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Listen Now to EPA 's Webcast Series on Communications for Climate and Clean Energy Programs
If you missed our popular December 2013 webcast series on communications strategies for state and local governments, you can listen now to all three online, access presentations, and read audience Qs&As. Over 1,000 state and local staff tuned in to listen to some or all of these webcasts, making it one of our most popular offerings to date.
The structure of the three webcasts parallels the general phases of program development and implementation: attracting stakeholder support and participation, sustaining change, and gaining momentum from program successes. Participants will learn how to design communications strategies to engage and empower stakeholders, use communications methods to instigate and sustain behavior change and foster individual and community solutions, and effectively communicate their programs
New Report on Municipal Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction
This report, drafted by the Environmental Financial Advisory Board, was written to help smaller communities understand the benefits of developing and methods of financing energy efficiency projects. The Board reviewed existing information and distilled it down into this report to help communities, particularly those without dedicated energy staff, decide whether and how to move forward on efficiency measures.
The report is available on EPA�s Environmental Finance site.
EPA Regions and Antioch University-New England to Host Regional Conference, "Local Solutions: Northeast Climate Change Preparedness," May 19-21 in Manchester, New Hampshire
Antioch University-New England and EPA will host a regional conference this May for local planners, decision makers, and educators to understand how to create healthy resilient communities that are better prepared to handle severe weather and climate impacts. The first two days of the conference will focus on the topic of Building Resilient Communities: informing community planners, decision makers, and those responsible for implementing change at the local level how best to identify current and future vulnerabilities, followed by adaptive responses to build resilient communities. The last day of the conference will feature an Educators Summit, which will inform middle and high school teachers how to design a community-based, problem-solving curriculum that will teach students how best to support municipal officials preparing for impacts from a changing climate. For more information and to register, visit the conference website.
USDA Announces Regional Hubs to Help Agriculture, Forestry Mitigate Impacts of Changing Climate
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the creation of the first ever Regional Hubs for Risk Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change at seven locations around the country. These �Climate Hubs� will address increasing risks such as fires, invasive pests, floods, and droughts on a regional basis, aiming to translate science and research into information to farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners on ways to adapt and adjust their resource management. The Hubs were chosen through a competitive process among USDA facilities. In addition to the seven Hubs, USDA is designating three Subsidiary Hubs (�Sub Hubs�) that will function within the Southeast, Midwest, and Southwest. The Sub Hubs will support the Hub within their region and focus on a unique set of issues in that region. The Climate Hubs will build on the capacity within USDA to deliver science-based knowledge and practical information to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to support decision-making related to climate change across the country. For more information, see the press release.
U.S. Geological Survey Tool Provides County-Level Maps with Historical and Projected Climate Change Data for 21st Century
For the first time, maps and summaries of historical and projected temperature and precipitation changes for the 21st century for the continental United States are accessible at a county-by-county level on a website developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in collaboration with the College of Earth, Oceanic, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. The maps and summaries are based on NASA downscaling of the 33 climate models used in the 5th Climate Model Intercomparison Project and the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report. The USGS leveraged this massive dataset and distilled the information into easily understood maps, 3-page summaries, and spreadsheet compatible data files for each state and county in the United States. A similar implementation for the USGS nested hydrologic units will be available in the next month. Other useful tools for characterizing climate change include plots of monthly averages of temperature and precipitation, time-series spanning 1950-2099, and tables that summarize possible changes in the extremes of temperature and precipitation. For more information, see the press release.
Federal Funding Compendium for Urban Heat Adaptation
Given that city residents are particularly vulnerable to the public health and environmental impacts of escalating temperatures, state and local governments are often looking for creative sources of funds to prepare for climate changes.
This compendium, recently released by the Georgetown Climate Center, seeks to provide assistance to local and state governments that are striving to adapt to urban heat islands in their communities. While none of the 44 programs within the compendium were created specifically to address the problem of urban heat, all of the programs allow funds to be used for projects that would provide urban heat relief while also addressing important program objectives, such as promoting economic development and energy efficiency.
The compendium examines each program for its potential to fund urban heat adaptation. For each program, we also include information on the following:
- Who can apply for the funds
- What activities the funds can support
- The amount of money in the program
- The average size of grant
Lessons Learned from Irene: Climate Change, Federal Disaster Relief, and Barriers to Adaptive Reconstruction
A recently released case study by the Georgetown Climate Center examines the challenges encountered by Vermont localities trying to use federal disaster relief funds to rebuild their transportation system to be more resilient to future climate impacts in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.
Irene dumped more than seven inches of rain on the state over the course of two days, which washed out hundreds of miles of roads and bridges. In the aftermath of the disaster, Vermont chose to rebuild its roads and bridges to higher state standards, but encountered legal barriers when FEMA initially refused to reimburse communities for the added costs. The state appealed the decision and ultimately FEMA allowed one locality to be reimbursed and is considering the appeals of other localities.
The story of the Vermont appeal highlights some of the challenges that states and localities face in trying to adapt to climate changes by rebuilding differently after a natural disaster.
�Beyond the Basics" Website Shares Best Practices in Local Mitigation Planning
The "Beyond the Basics" website is the product of a five-year research study conducted by the Coastal Hazards Center and the Center for Sustainable Community Design at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). As part of this study, researchers at UNC systematically analyzed 175 local hazard mitigation plans drawn from six states to assess their content and quality. Each plan was evaluated using a hazard mitigation plan quality protocol that has been developed, tested, and applied over several projects across the country. The website is designed to help guide the user through the process of developing or updating a local hazard mitigation plan that will meet the requirements for approval by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). To learn more, visit the mitigation guide website.
Adaptation Planning: Kingston Tidal Waterfront Flooding Task Force
Kingston, New York, has piloted a climate adaptation planning process with several analytical tools and extended citizen engagement in the process. The city unanimously adopted the resulting report through the town council and is pursuing capital improvements, long-term land use planning, and state and federal grants in accordance with the �Planning for Rising Waters� report.
For more information, see the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation�s Climate January 2014 Smart Webinar on Kingston�s Tidal Waterfront Flooding Task Force.
State and local officials interested in additional information about developing and implementing cost-effective climate and energy strategies that help further environmental goals and achieve public health and economic benefits may visit EPA�s State and Local Climate and Energy Program site.
