Puget Sound Adapts to Climate Change

CPR Project Helps Policymakers Find Adaptation Solutions

Much of the mainstream discussion about climate change to date has focused on mitigation—action we can and should take to reduce overall greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and thus slow climate change. But with no constructive climate change legislation from Congress passed or even on the horizon, and with the effects of climate change becoming increasingly visible, the discussion is beginning to turn to adaptation—measures aimed at allowing humans and the environment to adjust to climate change.

In the absence of aggressive federal action, cities, local governments, and tribes are leading efforts to adapt to climate change by identifying the likely effects and proposing strategies to address them. In 2009, the Climate Impacts Group (CIG), an interdisciplinary research group based at the University of Washington in Seattle, published a report (NB: very large download, 140 MB) surveying the likely effects of climate change across the state and detailing existing state and local authority for adaptation efforts.

With support from the Bullitt Foundation, the Center for Progressive Reform has taken the next step forward, identifying legal and regulatory tools to help policymakers and advocates develop specific policy steps to help the Puget Sound region adapt to climate change.

CPR’s materials on climate change adaptation in the Puget Sound include:

• Adaptation Manual. In June 2011, CPR released Climate Change and the Puget Sound: Building a Legal Framework for Adaptation. The manual describes the general principles of socially equitable and environmentally protective adaptation and identifies specific adaptation strategies to address changes in the water cycle, sea level rise, and temperature increases and extreme weather events. Read the news release. Read a CPRBlog post by Policy Analyst Yee Huang.

• Adaptation Webinar. CPR Member Scholars Robert Glicksman, Alice Kaswan, Catherine O’Neill, and Robert Verchick provide an overview of legal aspects of climate change adaptation for the Puget Sound.

  • Audio & Slides (.mp4, 25 meg download)
  • Slides only (.pdf)

• Puget Sound Adaptation Symposium: In January 2011, CPR and the Seattle University School of Law hosted Toward a Well Adapted Future in Puget Sound: A Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation and the Law. The event brought together national, regional, tribal, and local experts on climate change adaptation to discuss the implications of climate change for Puget Sound, as well as policy choices and the legal steps necessary to put them into action. Materials from the symposium include:

  • Symposium Agenda, with full list of speakers and affiliations
  • PowerPoint™ presentation by Amy Snover, Local Impacts of Global Change
  • PowerPoint presentation by Hedia Adelsman, Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Washington State
  • PowerPoint presentation by Paul Fleming, Climate Adaptation at Seattle Public Utilities
  • PowerPoint presentation by Alice Kaswan, Climate Change Adaptation and Equity
  • PowerPoint presentation by Rob Verchick, Adaptation: Resilience & Retooling

Selected Adaptation Scholarship from CPR Member Scholars

• Alejandro Camacho

  • Adapting Governance to Climate Change: Managing Uncertainty through a Learning Infrastructure, 59 Emory Law Journal 1 (2009). 
  • Assisted Migration: Redefining Nature and Natural Resource Law Under Climate Change, 27 Yale Journal on Regulation 171 (2010).

• Robin Kundis Craig

  • A Comparative Guide to the Western States’ Public Trust Doctrines: Public Values, Private Rights, and the Evolution Toward an Ecological Public Trust, 37 Ecology Law Quarterly 53 (2010). 
  • Stationarity is Dead! Long Live Transformation: Five Principles for Climate Change Adaptation Law, 34 Harvard Environmental Law Review 1 (2010).
  • Climate Change Comes to the Clean Water Act: Now What?, 1 Washington & Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, & the Environment 7 (2010).

• Holly Doremus

  • Adaptative Management as an Information Problem, 89 North Carolina Law Review 101 (2011).
  • New Directions in Environmental Law: The Endangered Species Act: Static Law Meets Dynamic World, 32 Washington University Journal of Law & Policy 175 (2010).

• Daniel A. Farber

  • Adaptation Planning and Climate Impact Assessments: Learning From NEPA’s Flaws, 39 Environmental Law Reporter 10605 (2009).

• Robert L. Glicksman

  • Climate Change Adaptation: A Collective Action Perspective on Federalism Considerations, 40 Environmental Law 1159 (2010) (with Richard E. Levy).
  • Ecosystem Resilience to Disruptions Linked to Global Climate Change: An Adaptive Approach to Federal Land Management, 87Nebraska Law Review 833 (2009).