Domestic Adaptation Report Series

Seeking to develop effective federal, state, and local policy options aimed at adapting to the likely impacts of climate change, the Climate Policy Program at Resources for the Future has published a series of six domestic climate change adaptation reports.

The work, involving both natural and social scientists, considers private and public decision making in the context of long-term uncertainty; the role of market-like mechanisms, including crop and flood insurance; the tensions between government entities in developing legislative, regulatory, and fiscal mandates; and ways in which compensation could be provided for those harmed by climate change.

View report summaries here or click the titles below to find out more:

Adapting to Climate Change: The Public Policy Response—Public Infrastructure
Agriculture and the Food System: Adaptation to Climate Change
An Adaptation Portfolio for the United States Coastal and Marine Environment
Emerging Climate Change Impacts on Freshwater Resources: A Perspective on Transformed Watersheds
Terrestrial Ecosystem Adaptation
Adapting to Climate Change: Public Health

Managing Climate-Related International Forest Programs: A Proposal to Create the International Forest Conservation Corporation

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International Forest Carbon in Congress: A Survey of Key Congressional Staff

Recognizing that additional research and analysis on international forest carbon will be useful to U.S. policymakers, Resources for the Future gauged the general understanding of this issue among congressional lawmakers and staff. Over the course of two months, Lou Leonard, Director of U.S. Policy on International Climate Affairs for the World Wildlife Fund, interviewed more than 30 congressional staffers – Republicans and Democrats, from committee and personal offices, in the House and the Senate – to determine their views on the role of international forest carbon and their recommendations for areas of future research.

From RFF's U.S. Global Leadership Initiative:

In a new discussion paper RFF researchers Joseph Aldy, Alan Krupnick, Richard Newell, Ian W.H. Parry, and William Pizer take broad-reaching look at the current state of climate mitigation policy.

Drawing upon a large pool of literature, the paper synthesizes information and debates to consider possible policy architectures, goals of mitigation schemes, and the policy instruments needed to realize such goals.

Climate Change: Top 10 Precepts for U.S. Foreign Policy

In this issue brief, Daniel Bodansky asserts U.S. leadership is essential if global climate issues are to be managed successfully. He suggests that the most important lesson learned from the Kyoto Protocol process is that adoption of domestic legislation is essential to give U.S. foreign policy both international credibility and a domestic political base. To accomplish its aims, U.S. foreign policy will need to find middle ground. Bodansky offers ten guidelines that can help craft an international regime that gives countries flexibility to pursue different tracks and encourage action through financial assistance.

Daniel Bodansky is the Woodruff Professor of International Law at the University of Georgia School of Law.