What needs to happen to strengthen climate resilience in the US? | Balancing climate mitigation with adaptation is getting harder and harder
Feb 11, 2025
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Nuin-Tara Key, Executive Director of Programs at California Forward, shares her insights on building climate resilience in the face of severe weather events. She emphasizes the urgent need for a balanced approach between mitigation and adaptation strategies amidst rising temperatures. Key discusses how California can enhance collaboration across sectors, navigate political challenges, and transform disaster funding from reactive relief to proactive resilience. The conversation highlights innovative solutions and community involvement as essential components for tackling climate impacts.
Balancing climate mitigation, which involves reducing emissions, with adaptation strategies, necessary for coping with current impacts, is crucial for strengthening climate resilience.
A shift in funding from post-disaster recovery to pre-disaster resilience initiatives is essential for effective long-term climate adaptability and community preparedness.
Deep dives
The Impact of Extreme Weather Events
The recent fires in Los Angeles have highlighted the severe consequences of climate change and the need for a comprehensive strategy to address these challenges. The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are projected to increase, prompting a critical discussion on whether the focus should be on climate mitigation or adaptation. Balancing both approaches is essential, as mitigation efforts can help reduce future climate impacts, while adaptation measures are necessary to cope with the changes that are already occurring. This dual approach requires collaborative efforts across various sectors of the economy to build resilience against the increasing threats of climate change.
Defining Climate Mitigation and Adaptation
Understanding the difference between climate mitigation and adaptation is crucial for effective policy-making. Climate mitigation involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming, while climate adaptation refers to the actions taken to minimize the risks associated with climate impacts, such as rising temperatures and extreme weather events. The concept of climate resilience is also vital, as it reflects the ongoing process of managing and thriving amid a changing environment. Both mitigation and adaptation must work in tandem to create a more sustainable future and enhance community resilience.
Challenges in Policy Integration
Integrating climate mitigation and adaptation into policy discussions remains a significant challenge for many stakeholders, including government officials and private sectors. Effective adaptation strategies require comprehensive data and an understanding of future climate projections to inform decision-making. However, outdated practices often rely on historical data, which can lead to inadequate preparations for future climate scenarios. The complexity of adapting to climate change is further compounded by the need for collaboration across various sectors, each with unique roles and responsibilities in fostering resilience.
Funding and Resource Allocation for Resilience
A critical issue in addressing climate change is the mismatch between funding for pre-disaster resilience efforts compared to post-disaster recovery measures. Historically, more financial resources have been allocated to responding to disasters rather than investing in proactive resilience-building initiatives. To remedy this, a more stable budget structure is required, which would allow for consistent funding of pre-disaster planning and capacity-building activities. By aligning investments in resilience with responses to climate risks, communities may better prepare for future disasters while also fostering long-term economic health.
The fires in Los Angeles of January 2025 were devastating. They were also made about 35% more likely due to climate change.
This is true all over the world; a recent study authored by Research Fellow Pierre Masselot at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that rising temperatures could kill an extra 2.3 million people in Europe by the end of the century. Sylvia Leyva Martinez, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie and host of Interchange Recharged, talks to Pierre at the start of the show about the study, and the implications of a rapidly heating environment for US energy.
Those implications were made clear in January – and it emphasised the need for increased climate resilience: it’s a dynamic process rather than a static outcome and involves both mitigation (reducing emissions) and adaptation (adjusting to the impacts already in motion). In short, communities and economies need more robust frameworks to deal with climate change. Nuin-Tara Key is Executive Director of Programs at California Forward. California Forward builds strategies for businesses and governments in the region to improve climate resilience.
How do they do it? How can climate resilience be strengthened in uncertain economic and political times? How can we balance mitigation with adaptation? Sylvia and Nuin-Tara talk it through.
Join the conversation with us - we’re on most social platforms at @interchangeshow. We’d love to get your feedback.
If you haven’t heard it already, check out our sister podcast Energy Gang. We had Kate Gordon, CEO at California Forward, on a special episode recorded at New York Climate Week, which explored many of the themes we talked about today and plenty more.’