Growing Returns

Celebrating the groundbreaking of a natural infrastructure project to combat flooding in North Carolina

By / Published: March 28, 2025

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) joined North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) at a groundbreaking event today to celebrate the progress of a new and significant natural infrastructure pilot project.  

The Stoney Creek pilot project is an innovative approach to utilizing natural infrastructure and nature’s processes to address flood risk in the City of Goldsboro and in the greater area of Wayne County, North Carolina. Moreover, it is a major step forward in advancing community flood resilience across the entire state.  

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We can feed a growing population while shrinking fertilizer pollution. Here’s how.

By / Bio / Published: December 18, 2024
Tractor applying fertilizer

Farmers must estimate how much fertilizer and other inputs their crop will need in the face of increased weather variability.

Nitrous oxide might not make the news like carbon dioxide, but it’s a powerful hidden force behind the extreme, climate-driven weather we’re experiencing. This super-pollutant is the third most significant greenhouse gas, with a warming impact almost 300 times greater than carbon dioxide. Lowering it is essential for avoiding the most dangerous climate impacts.

The newly released “Global Nitrous Oxide Assessment” confirms a sobering reality: atmospheric concentrations of the gas are rising faster than previously anticipated. The majority of nitrous oxide emissions come from synthetic fertilizer and manure. Yet nitrogen applications are also essential for producing the crops that feed a growing population.

We don’t have to choose between food security or climate stability. We can and must support farmers in achieving both priorities.

Reducing nitrous oxide emissions isn’t just possible — it’s within reach.

A combination of existing strategies could slash global nitrous oxide emissions by over 40%, but scaling these solutions requires commitment and innovation, but scaling these solutions requires commitment and innovation.

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Four takeaways from a year of global action on food, agriculture and climate

By / Bio / Published: December 16, 2024

farm in a landscape with fields

Global leaders increasingly recognize that agriculture and food systems must be part of solutions to the climate crisis. From the first Food Systems Pavilion at a UN climate conference in 2022, to 160 countries recognizing food and agriculture as a climate imperative in 2023, food advocates came into the 2024 UN climate conference, COP29, with wind in our sails. We made progress, but the world needs to do more — and quickly.

As we close out the year and look ahead to COP30 in late 2025, significantly more work remains to ensure farmers, fishers and ranchers can feed a growing population and lower climate pollution from food systems.

Here are four reflections from EDF and our partners about the progress made this year and the urgent work that remains to make farms and food systems more resilient, sustainable and equitable.

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Driving recovery and resilience in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene

By / Published: December 13, 2024

In recent years, North Carolina communities have weathered one storm after another, with Hurricane Helene being no exception. Hurricane Helene followed a once-in-a-thousand-year rain event in western North Carolina, which as a result caused widespread devastation and $53 billion of damage to the state alone. The impacts also stretched far beyond North Carolina, affecting communities throughout the southeastern U.S., demonstrating the growing need to prepare for increasingly severe storms.  

In the wake of Hurricane Helene, FEMA introduced a $2.1 billion relief package to support families and businesses affected. These relief efforts offered some essential support in the aftermath but only scratched the surface of what is needed to truly help communities. 

Moving forward, we must work to safeguard communities by investing in long-term resilience and preparedness. Read More »

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Ahead of the 2025 General Assembly, here are 3 ways to build flood resilience in Virginia

By / Published: December 10, 2024

Virginia Conservation Network, a statewide coalition of 170 conservation partners, released its 2025 Common Agenda this year, providing a comprehensive overview of Virginia’s environmental policies and priorities to lawmakers and stakeholders. Detailed in the agenda are three key opportunities for lawmakers to continue progress on flood resilience initiatives.   

While hurricane season officially ended on November 30, many Virginians in the southwest region are still recovering from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene.  We stand with those communities as they recover and must remember that now is not the time to lose focus on reducing the risk of increasing climate-driven storms and disasters. According to the agenda’s co-authors from EDF’s Climate Resilient Coasts & Watersheds Virginia program, the following three flood resiliency opportunities should be a critical focus in the coming year. 

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How can we support New York City’s housing cooperatives in adapting to climate change?

By / Published: October 28, 2024

Co-authored by: Anushi Garg and Linda Shi

Anushi is the senior analyst for Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Resilient Coasts & Watersheds program in New York-New Jersey. Linda is the associate professor for Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University.

New York City, like many cities, is simultaneously facing a housing affordability crisis and the impacts of climate change. As the city responds to these complex, interlinked challenges, it is critical to find solutions that ensure all New Yorkers have access to housing that is affordable and adapted to a changing climate.  

Unfortunately, cooperative housing, also known as co-ops, lacks access to many public sources of climate adaptation and disaster recovery funding, despite making up more than 12% of the city’s housing stock. Co-ops have a unique ownership model, one where residents have shares in a corporation that owns the building, as well as a proprietary lease tied to their unit, rather than a property title. This model helps preserve long-term affordability, but can also prevent co-ops from accessing resources geared towards housing that is owned by an individual.  

To support affordable multi-family co-ops, Environmental Defense Fund, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) and Cornell University released An Assessment of NYC Cooperative Housing’s Climate Vulnerability and Barriers to Adaptation. This report, based on a mapping assessment, a first-ever survey of co-ops and a policy review, looks at climate impacts on permanently affordable co-ops in New York City and encourages more responsive and equitable policies.   Read More »

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Three ways to make home buyouts more efficient

By / Published: May 31, 2024

By: Gabrielle Rosario, EDF Intern

Each year, flood risk increases from sea level rise and storms, raising major concerns among millions of homeowners. Flooding can inundate homes, damage property and cause safety and health concerns, as well as isolate residents from essential government services like trash pickup or emergency vehicle access. In fact, by 2030, over 20 million Americans will be at risk of inundation due to sea level rise, and many will be unable to afford to move.  

Managed retreat policies, such as voluntary home buyouts, can facilitate the relocation of residents out of increasingly flood-prone communities. But unfortunately, existing federal programs are slow and require local governments to meet complex and challenging guidelines. 

Innovative approaches are needed to make buyouts more efficient. Here are three strategies that can help: 

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New research could help resource managers improve the health and resilience of the Mississippi River Basin

By / Published: May 28, 2024

Spanning across 31 states, from Minnesota down to the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, the Mississippi River Basin is one of the most significant waterways in the world. Not only is it important for commercial purposes, but it also provides critical wildlife habitat, fresh water and recreational opportunities for communities.  

Given the river’s complex alterations and increasing climate impacts, it is more important than ever to take actions that will protect and nurture this treasured basin. Earlier this year, Environmental Defense Fund and co-authors* released new research that may prove beneficial to resource managers, aimed at evaluating and implementing actions to improve the Mississippi River Basin’s overall health and resilience. Based on this research, we are sharing a comprehensive framework that can be used to effectively manage the Mississippi River Basin as part of a whole basin governance structure that includes monitoring, modeling and adaptive management.  Read More »

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One year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back federal wetland protections. Here are the impacts so far.

By / Published: May 23, 2024

One year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that significantly reduced federal wetlands protections, leaving America’s wetlands at greater risk of development and degradation. The case of Sackett v. EPA was decided 9-0 in favor of the Sacketts, a couple from Idaho that filled in wetlands to build on their property near Priest Lake. The Court ruled unanimously that the wetlands on the Sackett’s property were not regulated under the Clean Water Act, but a narrow majority of justices went further to issue a controversial 5/4 opinion that scaled back federal protections that have provided for the thoughtful conservation of America’s wetlands for decades.  Of note, Justice Kavanaugh, siding with the minority, expressed concern about the decision’s “significant repercussions for water quality and flood control throughout the United States.”   

The impacts of the decision are still unfolding, and there remains a lot of uncertainty on how the unclear language of the Court will be interpreted in the long term. But what we do know is that this decision will have a significant impact. Here’s where things stand one year later. 

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EU must act to protect farms and food production from climate risk

By / Published: April 11, 2024
Farms like the German wheat field depicted must manage climate change risks.

Wheat field near Oberaudorf in Bavaria, Germany by Uwe Schwarzbach.

At the same time as farmers were protesting in European capitals to demand more certainty for their future, the European Environment Agency published a report highlighting serious climate risk to food security. The European Climate Risk Assessment identified 36 major climate risks for Europe related to food, ecosystems, health, infrastructure, the economy and finance. The assessment mapped the direct and cascading effects of these risks and the hotspot areas for the most serious impacts. 

The stark conclusion for food is that “climate impacts on food production (particularly in southern Europe) can cascade to rural and coastal livelihoods, land use, the health of socially vulnerable populations and the wider economy.” The report also warns that while climate-driven food shortages are unlikely because production decreases in some areas may be offset by robust production in other areas, food price increases and volatility are likely.  

For Europe overall, drought, heat and overly wet conditions will hurt regional production. Southern Europe already faces critical levels of climate risk. Successive years of prolonged drought and excessive heat have resulted in crop failures and reduced yields to the tune of 60% reductions for corn yields in some southern European countries.  

EU policymakers and farmers’ business partners must act urgently to support EU farmers in building resilience to climate risk and adopting climate-friendly farming solutions. This is essential to keep the agriculture sector profitable and productive in a climate-changed world.  Read More »

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