Adaptation and Resilience Planning Tools and Resources for New York Communities
Even as global actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change continue, these efforts alone are not enough to reduce the impacts of climate change already happening and projected to intensify. More than ever, the urgent need to adapt to the impacts of climate change is being recognized around the world and across New York State.
Climate change adaptation reduces risks from today’s changing climate conditions and prepares communities for further impacts in the future. Planning and implementing adaptation actions increases the capacity of New York’s municipalities to prepare for and become more resilient to climate change impacts. Investing in adaptation today can reduce the costs of recovering or rebuilding from climate disasters and other climate change effects in the future.
New York State is already taking steps to reduce the impacts of climate change on its communities, natural resources, and infrastructure, through adaptation-focused policies and actions. A multi-agency initiative to develop a comprehensive state climate change adaptation and resilience plan is currently underway.
The state has also released its Extreme Heat Action Plan: Adaptation Agenda for 2024—2030 (PDF). The Extreme Heat Action Plan is New York’s roadmap for coordinated action to equitably address and adapt to extreme heat and its impacts, reduce vulnerability, and build community capacity. New resources to support local planning and implementation actions to address extreme heat will become available as the plan is being implemented.
More information on New York’s Extreme Heat Action Plan can be found on the Extreme Heat webpage.
Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Planning
Climate change adaptation and resilience planning helps communities identify how they are vulnerable to current and future impacts, and then generate appropriate strategies and actions to reduce vulnerabilities and increase the resilience of their assets and ecosystems.
Adaptation planning should be a participatory process. Adaptation planning involves participation by relevant interested parties and the public throughout the process, particularly from members of disadvantaged communities, Indigenous tribes, and other populations that are disproportionately vulnerable to climate impacts but who historically have not benefited equitably from climate action.
What is a Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Plan?
A climate change adaptation and resilience plan (CCARP) guides communities through identifying current and future climate change impacts and risks, and then developing and implementing effective measures to help the community adapt to change, in both minor and transformative ways. Communities that adopt effective adaptation and resilience measures and build their adaptive capacity through a high-quality CCARP can reduce economic, environmental, and social risk, mitigate losses, and take advantage of any opportunities resulting from climate change.
Effective adaptation planning is a multi-step process that results in achievable actions that, when implemented, reduce risks and make a community better adapted and resilient to the impacts of climate change.
