Access a range of climate-related reports issued by government agencies and scientific organizations. Browse the reports listed below, or filter by scope, content, or focus in the boxes above. To expand your results, click the Clear Filters link.

Resilience for Compounding and Cascading Events report cover
Published
December 2022

There was a time not long ago when disasters would strike one at a time, and communities would have time to recover and rebuild. Today, however, there is a new normal where disasters most do not occur as isolated events and instead seem to pile on one another. They often unleash new devastation on a community before it has had a chance to recover from the prior disaster. This report, developed by National Academies' Resilient America Program's Committee on Hazard Mitigation and Resilience Applied Research Topics summarizes three applied research approaches in hazard mitigation and resilience field and provides four foundational themes to consider throughout research efforts.

The four foundational themes of future research identified include:

  1. compounding and cascading disasters are the new normal
  2. legacy conditions need to be assessed, evaluated, and addressed
  3. researchers need to practice codesign with communities, starting with pain points and impacts and working backward to solutions
  4. relentless resilience, or the ability to function throughout a series of disruptive events, is critical for a future marked by compounding and cascading events.

This is the second of two consensus study reports developed to assist FEMA in reducing the immense human and financial toll of disasters caused by natural hazards and other large-scale emergencies.

Click here to view a summary and key findings from this report >>

Equitable and Resilient Infrastructure Investments report cover
Published
December 2022

There have been decades of discriminatory policies, practices, and embedded bias within infrastructure planning processes. It remains unclear which research strategies can ensure that infrastructure investments help increase resilience and improve equitable decision-making—and do not inadvertently impact—vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.

This consensus study report, developed by the National Academies’ Resilient America Program’s Committee on Hazard Mitigation and Resilience Applied Research Topics, identifies three applied research topics as being particularly important for natural hazard mitigation and resilience for Equitable and Resilient Infrastructure Investments:

  1. partnerships for equitable infrastructure development
  2. systemic change toward resilient and equitable infrastructure investment
  3. innovations in finance and financial analysis.

Click here to read an executive summary of the report >>

Montage of nature images
Published
June 2022

To become climate resilient requires collective action. Our efforts must take a Whole-of-Government and Whole Community approach.

The Resilient Nation Partnership Network is working to address this through partnership. The result of our collective action is this Building Alliances for Climate Action resource. It is the work of many organizations and individuals, including federal representatives, faith leaders, community-based organizations, mayors and many more. At a time when many are searching for direction on how to address the climate crisis, this resource represents a unifying voice, helping guide the Whole Community forward

Drought and Infrastructure report cover
Published
June 2022

This Drought Guide, developed through the interagency National Drought Resilience Partnership, can be used to anticipate and prepare for the consequences of drought on infrastructure services. This resource directs users to the National Integrated Drought Information System (drought.gov) and other agencies’ information and decision tools.

Published
February 2022

The Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report assesses the impacts of climate change, looking at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It also reviews vulnerabilities and the capacities and limits of the natural world and human societies to adapt to climate change.

Report cover with words: Initial Vermont Climate Action Plan
Published
December 2021

The Vermont Climate Action Plan aims to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, help protect Vermont communities and landscapes from the greatest risks of climate change, and create new clean energy industry and jobs. The Climate Action Plan includes strategies to:

  1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation, building, regulated utility, industrial, commercial, and agricultural sectors;
  2. Encourage smart growth and related strategies;
  3. Achieve long-term sequestration and storage of carbon and promote best management practices to achieve climate mitigation, adaption, and resilience on natural working lands;
  4. Achieve net zero emissions by 2050 across all sectors;
  5. Reduce energy burdens for rural and marginalized communities;
  6. Limit the use of chemicals, substances, or products that contribute to climate change; and
  7. Build and encourage climate adaptation and resilience of Vermont communities and natural systems.

The Climate Action Plan serves as a guide for the Vermont Legislature in setting policy that supports climate change solutions for Vermonters and Vermont's landscape. 

A range of resources documenting report preparation are available in the Climate Action Plan Appendices.

Published
December 2021

Local communities are already experiencing dire effects caused by climate change that are expected to increase in frequency, intensity, duration, and type. Building and sustaining local capacities for climate resilience requires both resilient physical and social infrastructure systems and inclusive, resilient communities. This report, developed by the National Academies’ Resilient America Program’s Committee on Applied Research Topics for Hazard Mitigation and Resilience, provides guidance for active and ongoing efforts to move science and data into action and to enable and empower applied research that will strengthen capacities for hazard mitigation and resilience in communities, across the nation, and around the world.

Enhancing Community Resilience through Social Capital and Connectedness report cover
Published
December 2021

Disasters caused by natural hazards and other large-scale emergencies are devastating communities in the United States. These events harm individuals, families, communities, and the entire country, including its economy and the federal budget. This report, developed by the National Academies’ Resilient America Program’s Committee on Applied Research Topics for Hazard Mitigation and Resilience, identifies applied research topics, information, and expertise that can inform action and opportunities within the natural hazard mitigation and resilience fields with the goal of reducing the immense human and financial toll of disasters.

Screen capture of Report cover
Published
October 2021

Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” calls for the development of two companion reports. This, the second of the two reports, discusses the potential development of a consolidated Federal geographic mapping service that can facilitate public access to climate-related information to assist Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments in their local, national, and international climate planning and resilience activities. This report uses the term “collaborative” mapping service instead of “consolidated” mapping service to better reflect the integrated roles and participation of Federal agencies and non-Federal constituents in providing climate-related and other geospatial data and services.

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Published
September 2021

Climate change affects all Americans—regardless of socioeconomic status—and many impacts are projected to worsen. But individuals will not equally experience these changes. This report  improves our understanding of the degree to which four socially vulnerable populations—defined based on income, educational attainment, race and ethnicity, and age—may be more exposed to the highest impacts of climate change. Understanding the comparative risks to vulnerable populations is critical for developing effective and equitable strategies for responding to climate change.

Deep sea divers in SCUBA gear float around a large underwater marine reef surrounded by a sea of teal and blue water.
Published
August 2021

Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, requires that each Federal agency develop a Climate Action Plan for Adaptation and Resilience. This plan highlights the important role the Department of Commerce plays in advancing climate adaptation and resilience. The actions captured in this Plan, as well as the broader work of the Department to address the climate crisis, support the Department’s mission to create the conditions for economic growth and opportunity.

Sections in this report include:
  • Why Is Climate Adaptation & Resilience Planning Important for the Department of Commerce?
  • Efforts to Enhance Climate Literacy into the Management Workforce
  • Climate Vulnerability Assessment
  • Actions to Enhance Climate Adaptation and Resilience with Climate-Ready Sites and Facilities 
  • Actions to Enhance Climate Adaptation and Resilience with Climate-Ready Products and Services
  • Priority Climate Adaptation and Resilience Actions
Published
July 2021

A Coastal Resilience Center research team, led by Dr. Cassandra R. Davis of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has released a report that explores the disproportionate impacts of federal mitigation assistance on socially marginalized groups and under-resourced neighborhoods. The purpose of the report is to improve mitigation efforts by addressing equity in emergency management, ultimately supporting the creation of national policy for federal agencies including FEMA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and others.

Report Cover
Published
June 2021

This resource guide for rural communities identifies resources that develop the recreation economy. Growing and maintaining a healthy recreation sector that benefits residents over the long term requires balancing natural resource management, conservation efforts, infrastructure investment, business development, and many other factors. It also requires active stakeholder engagement, a robust understanding of potential challenges and opportunities, collaboration among various levels of government and landowners, and a strong plan for the region’s future. These efforts present unparalleled economic opportunities—to revitalize main street, preserve cultural heritage, support entrepreneurship and small business growth, reinvest in communities and more.

Report Cover
Published
June 2021

Over the course of January to March 2021, Climate XChange and Fairmount-Indigo CDC Collaborative engaged in conversations with frontline community leaders across Massachusetts. These discussions sought to understand the challenges they see in their communities, comprehend their long-term vision for solutions, gather their priorities for how investments should be spent, and identify ways to make the benefits of investments accessible to all. The researchers talked with individuals from organizations working in communities of color and low-income communities, labor unions, women-led organizations, local colleges, and organizations representing communities affected by sea level rise. This report presents key recommendations that represent the qualities and values that every investment package moving forward should exhibit. 

Report cover
Published
April 2021

In 2020, New York City's Mayor’s Office of Resiliency initiated an engagement process, called the Climate Knowledge Exchange, to align research with climate resiliency and adaptation needs. This report is the first in an annual series that will maintain a public agenda for climate research in NYC. The report communicates NYC’s research needs to external partners, including academic scientists, federal researchers, philanthropic foundations, and community organizations. This in turn will catalyze new and creative partnerships to develop credible and actionable research products that address NYC’s most pressing climate challenges. The report includes the engagement methodology and survey text used with various agencies.

Screen capture of Report cover
Published
March 2021

This Guide is written for practitioners already using or wanting to use future climate information in their work, but who are not familiar with the underlying assumptions and choices surrounding climate data. Here, we introduce the climate model scenarios that are used to “drive” climate models forward in time. These scenarios are a combination of socioeconomic and climate forcing pathways. We summarize differences between these scenarios for the Great Lakes region to show users how their choice of model scenario affects future temperature and precipitation projections.

Report Cover
Published
February 2021

This report provides step-by-step guidance and lessons learned on how to effectively engage with community members to understand climate impacts and to develop more equitable climate resilience strategies. Community-based organizations have repeatedly emphasized that to equitably and successfully carry out climate resilience solutions, it’s imperative to directly engage with community members to deeply understand how these threats directly impact them. Likewise, to formulate solutions that are equitable and truly work—and to get utilities and city officials to prioritize equitable investments in under-invested areas—organizations must directly engage with members of the community when identifying solutions. The toolkit provides real-world case studies, a project planning and facilitation guide, and extensive lists of references and resources. 

Cover of report
Published
February 2021

The world is transforming its energy system from one dominated by fossil fuel combustion to one with net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary anthropogenic greenhouse gas. This energy transition is critical to mitigating climate change, protecting human health, and revitalizing the U.S. economy. To help policymakers, businesses, communities, and the public better understand what a net-zero transition would mean for the United States, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine convened a committee of experts to investigate how the U.S. could best decarbonize its transportation, electricity, buildings, and industrial sectors.

This report, Accelerating Decarbonization of the United States Energy System, identifies key technological and socio-economic goals that must be achieved to put the United States on the path to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The report presents a policy blueprint outlining critical near-term actions for the first decade (2021-2030) of this 30-year effort, including ways to support communities that will be most impacted by the transition.

Published
February 2021

This report's subtitle is Managing the Uncertainty of Future Sea Level Change and Extreme Water Levels for Department of Defence Coastal Sites Worldwide.

From the Executive Summary: Global change, including climate change, poses unique challenges to the Department of Defense (DoD). In particular, coastal military sites, and their associated natural and built infrastructure, operations, and readiness capabilities, are vulnerable to the impacts of rising global sea level and local extreme water level (EWL) events. This report and its accompanying scenario database provide regionalized sea level and EWL scenarios for three future time horizons (2035, 2065, and 2100) for 1,774 DoD sites worldwide. The global nature of DoD’s presence required a broad and comprehensive approach that to this point has been lacking in similar efforts.

Report cover
Published
February 2021

Created especially for decision makers and adaptation planners in the Great Lakes region, this report offers planners guidance in developing adaptation plans while navigating local politics and specialized data. Content is accessible for users of all skill levels, with a focus on beginner. The report is divided into six main sections: Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region, Decision Making Under Uncertainty, Climate Information in the Local Planning Process, Data Analysis Guide for Assessing Climate Vulnerability, Building Climate Knowledge and Capacity, and Making the Case. 

Report Cover
Published
February 2021

To plan for future sea level rise, Miami-Dade County relies on the 2019 Unified Sea Level Rise Projection for Southeast Florida developed by the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact. These projections are revised every five years to ensure they reflect the best available science. Based on these consensus projections, they expect sea levels to be approximately two feet higher 40 years from 2019 levels and continue rising beyond that.

Report Cover
Published
February 2021

This report aims to build the capacity of organizations to serve as catalysts in supporting members of their communities stepping into leadership roles, as well as engaging them meaningfully in defining the scope of local climate change risks and impacts and formulating and implementing equitable solutions alongside key partners. This guide was developed using qualitative data collected through a series of interviews with experts from around the country who are designing, managing, and implementing community-based leadership development programs. Although not all of these programs directly address climate change and environmental justice, this collection of diverse programming illustrates the broad ways in which communities address leadership development and grassroots engagement in local decision making. This tool provides a comprehensive picture of training and capacity-building theory and practice, and showcases programs that are diverse in content, audience, geography, outcome, and practice.

Report Cover
Published
January 2021

Hotter weather, stronger typhoons, coral reef death, and physical and mental health risks are among the major challenges detailed in this report on climate change in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Threatened resources include high-value coastal infrastructure and the millions of dollars that ocean ecosystems add to the CNMI economy annually. This report provides guidance for decision makers seeking to better understand the implications of climate variability and change for CNMI and its communities and identifies the additional information and research needed to support responses that enhance resilience and help CNMI to withstand the changes to come.

Storm-damaged homes along a coast
Published
January 2021

This series of BAMS special reports presents assessments of how human-caused climate change may have affected the strength and likelihood of individual extreme events. The series has been published annually since 2011.

The ninth edition of the report, Explaining Extreme Events in 2019 from a Climate Perspective, presents 15 new peer-reviewed analyses of extreme weather across four continents and one sea during 2019. It features the research of 77 scientists from 7 countries looking at both historical observations and model simulations to determine whether and by how much climate change may have influenced particular extreme events.

Report Cover
Published
December 2020

The 2020 State Climate Strategy informs policymaking on how Nevada will achieve the ambitious targets established by SB 254 and provides an integrated framework for evaluating climate policies that make sense for Nevada. This will optimize effectiveness of each given policy and therefore maximize the benefits for all Nevadans. By taking a smart, strategic approach to addressing climate change in Nevada, the state can fully capture the economic benefits of clean technologies and lead the way in the neighboring Western states.

Screen capture of Report
Published
December 2020

This report highlights the equity implications of sea level rise in the first nationwide assessment of risk to the country’s affordable housing supply. As climate change causes sea levels to rise, the number of affordable housing units at risk of coastal flooding is projected to more than triple to nearly 25,000 nationwide over the next 30 years.

Report Cover
Published
October 2020

Climate change is already impacting or is anticipated to impact nearly every facet of the economy, including infrastructure, agriculture, residential and commercial property, human health, and labor productivity. Over time, if significant action is not taken to check rising global average temperatures, climate change impacts could impair the productive capacity of the economy and undermine its ability to generate employment, income, and opportunity. This reality poses complex risks for the U.S. financial system. 

Report Cover
Published
September 2020

This report is a scientific assessment of historical climate trends and potential future climate change in North Carolina under increased greenhouse gas concentrations. The report includes an overview of the physical science of climate change, detailed information on observed and projected changes in temperature and precipitation averages and extremes, hurricanes and other storms, sea level, and other relevant climate metrics. Findings are presented for both the state as a whole and for each of three regions in the state: the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, and the Western Mountains. The report also includes chapters on sea level rise, trends involving interactions of multiple aspects of the climate system (including inland flooding, wildfire, forest ecosystem changes, urban heat island effects, and air pollution), and findings relevant to engineering design standards.

Screen capture of Report cover
Published
September 2020

This report presents recommendations for how state governments can develop climate-resilience financial systems that help local communities invest in protecting residents, businesses, public infrastructure, private property, and natural resources from climate-driven stresses and shocks. To help states consider and act on the recommendations, a State Climate Resilience Action Checklist (page 50) identifies the essential actions that states need to take to build a comprehensive approach to resilience, including a financial system. The report also offers an Inventory of Climate Resilience Actions.

Report Cover
Published
August 2020

Natural hazards such as flooding, high wind, drought, and landslides pose major threats to communities across the United States, and reducing the threats they pose to lives, properties, and the economy is a top priority for many communities. The key goal of this guide is to help communities identify and engage the staff and resources that can play a role in building resilience with nature-based solutions.

Screenshot of report cover
Published
July 2020

A case study approach to calculating the economic impact of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.

Report Cover
Published
May 2020

Planning for climate change resiliency is an increasingly pressing requirement for communities throughout the world and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) region. In order to help local officials, non-profits, and communities with this process, numerous planning tools have been developed by a wide range of public and private agencies. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to explain, organize, and prioritize the tools that currently exist in order to select ones that are broadly accessible to a wide range of organizations, applicable across a range of sectors, and not overly redundant. During this selection process, a list of over 60 tools was winnowed down to a final toolkit of 18 that are particularly useful at any stage in the resiliency planning process and can be used for communities throughout the DVRPC region.

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Published
May 2020

While all people living in the United States are affected by climate change, some communities and some populations are more vulnerable to changing climate conditions than others. This final report from a NOAA-funded project in New Jersey highlights current evidence regarding impacts of changing climate-related coastal hazards on socially vulnerable populations, identify opportunities to address needs of socially vulnerable populations as part of coastal community climate resilience planning, and outlines possible options for coastal management policy that may enhance efforts to address needs of socially vulnerable populations as part of coastal community resilience efforts.

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Published
April 2020

The heavy precipitation and flooding of 2019 was one for the history books. This report looks back at the major climate events and impacts of 2019 in the Missouri River Basin.

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Published
April 2020

In the third quarter of 2017, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria revealed some significant vulnerabilities in the national and regional supply chains of Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Drawing on lessons learned during the 2017 hurricanes, this report explores future strategies to improve supply chain management in disaster situations. It makes recommendations to strengthen the roles of continuity planning, partnerships between civic leaders with small businesses, and infrastructure investment to ensure that essential supply chains will remain operational in the next major disaster. Focusing on the supply chains food, fuel, water, pharmaceutical, and medical supplies, the recommendations of this report will assist FEMA as well as state and local officials, private sector decision makers, civic leaders, and others who can help ensure that supply chains remain robust and resilient in the face of natural disasters.

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Published
December 2019

Arctic ecosystems and communities are increasingly at risk due to continued warming and declining sea ice. The Arctic marine ecosystem and the communities that depend upon it continue to experience unprecedented changes as a result of warming air temperatures, declining sea ice, and warming waters. This 2019 update to the Arctic Report Card draws particular attention to the Bering Sea region, where declining winter sea ice exemplifies the potential for sudden and extreme change. Indigenous Elders from the Bering Sea region offer their experiences of living at the forefront of climate change.

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