In 2009, the Washington State legislature passed the Washington State Climate Leadership Act which, among a number of climate mitigation measures, directed state agencies to collaboratively produce an integrated climate response strategy and use that strategy when planning or designing agency policies or programs. Washington’s Integrated Climate Response Strategy (WICRS) was published in 2012. Not long after, an informal network of climate adaptation practitioners from several state agencies (ICAN), described an interest in understanding the status of their climate adaptation planning. In response to this interest, the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group in collaboration with the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs designed a study to answer: (1) What is the status of climate change adaptation across and within Washington State agencies? (2) What approaches are other states employing to track performance on adaptation plan implementation? (3) What types of monitoring and evaluation frameworks can agencies apply to their adaptation efforts going forward? Primary and secondary data was collected and analyzed using a performance measurement framework through a review of agencies’ adaptation activities related to WICRS, an online survey, focus group discussions, and a review of survey results designed and disseminated by ICAN leadership. Throughout the research process, ICAN was updated on the study’s findings and relevant feedback was integrated into the study’s design. This research provides evidence of some state agencies’ active engagement in climate adaptation activities and subsequent implementation of WICRS, but the use of the Strategy in driving these activities is limited. Unlike some other US states engaging in climate change adaptation, Washington has no implementation plan or centralized method of tracking or reporting climate adaptation efforts. This research suggests that Washington State agencies can use a logic model framework derived, in part, from WICRS to track, coordinate, and compare their adaptation efforts. The information acquired through that practice could be used to demonstrate compliance with the state mandate, report performance to stakeholders, and evaluate the impacts of adaptation interventions on Washington State’s climate preparedness.

Climate Change Adaptation: Strategic Federal Planning Could Help Government Officials Make More Informed Decisions

This report obtained info. from 13 selected federal departments and agencies on their current and planned climate change adaptation efforts as part of a broader review of climate change adaptation. It provides a more complete picture of the activities that federal agencies consider to be related to climate change adaptation than has been available publicly. This info. was obtained directly from the agencies participating in the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which include: USDA; DoC; DOD; DoE; HHS; DHS; DoI; DoS; USAID; DoT; EPA; NASA; and NSF. The agency activities compiled in this report should not be considered a comprehensive list of all recent and ongoing climate change adaptation efforts across the federal government. Illus.

Across the United States, impacts of climate change are already evident. Heat waves have become more frequent and intense, cold extremes have become less frequent, and patterns of rainfall are likely changing. The proportion of precipitation that falls as rain rather than snow has increased across the western United States and Arctic sea ice has been reduced significantly. Sea level has been rising faster than at any time in recent history, threatening the natural and built environments on the coasts. Even if emissions of greenhouse gases were substantially reduced now, climate change and its resulting impacts would continue for some time to come. To date, decisions related to the management and protection of the nation's people, resources, and infrastructure have been based on records in the recent past, when climate was relatively stable. Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change, part of the congressionally requested America's Climate Choices suite of studies, calls for a new paradigm-one that considers a range of possible future climate conditions and impacts that may be well outside the realm of past experience. Adaptation requires actions from many decision makers in federal, state, tribal, and local governments; the private sector; non-governmental organizations; and community groups. However, current efforts are hampered by a lack of solid information about the benefits, costs, and effectiveness of various adaptation options; climate information on regional and local scales; and a lack of coordination. Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change calls for a national adaptation strategy that provides needed technical and scientific resources, incentives to begin adaptation planning, guidance across jurisdictions, shared lessons learned, and support of scientific research to expand knowledge of impacts and adaptation.