All Climate Events

Monday, October 11, 2021. 1:00 PM Eastern. Webinar: Benchmarking Progress Towards Social Equity – Focused Climate Adaptation Planning in U.S. Cities. Eric Chu, University of California, Davis. Sponsored by the Climate Adaptation Research Center at UC Davis. Register here.

Cities across the US are planning for climate change impacts such as heat, drought, sea level rise, and other extreme hazards. Although researchers have long sought to understand the drivers of more aggressive local climate policymaking, we have yet to develop consistent and coherent indicators to assess adaptation action outcomes on the ground. We therefore have no way of assessing whether climate adaptation plans that are currently being designed or implemented actually lead to more sustainable, resilient, or socially just outcomes. This presentation draws on research addressing the need to benchmark climate adaptation progress through evaluating emerging strategies taken by larger cities across the U.S. to monitor and assess their own efforts in designing and implementing more equitable climate actions. Research shows there is a growing consensus on ‘what counts?’ as social equity-focused climate adaptation action in cities, with actions typically ranging from equitably managing heightened exposures to climate impacts to recognizing historic forms of exclusion in adaptation interventions. These insights help to make sense of ongoing equity-focused adaptation actions in U.S. cities and can inform the types and potential approaches to catalyze more equity-focused actions in other cities.