The Future of US Climate Adaptation & Resilience Under Trump 2.0

"Climate change" is likely to become taboo under the second Trump administration. The incoming president believes global warming to be a “hoax”, and Project 2025 — the right-wing blueprint for his second term — calls for erasing climate change references from absolutely everywhere.

​However, climate-related disasters will not go away just because the federal government refuses to accept their root causes. There is, and will continue to be, a need for policies, finance, and innovation to address climate impacts to communities and businesses, and to adapt to higher temperatures and more frequent weather extremes.

​How will climate adaptation and resilience evolve under the new administration? How could state and local governments step up to better climate-proof their constituents? And how might private investors and startups dedicated to adaptation and resilience adjust their strategies in a transformed policy space?

These questions and more were answered by an expert panel at the first Climate Proof Adaptation Salon, held in New York City on December 4. This edited recording of that conversation is bursting with insights and opinion on the path ahead, with a fair dose of optimism mixed in despite the rather ominous tone emanating from the Trump transition team.

Speakers:

​Sharai Lewis-Gruss, Co-owner and Principal, Two Degrees Adapt

​Jeff Schlegelmilch, Director at National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Earth Institute, Columbia University

​Daniel Murphy, Risk & Resilience Specialist, World Economic Forum

​Stacy Swann, Resilient Earth Capital

Listen below, download from the Podcasts page on Climate Proof, or tune in via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

We talk about:

👉 How states and communities could be challenged by changes to federal disaster policy and climate adaptation and resilience financing

👉 The importance of “getting money out the door” for climate in the last days of the Biden administration

👉 How the private sector and insurance sector could step up to provide climate-proofing services, and the obstacles in their way

👉 Why we need more people working on adaptation and resilience solutions in local government and the private sector as the federal government retreats from climate leadership

👉 Tackling the climate risk communication challenge

Future guests include Emilie Mazzacurati of Tailwind Climate.

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Thanks for listening!

Louie Woodall
Editor