Natural Resources Agency Releases Updated Report on Climate Adaptation, Resiliency Strategies
The California Natural Resources Agency released an updated report detailing state actions and strategies to adapt to a changing climate as California continues to experience rising average temperatures, destructive fires, higher sea levels, and extreme precipitation events.
The Safeguarding California Plan: 2018 Update, released January 29, lays out a roadmap for everything state agencies are doing and will do to protect communities, infrastructure, services, and the natural environment from climate change impacts.
“California leads the nation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat the effects of climate change, but impacts already are being felt – and they are disproportionately affecting our most vulnerable communities,” California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird said.
On January 25, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. emphasized the need for climate action in his State of the State address.
The updated Safeguarding California Plan includes several new chapters and features, including a climate justice chapter highlighting how equity is woven throughout the entire plan.
From pinpointing vulnerabilities in the electricity grid to improving energy efficiency to realigning coastal roads to prepare for sea-level rise, state agencies are funding projects and actions to safeguard both natural and built environments from climate change impacts.
Research shows the Los Angeles region will see average temperatures rise 3-5 °F by mid-century and experience an increase in the number of extreme heat days, adding significant strain on the energy grid. The California Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program funded a project to develop data that will help local and regional agencies and utilities identify where the grid is most vulnerable, which neighborhoods are served by these problem spots, and what types of adaptation measures should be taken to improve reliability and minimize risks to public health and safety.
Additional climate change adaptation actions can be found in a compilation developed by the Natural Resources Agency in tandem with the 2018 update.
Later this year, the Natural Resources Agency and other agencies will release California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, which will include more than 50 reports on expected climate change impacts in California.
For more about the state’s climate change adaptation efforts, visit http://resources.ca.gov/climate/safeguarding/.
Photo courtesy of the United States Geological Survey
