NOAA’s CAP/RISA collaborative planning activities are one-year projects funding multi-collaborator workshops or other innovative planning activities that identify and examine important issues in the regions related to social and economic dimensions of climate variability and change. One project, “A Northeast Safe and Thriving for All (NEST),” reviewed the extent to which climate adaptation research, policy, plans, and projects in the Northeast region address central concerns of equity and justice under climate migration. On May 16-17, 2023, NEST partnered with Antioch University to focus their biannual New England Local Solutions Conference on climate migration.
The NEST team presented attendees with the outcomes and discussion of their project showcasing how parts of New England could provide safety for those migrating due to fires, heat, and floods. Where New England is more protected from harmful effects of climate change, people are choosing other locations that are less resilient due to the availability of housing and jobs. This issue highlights long-standing problems in social and physical infrastructure that have led to inequitable communities. City planners and decision makers will need to include climate migration as a factor when planning.
Hannah Lohman, current Knauss Fellow, and Ariela Zycherman, Program Manager, from the CAP/RISA program attended the workshop and conference. At the Local Solutions Conference, the team represented the CAP/RISA program as part of the panel “Funding from Federal Government to Local Communities.”
For more information, contact Jessica Garrison.
