smartercities:

Image Credit: www.mejorentranvia.com via springwise.com

To get citizens out of their cars and onto a newly-opened public trolley system, the city of Murcia, Spain recently embarked on a rather radical campaign: it offered people lifetime trolley passes in exchange for permanently…

CDC Climat helps governments, utilities, and businesses reduce their CO2 emissions. They’ve been around since 2004, and have been at the forefront of the EU’s carbon trading scheme.

Now they’re entering the realm of adaptation. Quick primer, then I’ll get back to CDC. Recall that there are two responses to climate change:

1. Al Gorian carbon emissions reduction (eg fiddle with energy, buy a Prius, cap carbon, solar panels, etc.)
2. Adapt to impacts. If there’s drought, find water. More rain? Build bigger storm water pipes. Sea level rise and beach erosion? Build a sea wall, move some homes. Nothing to do with carbon, just infrastructure, planning, and engineering.

The difference is that Al Gorians try to “save the world” and stop climate from changing. Adaptatrons accept reality, and adjust to it. They’re very different schools of thought, and there’s little overlap. One is preventative, the other plays clean up.

The CDC Climat group are made up of Al Gorians carbon eaters. For years they’ve believed that carbon reduction was the only answer to climate change. They trade carbon in pretty much the same way as bankers trade shares of stock. Now they’re thinking about adaptation (probably as a source of revenue, but I can’t cover that here). Briefly, this is how climate adaptation policy is formed:

1. Run computer models for various weather scenarios. This helps discover where future problems will occur. It helps locate heat waves, drought, storms, sea level rise, wildfires, etc.
2. Assess vulnerabilities. Once you know where droughts and sea levels will rise, document vulnerabilities. Which town is susceptible to sea level rise? Which farms will experience drought? Etc.
3. Evaluate existing policies and start to source funding. This is tricky. Decision makers have to figure out which policies conflict with vulnerabilities. For example, if there is expected sea level rise, it may not be a good idea to re-develop board walks, or build new homes on the coasts.
4. Reduce vulnerabilities by changing policies. This making adjustments to policies in order to reduce problems like those found above.
5. Implement policy changes via legislation and regulation changes.
6. Wash, rinse, repeat. Decision makers need monitor their work and tweak along the way. This is tough due to the political cycle and immediate needs of shifting economies.

With that in mind, the CDC Climat group evaluated 5 country’s climate adaptation plans, Germany, Spain, France, Netherlands, and UK. The study is short and easy to read. Take a look, here. Strongly recommend you read it if you’re into anything climate or enviro policy oriented.

So, for example, the Netherlands, which is below sea level, is expecting even higher seas and more floods. They’re spending billions building new levees and pump systems to control water and protect cities and habitat. The UK government is providing individual financial assistance to home and land owners who are vulnerable to impacts, such as flooding. And in Germany, they’re reevaluating flood insurance subsidies and premiums.

Read the study: DRAWING UP A NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION POLICY: FEEDBACK FROM FIVE EUROPEAN CASE STUDIES (pdf).