Climate Change Adaptation in New York City

Published: May 2010
Volume 1196
Climate change has the potential to affect everyday life in New York City. Environmental conditions as we experience them today will shift, exposing the city and its residents to new hazards and heightened risks; we will be challenged by increasing temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, rising sea levels, and more intense and frequent extreme events. While mitigation actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions will help to decrease the magnitude and impact of future changes, they will not prevent climate change from occurring altogether. Funded through a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) was convened by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in August 2008 as part of PlaNYC, the City's long-term sustainability plan. The NPCC consists of scientists who study climate change and its impact, as well as legal, insurance, and risk management experts. This Annals volume presents the NPCC report, including New York City–specific climate change projections, tools to help entities identify climate vulnerabilities and develop adaptation strategies, and recommendations on how to foster an effective climate resilience program.
New York City Panel on Climate Change
- Cynthia Rosenzweig (Co-chair), NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA GISS) and Columbia University Earth Institute, Center for Climate Systems Research (Columbia EI CCSR)
- William Solecki (Co-chair), City University of New York, CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities (CUNY CISC)
- Reginald Blake, CUNY, New York City College of Technology
- Malcolm Bowman, SUNY, Stony Brook
- Andrew Castaldi, Swiss Reinsurance America Corporation, represented by Megan Linkin
- Craig Faris, Accenture
- Vivien Gornitz, Columbia EI CCSR/NASA GISS
- Klaus Jacob, Columbia Earth Institute
- Alice LeBlanc, Consultant
- Robin Leichenko, Rutgers University
- Edna Sussman, Sussman ADR, LCC
- Gary Yohe, Wesleyan University
- Rae Zimmerman, New York University
Science Planning Team
- Megan O'Grady (Project Manager), Columbia EI CCSR
- Lesley Patrick (Project Manager), CUNY CISC
- David Major (Lead, Adaptation Planning), Columbia EI CCSR
- Radley Horton (Lead, Climate Science), Columbia EI CCSR/NASA GISS
Research Staff
- Daniel Bader, Columbia EI CCSR
- Richard Goldberg, Columbia EI CCSR
- Michael Brady, CUNY CISC
Consulting Editor
- Brian Thomas, Sustainability Communications
Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability
- Adam Freed, Deputy Director
- Aaron Koch, Policy Advisor
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