Florida Adaptation and Protection Program
The Climate Institute is developing a protection and adaptation program aimed at helping communities to develop strategies on the key issues that need to be taken into consideration as they plan to confront and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Much of the attention devoted to the issue of climate change has been focused on mitigation schemes. However, the issue of climate change is a two-front battle that requires both prevention and protection strategies in order to comprehensively address the wide breadth of likely impacts.
The Climate Institute is among the first environmental organizations to support mitigation while also promoting protection and adaptation solutions through the lens of national security, emergency management and planning, and insurance risk forecasting.
We are currently working with policymakers to devise climate protection projects in vulnerable areas such as coastal Florida, Quintana Roo, Mexico, and larger island nations such as the Dominican Republic. We are working to create incentives and disincentives to effectively address the following issues:
- Land use planning and development
- Residential and commercial construction
- Emergency response planning
- Protection for agriculture and groundwater supplies
- Tourism and transportation
As the Climate Institute embarks on this new strategy for climate protection and adaptation, we are focusing our efforts on a pilot project in Florida. The project is aimed at educating vulnerable coastal communities on the possible impacts of climate change and the key questions that need to be raised in order to motivate planning strategies. In doing so, we will work to develop innovative incentives and partnerships for communities, stakeholders and policymakers to make collective progress on protection planning.
