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III. Policy Levers to Expand Climate Services
The following section analyzes three policy levers that could be used to create an expansive climate services model in the U.S. as a crucial step towards climate resilience. The policy options considered here are (1) a National Climate Services Agency housed in NOAA, (2) an expansion of the NOAA Regional Integrated Science Assessment (RISA) program, and (3) aid to states and local governments to increase capacity for producing and utilizing climate services in adaptation planning.
Policy Lever 1: A National Climate Service
Summary: The current fragmented provisioning of climate services across various
federal agencies fails to provide comprehensive and coherent climate related information to decision makers. A National Climate Service (NCS) housed in NOAA would help coordinate and facilitate adaptation planning, particularly at the regional and national levels. An NCS would also serve as a centralized source for climate service information, making it easier for stakeholders to access information needed to make informed decisions. Finally, an NCS would also be able to address equity issues that the current decentralized system cannot by incorporating socioeconomic data and by promoting the inclusion of these data when considering the impacts of climate change. An NCS alone, however, cannot meet all the nation’s needs for climate information and services. Other strategies are needed to create partnerships between local level actors, the academic community, and the private sector that can collectively address critical information and non-information gaps.
While varying capabilities for providing climate information exist across federal agencies, it is difficult for decision makers to know exactly where to turn for reliable information. One solution to this problem is to create a National Climate Service (NCS) within NOAA. This new agency would be tasked with identifying, producing, and delivering authoritative and timely information about climate change variations and trends, and their impact on built and natural systems and communities at the regional, national, and global scales.
Critics of creating a new national climate service agency have argued that the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) already effectively acts as a centralized climate information hub. Established in 1989, USGCRP coordinates and integrates research from 13 agencies and departments across the federal government on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. Proponents of creating a new NCS agency, however, argue that USGCRP is not focused on operationalizing the research it produces. For climate services to be successful, they need to be usable and used by constituents. An NCS would do more to make climate information decision-oriented so that stakeholders with sensitivities to and needs for climate-related information could make use of data and products from various federal agencies.
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A History of Past Efforts to Create a National Climate Service
Informal discussions within NOAA about creating an NCS began in the 1980s, but it was not until 2008 that Conrad Lautenbacher, then head of NOAA, formally proposed creating a centralized NCS. At the time, the interagency U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) was integrating climate research from 13 federal agencies. Lautenbacher argued that it made more sense to have a dedicated agency that could combine data and organize all of the government’s climate information in one place. Around the same time, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) introduced legislation that included a provision to establish a National Climate Service at NOAA, but the bill never received a floor vote.
Momentum around the National Climate Service concept returned in 2009 when House Science Committee Chair Bart Gordon (D-TN) sponsored a bill that would have created a “Climate Service Program” at NOAA, as well as an interagency research and operational program for climate information.113 This bill eventually stalled in the Senate after it was attached to separate climate legislation that became mired in political debate.114 By then, the concept for an NCS had evolved from its original conception as simply a centralized information hub to include the possibility of long-range climate forecasting, an idea that Jane Lubchenco furthered when she served as NOAA Administrator during the Obama Administration.115 In 2011, Lubchenco proposed legislation to reorganize NOAA’s offices and budget structure to establish a “Climate Service Line Office.” The move was a cost-free step to coordinate relevant climate services programs, but it failed to gain bipartisan support.
There have been no concerted efforts to create an NCS since 2011, partly due to the politicization of the idea. Recently, however, lawmakers have revived the idea in response to President Biden’s government-wide focus on climate change. In April 2021, members of the House Science Committee held a hearing to examine the case for a federal climate service and to discuss how it would be structured. Discussions are still
ongoing.
113 American Institute of Physics. (2021). Congress Revisits Case for a Federal Climate Service. https://www.aip.org/ fyi/2021/congress-revisits-case-federal-climate-service 114 This legislation was the American Clean Energy and Security Act, also known as the Waxman-Markey Bill, and it proposed a national cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Source: Reilly, A. & Bogardus, K. (2016). 7 years later, failed Waxman-Markey bill still makes waves. E&E Daily. https://www.eenews.net/articles/7-years-later-failed-waxman-markey-bill-still-makes-waves/ 115 Harvey, C. (2021). A national climate service? Interest builds under Biden. E&E News. https://www.eenews.net/articles/a-national-climate-service-interest-builds-under-biden/
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Why a National Climate Service Should Be Housed in NOAA
Efforts to create a National Climate Service have historically proposed housing the agency in NOAA as a parallel to the National Weather Service (NWS), which also sits under the agency. Housing an NCS under NOAA makes sense for a number of reasons:
(1) Breadth of existing mandate. NOAA is the only federal agency with capabilities
spanning atmospheric and ocean sciences, and it is the lead federal agency responsible for delivering national weather, ocean, fishery, coastal, satellite, and environmental data products and services for informing decisions.116 An NCS would be a natural extension of the NWS, which already provides some climate forecasting.
(2) Maintenance of the nation’s existing climate observing networks. These include a
patchwork of operational satellites and networks for integrated atmospheric and oceanic observations, including measurements of greenhouse gases, aerosols, and ozone.
(3) Extensive coordination experience. NOAA has experience coordinating with other
agencies and partners across the federal government and world.
(4) Trusted source. NOAA has a long-standing reputation as an honest broker in
science, assessment, and services. Any National Climate Service agency needs to provide balanced and credible scientific and technical information, and NOAA would be a trustworthy authority.
(5) Logistical and political feasibility. It is easier to put a new agency in an existing one
than to try and get approval to form an entirely new agency.
Rather than establishing a new NCS agency some have suggested creating a consortium similar to the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) or a direct collaboration between NOAA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) instead. Neither option goes far enough, however, to ensure that the entity providing federal climate services has the authority and clout to effectively coordinate between agencies and departments across the federal government. A new agency, on the same rank as the NWS, will not only signal the government’s commitment to providing climate services but will also have the needed authority to work effectively across the federal government.
To What Extent Can a National Climate Service Address Information Gaps?
Climate science has made major advancements in the last two decades, yet climate information is still not routinely used in planning.117 A major reason for the disconnect is the fact that climate services are currently spread across too many agencies, making it difficult for stakeholders and decision makers to know where to turn to.
116 Solomon, S. & Dole, R. (2009). A Vision for Climate Services in NOAA. NOAA. d32ogoqmya1dw8.cloudfront.net. 117 Miles, E. L., Snover, A. K., Binder, L. W., Sarachik, E., Mote, P., & Mantua, N. (2006). An approach to designing a national climate service. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(52), 19616-19623.
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An NCS would act as a centralized information hub for climate services information.
Centralizing, organizing, and streamlining the work of different agencies will help address an information gap by making information more easily accessible to individuals and organizations. An NCS would not replace or set up a single source of all information but instead would combine scientific observation, research, and modeling activities from the multiple agencies currently providing climate services – including NOAA, FEMA, USDA, and USGCRP.
An NCS would be a first point of contact for stakeholders looking for information. The current haphazard nature of federal climate services means there is no centralized point of contact and the onus of directing inquiries to the right sources is on individual agencies and offices. An NCS would act as a first point of contact and would direct stakeholders to the relevant and appropriate data and initiatives.
An NCS would facilitate both top down and lateral information sharing across regions and across federal agencies. Agencies from various levels of government that currently
provide climate services are not mandated to coordinate and share information. An NCS could help bridge this gap by actively working to facilitate both top down and lateral information sharing. Not only will this improve government capabilities in providing relevant and useful climate-related information to stakeholders, but it will also help promote better collaboration across agencies and limit duplication of products and programs.
An NCS would increase equity by filling in information gaps and prioritizing support for areas of historic underinvestment. The Fourth National Climate Assessment states
that climate change will disproportionately harm low-income communities. Considering these vulnerabilities in adaptation planning would require a change in national adaptation prioritization methods, shifting from cost benefit analyses that currently center property values to a prioritization of base levels of capacity that all communities should have to assess and respond to climate change. Leaving climate services decentralized and uncoordinated, with gaps filled by non-state actors, will exacerbate inequity in areas of historic underinvestment unless the federal government establishes pathways to achieve capacity building and focused investment.
On the other hand, there are several limitations to an NCS:
An NCS would be unable to effectively engage and collaborate with relevant state, local, and community-based organizations. Engaging local actors is key to providing
the customized end-products that users need to make effective decisions, yet this topdown approach to climate services does little to actively engage stakeholders.
An NCS would be unable to address demand-side information gaps. Even if an NCS
centralizes all climate services being provided by agencies working across the federal government, there still may be information barriers that prevent stakeholders from engaging with that information. The only way to address these information gaps is to be familiar with local conditions, contexts, and stakeholders. An NCS that primarily specializes in aggregating climate information would be limited in its ability to understand and address barriers at this localized level.
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To What Extent Can a National Climate Service Agency Address Non-Informational Barriers?
Psychological Barriers
Psychological barriers are intensely specific to places, communities, and individuals, and as such an NCS would be ill-positioned to support work that addresses psychological barriers facing stakeholders. While an NCS would centralize climate
information, making it easier for stakeholders to access relevant data, effectively addressing the range of psychological barriers that prevent proper adaptation planning requires localized knowledge of specific communities and would be beyond the scope of an NCS.
Financial Barriers
An NCS can help minimize financial pressures faced by institutions and stakeholders in adaptation planning by ensuring climate service information is organized and accessible. Given the capacity constraints that local and state governments and other
organizations engaged in adaptation planning might face, there is value in making climate information easily accessible and available. While a limitation to the NCS approach is that it would not provide direct support to these organizations, it would help eliminate barriers to accessing the right information – making it more accessible for low-resourced organizations.
Institutional and Political Barriers
Agencies currently providing climate services are siloed, and the nation requires a more coordinated approach to providing information to support adaptation, management, and mitigation of climate change and its impacts. One of the NCS mandates would
be to facilitate coordination across agencies and between regional partners. This would help remove institutional barriers that exist between entities currently providing climate services, streamlining information and making it more accessible to constituents.
Policy Level 2: NOAA RISA Expansion
Summary: NOAA RISA teams operate through grants from NOAA’s Climate Program
Office (CPO). Eleven decentralized RISA teams focus on regional priorities to make climate information usable and useful to their specific end users. Expanding NOAA RISA would be a valuable first step in improving climate services in areas not currently covered, but it would not be a sufficient solution for national community adaptation planning. The current RISA model has limited cross-regional support and knowledgesharing, which could be improved through expanded national level coordination. RISAs also have limitations at the community level and would need to be complemented by robust support for programming from states and community-based organizations in order to build stakeholder engagement and overcome political and communication challenges.
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NOAA RISAs (Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments) fill a unique role within the existing U.S. climate services landscape by focusing on making climate information usable and useful to end users.118 Formally established in 2001, early RISA teams developed in response to major natural hazard crises in specific regions and the subsequent need to develop better climate information that was more usable by communities.119 Collectively, the eleven active RISA teams provide scientific expertise, foster user-inspired research, and strengthen science-communitygovernment networks in their respective regions.
A central tradeoff in climate services is developing localized solutions while mitigating the equity challenges that arise from decentralization, and NOAA RISA is one of the strongest standalone solutions to this problem. RISAs operate nationally, with oversight from the NOAA Climate Program Office, but also function as a decentralized group of teams tailored to the climate demands of their regions. This approach allows them to capture some of the benefits of both a national approach and localization, although the structure leaves information and non-information gaps on both sides that need to be filled by complementary organizations or services.
RISAs can be considered boundary organizations that are structured around universityled projects to engage and collaborate with relevant state, local, and community-based organizations. NOAA’s Climate Program Office provides competitive grants to university-based teams specializing in research on the regional impacts of climate variability and the application of this information in decision making. Most of these teams have advisory committees, which include state, local, regional, and non-government entities, but the details of these structures are left to the regional level of coordination. While this decentralization allows regions to develop localized solutions, it can raise equity challenges with varying services possible between and within RISA regions.
To What Extent Can a NOAA RISA Expansion Address Information Gaps?
Proactive development of climate services can address a broader range of information gaps that are not prioritized by reactive services. Many existing climate services
agencies, like NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information and other divisions of NOAA’s Climate Program Office, specialize in high-level research and early-stage data collection that are invaluable components of climate modeling and forecasting. However, a limitation of these types of climate services is that they lack the ability to effectively serve the local-scale needs of diverse stakeholders. The top-down, centralized nature of these programs means that user input is not heavily solicited and these programs skew data production towards existing stakeholders and highly resourced individuals and groups. The expansion of NOAA RISA, and its model to incorporate policy and community stakeholders, could shift the focus more to the usability of that data.
RISA grants are based on regional priorities and include space for research goals to shift over time, enabling demand-driven programs. The five-year cooperative agreement
grants build in some flexibility to change course, to refine projects and objectives, and to address new questions over the years of implementation. This gives RISA teams space within the granting structure to provide timely information that stakeholders need.
118 Meadow, A. M. (2017). An Ethnohistory of the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) Program. NOAA. https://cpo.noaa.gov/Portals/0/Docs/RISA/Meadow_2017_RISA_History.pdf?ver=2017-07-05-142106-183 119 Meadow. (2017).
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RISA teams can produce the right information and services to fit community needs because of the breadth of the NOAA agency mandate. There is an institutional advantage
to RISA being housed within NOAA. NOAA’s climate mandate creates flexibility for RISA to be responsive to community needs across sectors. As opposed to other agencies that are more mission focused, the climate mandate enables cross-sectoral work. The specialized focus of each regional RISA team allows proposal development that can build off stakeholder conversations and ensure that proposals are focused on addressing end user needs. This collaborative identification of focus problems lets RISA teams identify and target problems that higher level agencies might not be aware of or might not be prioritizing.120
RISA teams, and their associated universities, can provide climate services that bridge climate science and social science. Universities have a transdisciplinary advantage over
more specialized national labs or agencies in the types of information they produce. The multiple university model used by RISA is more amenable to creating a consortium or collaborative, which can draw off of a wider array of expertise and is less vulnerable to the biases of any one institution.
Strong ties with a broad network of local stakeholders allow RISA teams to produce climate information that is understood and actionable, and builds capacity for its users. Close collaboration with end users throughout the process of research
development ensures two-way, iterative communication so that practitioners' needs are reflected in the research undertaken by RISA teams.121 In addition to guaranteeing more relevant and useful outputs, the convening of scientists and practitioners builds common understanding across groups that may differ in their norms, language or expectations of climate information,122 facilitating consensus-building and fostering greater understanding of climate information and its potential uses.123 Some RISA teams have expanded the reach of these networks by partnering with existing extension services (e.g. Sea Grant or Cooperative Extension Service) which support education and outreach activities such as stakeholder workshops, trainings, and panel discussions.124
Granting to universities can build interdisciplinary climate research capacity at those universities, and consequently in the next generation of researchers. RISA team
members are primarily based in universities, and the research focus of RISA teams allows them to build capacity to do science in a different way that better responds to end users’ needs.125 This has lasting impacts over the course of academics’ careers, influencing their full body of research, and developing pathways to this work. For example, multiple scientists that started in entry level positions within RISA have since become principal investigators.126
120 Pulwarty, R., Simpson, C., & Nierenberg, C. R. (2009). The Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) Program: Crafting effective assessments for the long haul. In Integrated Regional Assessment of Global Climate Change (Eds: C. G. Knight & J. Jäger), pgs 367-393. Cambridge University Press. 121 Dilling, L., & Lemos, M. C. (2011). Creating usable science: Opportunities and constraints for climate knowledge use and their implications for science policy. Global Environmental Change, 21(2), 680–689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.11.006 122 Stevenson, J., Crimmins, M., Whitehead, J., Brugger, J., & Fraisse, C. (2016). Connecting climate information with practical uses: Extension and the NOAA RISA program. In Climate in Context (pp. 75–98). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi. org/10.1002/9781118474785.ch4 123 Dilling & Lemos. (2011). 124 Stevenson et al. (2016). 125 Meadow. (2017). 126 Meadow. (2017).
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However, there are also limitations to the ability of a RISA expansion to address informational barriers:
The academic focus of the grant program can bias the types of information that are prioritized. Within the existing structure, a financial expansion would not change the
staffing structure, which is primarily researchers in universities. A stronger governance structure would move away from such a reliance on universities to better incorporate government and non-government stakeholders that act as end users. A stronger focus on the research component can limit the institution’s ability to fully understand user implementation and needs. This is a universal tension between academic research and the needs of end users.127
To What Extent Can a NOAA RISA Expansion Address Non-Informational Barriers?
Psychological Barriers
Psychological barriers are specific to places, communities, and individuals. RISA’s regional structure enables the localization of climate services, which is crucial to address the psychological barriers facing communities. One fourth of the listed RISA
projects explicitly focus on one local area (city or county). For instance, the Spokane Community Adaptation Project (a project of the Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Research Consortium [CIRC] RISA team) focuses on Spokane community members as the key stakeholders and end users – while also partnering with Gonzaga University, the City and County of Spokane, Eastern Washington University, and Spokane Riverkeeper as non-federal partners, and NOAA and the NWS as federal research partners.
By focusing on the human impact near term and seasonal variability instead of longer-term climate trends, RISA can address issues that are tangibly impacting stakeholders. This program structure can overcome the issues that proactive adaptation
plans face when engaging stakeholders in long term planning, by letting them drive the focus of the program toward issues that are highly relevant to their interests in the near term. The Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center (GLISA) team’s work with Macalester College in Minnesota is an example of how RISA teams can tailor program focus and can engage with communities to overcome barriers to community adaptation. Macalester academics worked with GLISA to translate and contextualize downscaled climate data into locally relevant information for the city of St. Paul. They then worked with community partners to incorporate scenarios and visualizations that would make the issue more tangible to residents whose primary concerns often did not include climate change, including hosting a workshop to explore the implications and opportunities of adaptation.128
However, there are also limitations to the ability of a RISA expansion to address psychological barriers:
Community engagement in climate services initiatives can be limited by unfavorable stakeholder perceptions of scientists and the federal government as outsiders whose interests are not aligned with the community’s - an issue that RISA is not immune
127 Meadow. (2017). 128 Phadke, R., Manning, C., & Burlager, S. (2015). Making it personal: Diversity and deliberation in climate adaptation planning. Climate Risk Management, 9, 62-76.
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from. This lack of trust between scientists, government, and local stakeholders is a
barrier to collaboration and can be particularly strong in communities where there is a historic lack of trust in government, or where information provided by a RISA is perceived as economically unfavorable to livelihoods.129 This pre-existing gap in trust can undermine the co-development of programs, but the prioritization of relationship building within RISA programs can address these limitations and lead to strong collaboration.
Financial Barriers
RISA’s competitive grant process allows for the entry of new stakeholders, thereby encouraging broader engagement, but has less funding stability for existing stakeholders than a more permanent federal funding structure. For example, Sea
Grant, dedicates base funding to established Sea Grant Institutions, which form a network of federal university partnerships that was established to improve coastal resource management in coastal and Great Lakes states.130 Sea Grant distributes research grants through the 34 existing Sea Grant institutions nationwide and received $87 million from the federal government in 2020, through indefinite ‘base’ funding, as well as merit
funding.131 ,
132 RISA operates on a smaller funding scale through competitive grants, but is able to incorporate new stakeholders and work outside of the geographic confines of the coastal and Great Lakes based Sea Grant program.
Although RISAs excel at coordinating stakeholders within their regions, coordination across regions is limited by funding and the prioritization of other competing objectives, like geographic expansion. In its current form, RISA operates through a
decentralized model that is active in eleven different regions. Twenty percent of projects on the public RISA database included a partnership with a federal stakeholder, but direct federal oversight and coordination is limited.133 While some national coordination of the regional RISAs is done by the Climate Program Office (CPO), most of this work is done informally and funding for cross-RISA work is limited. However, there is value to crossregional work – and there are existing administrative mechanisms that could fill this function if funding were increased. The NOAA RISA Sustained Assessment Specialist Network connects regional priorities to the National Climate Assessment,134 and the CPO Adaptation Sciences program has also been used for sectoral coordination across regions.135
Institutional and Political Barriers
RISA teams have leveraged subcontracting to enhance engagement and capacity building in regions. Through partnerships, boundary organizations such as RISA can contract out the function of engagement with a given group of users to another boundary
129 RISA. (2019). 130 About. Sea Grant. (n.d.). Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://seagrant.noaa.gov/About 131 Sea Grant by the Numbers 2021. (2021, Fall). NOAA Sea Grant. https://seagrant.noaa.gov/Portals/0/Documents/Handouts/Seagrant-MainFactsheet-Oct2021-508.pdf 132 NOAA. (2014, September 23). National Sea Grant College Program Policy for the Allocation of Funds, FY 2014 and Beyond. SeaGrantAllocationPolicy_FY2014andBeyond. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://seagrant.noaa.gov/Portals/0/Documents/About/SeaGrantAllocationPolicy_FY2014andBeyond_9232014.pdf 133 About the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program. Climate Program Office. (n.d.). Retrieved January 17, 2022, from https://cpo.noaa.gov/Meet-the-Divisions/Climate-and-Societal-Interactions/RISA/About-RISA 134 Pacific RISA. (2021). The RISA Sustained Assessment Specialist Network. https://www.pacificrisa.org/2021/10/27/5337/ 135 The Adaptation Sciences (AdSci) program. Climate Program Office. (n.d.). Retrieved January 17, 2022, from https://cpo. noaa.gov/Meet-the-Divisions/Climate-and-Societal-Interactions/The-Adaptation-Sciences-Program
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organization which already has established trust with said group. The RISA team structure is amenable to this subcontracting model to increase engagement and capacity building, since RISA teams are primarily based in universities with existing financial departments to manage the contracting process. An early case of this subcontracting within the RISA program was the GLISA RISA team. GLISA organized its first small grants competition in 2011 (up to $50,000), which succeeded in broadening stakeholder engagement.136 This model is being replicated across RISAs with the small grants initiative, but scaling the program will be constrained by existing funding resources and the administrative burden of small grants, which typically require proportionately more staff time and capacity.
As a federal program, RISA adheres to the federal grantmaking process, which tends to have short proposal development periods, limiting community engagement and participation from non-traditional partners in the program.137 Without a more intentional
and inclusive proposal development process, stakeholders involved in new applications will to some degree be based on pre-existing relationships with the universities that are organizing the applications. While RISA has made some effort to counter these limitations through relationship building, the natural biases within proposal development and stakeholder relationships are exacerbated by the short federal proposal development process.
As a NOAA program, RISA cannot exceed grant timelines of five years, and this relatively short grant period may constrain the program’s ability to create meaningful change. The RISA program could be improved by lengthening NOAA grant timelines to
allow for deeper relationship building. Continuity and stability of funding is necessary to develop relationships and build trust with communities. Currently, NOAA can only fund grants that have a maximum timeline of five years, but relationship and trust building could be more effective with a ten year program period. While most RISA teams repeatedly receive these competitive grants, the program likely has less perceived continuity for stakeholders, and valuable time and energy is spent reapplying for grants instead of delivering usable climate information to stakeholders.
There are seventeen states without an active RISA team but expanding RISA to include new regional teams would not necessarily cover all communities in those states, due to the university-centered nature of RISA teams.138 RISA teams do not provide even
programming throughout each state. Their structural reliance on research institutions and projects inherently limits their engagement with state communities that are not strongly connected to the project subject and/or are geographically far from the research center base. Even with expansion, RISAs will likely have limited staff and capacity in each state. NOAA RISA staff have pointed out that they could better leverage the staff and budgeting resources of state and local government through improved coordination.139
136 Lemos, M. C., Kirchhoff, C. J., Kalafatis, S. E., Scavia, D., & Rood, R. B. (2014). Moving climate information off the shelf: Boundary chains and the role of RISAs as adaptive organizations. Weather, Climate, and Society, 6(2), 273-285. 137 Bahnke, M., Korthuis, V., Philemonoff, A., & Johnson, M. (2020, March 19). Navigating the New Arctic Program. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.arctictoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2020-03-19-NNA-Letter-Final-1.pdf 138 Climate Program Office. (2021). About the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program. https://cpo.noaa. gov/Meet-the-Divisions/Climate-and-Societal-Interactions/RISA/About-RISA 139 RISA. (2019).
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Alternative Proposal: Climate Grant Universities
An idea related to the expansion of NOAA RISA is the creation of a Climate Grant University program. This proposal is based on the success of the land-grant college program, and similar programs that have also sought to emulate the model (e.g., the Sea Grant program at NOAA).
Land-grant colleges were established following the Morrill Act of 1862. Their original instructional mission was soon expanded to include research and extension, with the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 providing states with federal grant funds for the establishment of cooperative extension services.140 Extension agents, who are now present in almost every county of the U.S.,141 are trusted community members who engage with local citizens and groups to solve problems, disseminate information, and bring grassroots input back to university campuses so that local needs can inform usable research.142
Using the land-grant model of funding through capacity grants provides universities with sustained guaranteed resources, which is critical for climate service provision since collaborative, cross-disciplinary research conducted with stakeholder engagement requires a longer timeline.
State climate grant universities would also increase equity by ensuring that every state would have access to an institution dedicated to their local issues and priorities. No state would be underserved due to federal prioritization, a local lack of resources, or intra-state competition for limited resources. Additionally, having in-state universities as the center of climate service provision would increase the uptake and use of information by state and local governments.143 However, funding also includes requirements for multistate research – ensuring that capacity and knowledge crosses state boundaries, particularly for regionally-salient issues.
140 Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. (2021). Land-Grant University FAQ. https://www.aplu.org/about-us/ history-of-aplu/what-is-a-land-grant-university/ 141 Kopp, R. E. (2021). Land-grant lessons for Anthropocene universities. Climatic Change, 165(1), 1-12. 142 Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. (2021). Cooperative Extension Section (CES). https://www.aplu.org/ members/commissions/food-environment-and-renewable-resources/board-on-agriculture-assembly/cooperative-extension-section/ 143 Goggin, M., Gerber, B., & Larson, S. (2014). U.S. local governments and climate change: Examining the acquisition and use of research-based knowledge in policy development. Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy, 5(2), 156-177.
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Currently, 49 out of 50 states have State Climate Offices (SCOs) that mainly operate out of local universities. However, their focus is on developing top-down climate products rather than demand-driven, bottom-up climate services. To provide effective climate services, funding must clearly be dedicated to creating extension networks, lest research remain driven by academic interests or respond only to the needs of larger agencies that have the capacity to engage with SCOs. Instead, extension networks serve to build community capacity to identify useful existing climate information that might improve decision-making, understand the uncertainties and limitations of climate data, and consider how it might best be integrated with other information. Federal grants can encompass provisions that ensure this focus on community extension. For example, the Hatch Act ensures that a minimum amount of funding is allocated towards these efforts, obliging states to expend “25% or twice the level spent in FY1997 (whichever is less) on activities that integrate cooperative research and extension”.144
Policy Lever 3: Expanded State and Local Government Aid
Summary: When it comes to adaptation planning, it is especially important to engage
local and state governments given that the bulk of land-use decisions fall within the purview of these governmental bodies. As key conduits between the federal government, community-based organizations, research institutions, and other relevant stakeholders, states and municipalities can help deliver climate services by facilitating collaboration and providing technical support for adaptation planning. Empowering states and local municipalities with increased funding, however, is not a complete solution as it would fail to incentivize knowledge sharing and collaboration across state boundaries. This is problematic as many issues transcend state boundaries and require coordinated interventions.
An important role of the federal government is to enhance the adaptive capacity of local decision makers, particularly in state and local government. Local government is an important partner in effective formation and delivery of climate services, and federal investment in state capacity will translate to more effective and equitable provision of useful, usable climate services.
State government has the power to coordinate adaptation and resilience policy frameworks within state borders and to engage different stakeholders (schools, industry, local government officials, nonprofits, universities, etc.). However, most states do not have formal climate adaptation and resilience plans, either formalized or in development. Currently, only 19 states have formal adaptation plans, although many have not been updated in the past decade, and five states have adaptation planning efforts underway but not finalized.145 Some local governments have also developed their own adaptation plans.
144 Croft, G. (2019). The US Land-Grant University System: An Overview. Congressional Research Service. https://sgp.fas. org/crs/misc/R45897.pdf 145 Georgetown Climate Center. (2021). State Adaptation Progress Tracker. https://www.georgetownclimate.org/adaptation/ plans.html
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The role of local government in adaptation planning cannot be understated. State constitutions grant powers to local governments, so there is variation throughout the U.S., but generally the power to influence land-use through zoning, permitting, and property taxation sits largely with county and municipal governments.146 In addition, the smaller jurisdictions of municipal and county governments generally mean that they have more local insight into the needs and preferences of community members, compared to the more high-level perspective of state governments. The combination of land-use authority and local insight that municipal and county governments bring to the table makes them important actors in adaptation planning.
Climate change pressures mean that both states and localities will increasingly need to rely on good climate science to inform adaptation decisions. States can play an important role in providing technical and financial support to localities to conduct adaptation planning at the local level, especially for municipalities that do not have the resources to conduct rigorous analysis without extra support. States and municipalities are well positioned to be co-designers and codevelopers of climate services, in coordination with research institutions and federal agencies that can deliver scientific expertise.
To What Extent Can Expanded State & Local Aid Address Information Gaps?
Climate services notoriously suffer from a disconnect between scientists and decision makers, creating an information gap in which climate information is not well understood or usable for decision makers. However, research shows that more interaction between climate service producers (e.g., scientists) and users (e.g., state and local government officials) increases the rate of use of this information.147 Building state and local capacity can facilitate co-production of research, thereby closing the information gap.
States can use federal funding to create a network between research institutions, local and federal government, and other stakeholders. By convening decision makers,
community members, and climate services producers, states can facilitate the coproduction of usable, actionable climate tools. States may be especially suited to act as a nexus for climate service collaboration because they can bring various government, nonprofit, industry, and scientific partners to the table to work on cross cutting issues. For example, California has a Technical Advisory Council (TAC) that brings together local governments, scientists, and community leaders to develop plans for adaptation projects. Created by law in 2015, the TAC informs state planning processes “to better reflect the goals, efforts and challenges faced by local and regional entities pursuing adaptation, preparedness and resilience.”148
Dedicated funding could also be used to increase state (and local) government capacity by hiring staff who specialize in climate science and scientific communication and who can support local-level adaptation planning. Quality technical and financial support from state governments can help facilitate sustainable, community-driven adaptation planning on the local level. Increasing the capacity of governments to receive and distribute climate services requires capable employees. With more funding, states could invest more in the American Association of State Climatologists Recognized
146 Note that some state governments levy property taxes as well – but property taxes are primarily the domain of local governments, who collect the vast majority of property tax revenue. Source: Harris, B. H., & Moore, B. D. (2013). Residential Property Taxes in the United States. Tax Policy Center. 147 Lemos, M. C., Kirchhoff, C. J., & Ramprasad, V. (2012). Narrowing the climate information usability gap. Nature Climate Change, 2(11), 789-794. 148 CA Office of Planning and Research. (2021). Technical Advisory Council. https://opr.ca.gov/planning/icarp/tac/
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Climate Offices, which already exist in 47 states, generally within public universities. This could also take the form of high-quality training made available to government decision makers. Increased capacity is needed to help translate climate science into actionable information for both government and non-government stakeholders.
In the coastal town of Hampton, NH, for example, a local conservation non-profit – the Seabrook-Hamptons Estuary Alliance (SHEA) – took the lead on addressing the impacts of sea level rise and coastal flooding, with support from the State of New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Coastal Program and town officials. The Department of Environmental Services helped to carry out a survey and interview process to better understand the community’s perceptions of different adaptation strategies. 71% of residents agreed or strongly agreed that managed retreat should be a component of the town’s adaptation strategy, and the Department of Environmental Services and SHEA helped the town to establish a Coastal Hazards Adaptation Team to inform local adaptation planning moving forward, including a local buyout program.149
Are Current Climate Services Closing the Information Gap? A Review of New York Climate Services and Information Gaps Post-Sandy
Equity, accessibility, consistency, and accuracy are key to closing information gaps. These principles are demonstrated by several prominent, post-Sandy programs developed by New York City and New York State (and funded by federal and emergency grants).
First, the NYC Emergency Management developed the “Know Your Zone” program to inform community members of new hurricane evacuation zones and of neighborhood vulnerability to storm surges.150 The Know Your Zone program demonstrates the importance of equity and accessibility in closing information gaps. Know Your Zone has a robust interface with more than ten language and audio options, enabling equal information distribution to different community groups, particularly non-English speaking immigrants. Regularly mailed updates for upcoming hurricane seasons ensure that residents are consistently engaged with flooding information and appropriate preparedness strategies.
149 Spidalieri, K., Smith, I., & Grannis, J. (2020). Managing the Retreat from Rising Seas. Georgetown Climate Center, 12. 150 Know Your Zone. (n.d.). NYC Emergency Management, https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/em/html/know-your-zone/knowyourzone.html
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However, a key issue with the Know Your Zone program is that updates are only sent to homeowners, not renters – who account for 63% of housing occupants in NYC.151 In particular, illegal basement apartments are often occupied by immigrants and lowincome renters, placing them at much higher risk for flooding. During Hurricane Ida in 2021, 11 out of the 13 people who died in NYC drowned in their basement apartments.152 The lack of engagement with these high-risk residents highlights the need for more targeted information sharing for residents excluded from existing communication channels. It should also be noted that this program is for surge-induced flooding, not rainfall-induced flooding. This could present major issues moving forward as other forms of extreme flooding become more prominent (as was the case with Hurricane Ida).
Second, the NY Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR) “Go to High Ground” (GTHG) program aims to increase accessibility and effectiveness of hazard signage, automobile evacuation routes and areas, and educational programs.153 The Go to High Ground program demonstrates the importance of consistency in closing information gaps. For example, the Staten Island GTHG program did not build a sustained media presence. The last flood preparedness-related post on either of the program’s social media accounts dates back to 2016, with no activity for more recent storms like Hurricane Ida.154 The social media accounts remained inactive even after Hurricane Ida made landfall. If sustained, these accounts could supplement traditional alert systems, reaching a larger audience more quickly and keeping them consistently informed about changes in practices.
Despite allocating billions of dollars to both structural and community-based recovery and adaptation after Hurricane Sandy, New York’s response and developed programs still highlight the gaps in keeping residents informed of their flood risk and of appropriate actions that they could take. This is particularly critical as local community-based organizations that provide social services often play the role of first responders in disaster situations. New York City’s failure to maintain consistent and robust communication from the federal, state, city governments to community members is indicative of a national shortcoming that requires attention by multiple levels of government. Future strategies and climate services optimally designed for residents must fulfill the principles of equity, consistency, and accessibility in order to inform people both of their flood risk and of adaptation options. Climate services, furthermore, need to ensure not only that residents are knowledgeable about the natural hazards that affect them, but also that they are given the tools and knowledge to adequately adapt for their specific needs.
151 Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. (2017). Fast Facts about NYC Housing. NYC.gov, https://www1.nyc.gov/content/tenantprotection/pages/fast-facts-about-housing-in-nyc 152 Zaveri, M., Haag, M., Playford, A. and Schweber, N. (2021). How the storm turned basement apartments into death traps. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/nyregion/basement-apartment-floods-deaths.html 153 College of Staten Island. (2013). Go to High Ground Initiative. NY Rising. https://www.csi.cuny.edu/about-csi/president-leadership/administration/office-vp-economic-development-continuing-studies-and-government-relations/reporting-units-and-initiatives/go-high-ground-initiative 154 College of Staten Island [@GotoHighGround]. (2021). SI Go to High Ground. Twitter. https://twitter.com/GotoHighGround
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To What Extent Can State and Local Aid Address Non-Informational Barriers?
Psychological Barriers
States and municipalities may be particularly poised to carry out climate science communication campaigns designed to overcome negative perceptions of climate resiliency efforts by using trusted messengers. States and municipalities can utilize
existing channels, like those that are already in use by local public health, education, and natural resource departments. With additional funding, local governments may also be able to lean on networks of community-based organizations, for example, by compensating nonprofit leaders from environmental justice or community development organizations for their time on an adaptation and resilience commission. The inclusion of community members who are thought of as trusted messengers in the delivery of climate information can help to increase acceptance and use of climate information, while also increasing community engagement and equity. These local leaders can provide feedback on the types of services or data needed.
Financial Barriers
States and municipalities are often quite financially constrained, which hinders their ability to utilize climate services effectively; federal aid is an important solution to help overcome these financial constraints and incentivize capacity building. Federal
funding for states and municipalities could be used to hire more dedicated staff to work on adaptation planning and provide technical assistance to municipalities. It could also be used to increase local capacity to deploy more basic climate services. For example, GIS specialists in government can utilize climate service information to assist in hazard mapping, using spatial data or analysis techniques created by research institutions. In addition, federal funding could be used to establish partnerships with universities, federal agencies, and regional organizations to coordinate the provisioning and use of climate services. A particularly useful funding tool might be block grants for states specifically for planning and capacity building. These could complement large spending bills like the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or future bills that provide funds specifically for climate resiliency and adaptation work.
Institutional and Political Barriers
States may be uniquely situated to facilitate the connection between layers of government, research institutions, community organizations, and industry stakeholders. Federal funding can be used to increase state capacity to coordinate
climate services across these sectors. Engaging state government in climate services is important to coordinated resiliency action. One example of a state facilitating climate services from the federal government to local government is the Alaska Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning (Risk MAP) Program. Risk MAP, a collaboration between the State of Alaska and FEMA, works with local governments to analyze the natural hazards affecting local communities and to identify the actions and resources available to reduce risk.155 In addition, the program recently started a new initiative focused specifically on Alaska Native communities.156
155 Risk MAP, Planning & Land Management, Division of Community and Regional Affairs. https://www.commerce.alaska. gov/web/dcra/PlanningLandManagement/RiskMAP.aspx 156 Risk MAP, Planning & Land Management, Division of Community and Regional Affairs. https://www.commerce.alaska. gov/web/dcra/PlanningLandManagement/RiskMAP.aspx
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Providing aid to states allows for greater flexibility, which tends to increase political acceptance. Some lawmakers may prefer to see decentralized government action that
allows individual states to tailor responses to the unique needs of their constituencies. In addition, flexibility can increase innovation, especially if paired with proper evaluation and reporting processes that facilitate the sharing of information.
A limitation to a state and local government-centric approach to climate services is the ability to coordinate laterally across regions. While various regional collaboratives
