Climate Change Adaptation: Fostering Progress through Law and Regulation

Abstract

While enormous resources have been devoted to responding to concerns about climate change, most of the climate change initiatives to date have focused on mitigation, the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs), to avoid the most extreme projected climate change impacts. Progress in addressing adaptation, which focuses on building resiliency to the impacts of climate change, has been slower. It is now recognized that even if emissions were reduced dramatically over the coming decades, many of the impacts from prior GHG emissions will be unavoidable - adaptation is thus essential to effective climate planning. This article, using New York City as an example and drawing on work done by the new York City Panel on Climate Change, discusses measures local government can take. The article discusses zoning, environmental impact reviews, energy-related issues, greening the building stock, strategies related to water, regulation of transportation, air quality impacts, telecommunication networks, brownfields and hazardous waste issues, utilization of financial assurance mechanisms, emergency preparedness, U.S. constitutional law concerns and a summary of U.S. funding streams.

Keywords: climate change, adaptation, mitigation, municipal, government, New York City, resiliency, zoning. NEPA, SEQRA, energy, environmental reviews, consitutional law, takings, preemption UNFCC, Kyoto, GHG, emisssions

JEL Classification: R52, N70, N50, I28, H54, H40