Laws, Regulations, Policy Analysis, and Strategies
This tab includes strategies for serving communities on the frontline of climate change, including best practices, legal and policy analysis, laws, regulations, agency guidance, and executive orders relevant to equity and adaptation.
Resources are automatically presented by date. Apply additional filters to narrow the list by organization type of author, state, jurisdictional focus, region, or resource type.
214 results are shown below.
Filter by States AffectedSelect states to filter this list
All
Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Marianas Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
Resource
August 2019
From the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this document offers state, local, and tribal public health officials updated guidance on communicating to the public about wildfire smoke health risks and protective measures. This guide provides recommendations on preparing for wildfire smoke season and reducing smoke exposure for the public and at-risk groups or vulnerable populations. The information provided as well as the associated factsheets on wildfire smoke protection can be useful for other health and air quality professionals as well as the general public.
Resource Category: Planning
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
August 2019
To operationalize California’s statewide vision of honoring social equity in the climate adaptation planning and decision-making processes, the Greenlining Institute published Making Equity Real in Climate Adaptation and Community Resilience Policies and Programs: A Guidebook. The guidebook provides detailed step-by-step guidelines for policymakers to ensure social equity is embraced and implemented throughout the adaptation processes, from goal setting, to policy implementation, to outcome evaluation.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Sona Mohnot , Jordyn Bishop , Alvaro Sanchez
Resource Category: Planning
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
August 1, 2019
On August 1, 2019, the Center for American Progress published “A Perfect Storm,” a report which analyzes the relationship between the affordable housing and climate change crises, and presents 5 policy recommendations for building more resilient and prepared communities. The report explores the intersection of diminishing affordable housing and rising homelessness, as well as the disproportionate impacts extreme weather events have on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Authors of the report assert that local, state, and federal policymakers must take action to build strong, healthy, accessible, and affordable communities in the face of a changing climate.
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
July 18, 2019
Passed in July of 2019, New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) (Senate Bill S6599) commits the State of New York to implementing several integrated climate adaptation planning and climate justice goals. In addition to aggressive climate mitigation goals — including zero GHG emissions by 2050 and 100% renewable electricity usage by 2040 — the Act aims to address adaptation and resilience across state programming, land use planning, and local government support.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
2019
In 2019, the Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe (IDJC) collaborated with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to release a field guide, Preserving Our Place — A Community Field Guide to Engagement, Resilience, and Resettlement: Community Regeneration in the Face of Environmental and Developmental Pressures . IDJC is in the process of relocating from the Louisiana coast to a new community further inland due to significant land loss and flooding impacts. The field guide was developed to serve dual purposes: first, to document the community engagement process that IDJC has developed throughout its resettlement planning process; and second, to provide procedural guidance and lessons learned for communities that are also contemplating large-scale relocation. The field guide can be used by other tribal or frontline coastal communities that are considering potential larger-scale managed retreat or relocation strategies to adapt to climate change impacts like sea-level rise and other stressors and pressures, like environmental justice and encroaching development.
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
July 2019
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has evaluated how climate change will contribute to increasing incidence of dangerous high heat days across the U. S. This includes an analysis of the growing number of high heat days across various regions of the country, described under three climate change scenarios. The report also details the public health consequences of extreme heat and the populations that are particularly vulnerable to these threats. Policy recommendations are offered with adaptation measures that can be implemented at all levels of government to address rising temperatures.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Kristina Dahl, Erika Spanger-Siegfried, Rachel Licker, Astrid Caldas, John Abatzoglou, Nicholas Mailloux, Rachel Cleetus, Shana Udvardy, Juan Declet-Barreto, Pamela Worth
Resource Category: Assessments
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
June 26, 2019
An Equitable Water Future: Louisville focuses on building equity in the infrastructure workforce, primarily the water sector, in Louisville, Kentucky. Local factors that influence water equity are described, including concentrated vulnerable communities that are disproportionality experiencing aging infrastructure, flooding and climate impacts, and barriers to participating in the local infrastructure workforce. The report outlines recommendations to address these issues that Louisville and other municipalities can take to advance sustainable and equitable utility management.
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
June 26, 2019
In June 2019, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed into law "An Act to Promote Clean Energy Jobs and to Establish the Maine Climate Council. " The act states that the impacts of climate change have created an "emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine" and find that the law is "immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety. " To address the state's climate emergency, the act includes multiple provisions related to climate adaptation and resilience.
Author or Affiliated User: Nathan Robbins
Resource Category: Law and Governance
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
June 2019
The City of Seattle, Washington is establishing five new facilities that will provide clean air for its most at-risk residents during hazardous conditions brought on by wildfires. As the climate warms, Seattle is experiencing a major uptick in the number of wildfires, and consequently more days with unhealthy air quality from particulate matter. This issue is especially significant for Seattle, as the majority of the city’s residents do not have air conditioning, and mostly open windows to circulate air from outside to cool homes.
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
Resource
June 2019
This report was conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Harvard University to explore the connection between climate adaptation and resilience and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which encourages banks to invest in and address the credit needs of low- and moderate-income areas and underserved rural areas. The CRA was enacted in 1977 and, according to the Federal Reserve, “requires the Federal Reserve and other federal banking regulators to encourage financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they do business, including low- and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Jesse Keenan , Elizabeth Mattiuzzi
Resource Category: Solutions
See Resource Login to Add to My Resource List
