Climate Change Resilience
We have already begun to see the impacts of climate change across the world.
Climate change will increase average temperature, which will lead to a wide range of impacts including...
...a rise in sea levels
...more frequent and more intense storms
...a loss of biodiversity
...continued loss of arctic ice and glaciers, and
...increased intensity of precipitation.
Other impacts include:
...increasing salinity of freshwater aquifers
...an increase in heat-related diseases like malaria
...coastal erosion, and
...flooding.
Some of these impacts will be new climatic events (for example, sea level rise). Others will be new or unexpected patterns of existing climate events (for example, the 20-year storm happens every year). Finally, some impacts will be new characteristics of existing climate events (for example, monsoon rains concentrated over 48 hours).
Climate change will hit poor and vulnerable people the hardest. These populations have the fewest resources to prepare and plan for the impacts, and the lowest capacity to respond. They are also often heavily reliant on the climate for livelihood and in many cases, survival, and the most exposed to climate extremes.
The Rockefeller Foundation Climate Change Initiative would catalyze attention, funding, and action in building climate change resilience for poor and vulnerable people globally by:
- Creating robust action models of climate change resilience for poor and vulnerable people
- Funding, promoting, and disseminating those models
- Increasing pressure on funders, practitioners, and policy-makers to support increased funding and action for climate change resilience for poor and vulnerable people
Perspectives on Funding Climate Change Programs
April 11.2008 NYRAG discussion memo
Climate change is perceived as an environmental issue when in reality it impacts every dimension of society. Funders who perceive it that way will never break out of the box. —Maria Blair more; NYRAG
The Role of Science in Addressing Global Warming
April 1, 2008; Transcript of contribution from Maria Blair
Conversations on Sciences's Transforming Impact(CRDF)
What does rising temperature mean for poor and vulnerable people for their livelihoods, for where they live, for how they survive, for their health? ...What does the increase in temperature mean for an increase of storm severity and frequency, the spread of disease, increased droughts, or heat waves? more; podcast
Crops and Climate ChangeIn September, a group of experts from the genetic conservation, climate science, agricultural development, and plant genetics communities met at the RF Conference Center in Bellagio for a discussion addressing the management of crop genetic conservation in the face of climate change. Read report
IPCC Head Pachauri Addresses RF Board, Staff
November 29, 2007
News
The Climate Change Resilience Team leader is Maria Blair; BioEmail the team: climate@rockfound.org
Climate Change Adaptation: The Next Great Challenge for the Developing World
American Association for the Advancement of Science: Plenary Address by Judith Rodin; 2008 Annual Meeting; February 15, 2008; video| transcript
CCAP Awarded RF Grant
March 18, 2008; Press release
The program will assist nine partner cities and counties in making effective policy and investment decisions to increase their resiliency to the impacts of climate change and to educate key audiences on adaptation. more; Seattle Post Intelligencer editorial: 'Climate Change At Home: A time to thrive'
Learning to Love Climate ‘Adaptation’
January 7, 2008; By Sharon Begley; NEWSWEEK
...Although some adaptations will be modest and low tech, ...others will require herculean efforts...In August the Rockefeller Foundation announced a program on 'climate-change resilience' to help the developing world in particular cope with what's coming. more
Communities Across Globe Getting to Grips With Adapting to Climate Change
December 5, 2007; UN Environment Programme
The five-year Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change provides new and inspiring examples of how vulnerable communities and countries may 'climate proof' economies in the years and decades to come. more
United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali
Poor Nations Struggle to Adapt as Planet Warms
December 3rd, 2007; earth news
By Darren Samuelsohn and Michael Burnham
Greenwire: The Maldives sit off the southern tip of the Indian Ocean and on the edge of disappearing. Parts of this archipelago of almost 1,200 coral islands are more than a foot below sea level. And in 2004, tsunami floods swept away significant stretches of the country, forcing cartographers to draw up new maps. more
Consortium Launches Global Pollution Remediation Fund
October 17, 2007; Blacksmith Institute press release
Dedicated to combating toxic pollution in the developing world, the GPRF was launched by a group of environmental ministers, researchers and non-governmental organizations following an RF-sponsored conference in Bellagio, Italy. more
'What If New York City…' Competition
September 27, 2007; NYC press release
...the 'What If New York City…' competition seeks innovative approaches to shelter--interim housing--in the aftermath of a disaster. With thousands displaced in a catastrophe, rebuilding communities could take several years. The competition is sponsored by OEM and the Rockefeller Foundation. NYC press release
RF Commits $70m to Climate Change Resilience
August 9, 2007; Press release
Recognizing that various levels of impact from climate change are unavoidable, and in some instances could be devastating, the Rockefeller Foundation’s $70 Million Initiative seeks to build the resilience of communities most likely to be hardest hit by climate change. more PLUS: NYT, IHT, Chronicle of Philanthropy coverage
Flooding and the Urban Poor
July 2007; Tiempo Climate Portal
Throughout Africa and in many other tropical areas, the urban poor are already forced to live in hazardous places, and climate change is increasing their vulnerability. Many build their homes and grow their food on river floodplains in towns and cities. Others construct their shelters on steep, unstable hillsides, or along the foreshore on former mangrove swamps or tidal flats. Already vulnerable to destructive floods, damaging landslides or storm surges, the poor are facing a worsening situation as the effects of climate change become more marked. more
Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
Summary for Policymakers
Brussels, April 2007 IPCC homepage
Rebuilding in a Time of Global Change
July 26, 2007; By Ed Blakely, POV in NOLA
'The first day of the conference [on Urban Sustainability at Bellagio] brought a wake-up call when Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the International Protocol on Climate Change, used the situation in New Orleans to illustrate the dangers of climate change impacts on cities.' more