementing strategies now instead of playing catch-up after climate change consequences have started.

Guidebook will help communities plan

Another tool for helping local governments adapt to climate change will be available later this summer in the form of a guidebook created through a partnership between ICLEI, Climate Impacts Group and King County, Wash.

Setting the Course: A Guidebook on Planning for Global Warming, provides a framework communities can use to prepare for and adapt to regional climate changes.

“The guidebook provides a really nice how-to of the creation of a climate change preparedness team — how to develop that team with the right expertise, management authority and policy-making perspective,” said Elizabeth Willmott, global warming coordinator for King County.

King County Executive Ron Sims was inspired to write the guidebook, a part of the Climate Resilient Communities program, after he helped host a climate change conference in 2005.

The guidebook is designed to demystify the planning for climate impacts by identifying practical steps and strategies that can be put into place to build community resilience in the future.

According to Willmott, the guidebook takes into consideration local governments of different sizes and means so that more counties can do the best they can to help prepare themselves.

“Foresight is good government; it’s the essence of what we do as leaders,” Sims said. “The actions we take today will dramatically affect the quality of life in 2040 for our region’s projected 2.5 million residents.”

(For more information on ICLEI’s Climate Resilient Communities program, visit www.iclei.org/us/)