Growing Returns

4 strategies for policymakers to get more natural infrastructure in the ground, fast

By / Bio / Published: July 29, 2021

Climate change is fueling increased flood risk across our nation’s coastal regions and floodplains. 

States and local communities are turning to natural infrastructure as a key solution to build long-term flood resilience. Natural and nature-based features like wetlands, dunes and reefs offer multiple protective benefits — from absorbing stormwater, to minimizing the shock of storm surge to reducing flood severity. 

However, identifying funding for natural infrastructure projects is not always straightforward.  

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Quick action needed to achieve full mitigation potential of soil carbon credits

By / Published: July 27, 2021

The potential for agricultural climate solutions has led to surging interest in credits for soil carbon sequestration. The stakes for climate change and farmers are high, and there is a pressing need to evaluate emerging protocols for measuring, reporting and verifying soil carbon sequestration and net greenhouse gas removals.

With that in mind, Environmental Defense Fund and the Woodwell Climate Research Center reviewed 12 published protocols for soil carbon credits from cropland and rangeland, and published the results in a new report — Agricultural Soil Carbon Credits: Making sense of protocols for carbon sequestration and net greenhouse gas removals.

Here are the challenges the report found with current soil carbon credits and recommendations for overcoming them to build confidence in soil carbon markets. Read More »

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First-of-its-kind insurance report confronts climate risk

By / Bio / Published: July 23, 2021

As many of us are witnessing across the globe this summer, the impacts of climate change are already upon us: the increasing severity of wildfires, more frequent and widespread extreme heat events, and the looming risk of floods and sea level rise even during a drought.

This is especially true for California, where wildfires fueled by a historic drought have already scorched three times as much land as they did in the same period of last year’s record-breaking season.

These climate impacts are not evenly distributed. They fall disproportionately on people with lower incomes, people of color, older adults, children and people with chronic health conditions.

wildfire

Building community resilience to fire and heat is an immediate imperative. Read more: Heat, fire, smoke and blackouts: How to live with our new reality.

As the destruction wrought by climate change continues to accelerate, state leaders and the insurance industry are exploring ways to make communities more resilient, especially the residents who are most vulnerable to climate impacts. Read More »

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Sea level rise threatens Miami’s future. Here’s how the Army Corps can help keep Florida, Florida.

By / Published: July 23, 2021

Florida residents are on the frontlines of climate change, already facing sea level rise and increasing storm intensity. 

This is especially evident in Miami, due to its low-lying topography, porous limestone, dense coastal development and encroaching seas.  

To address these threats, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) produced the Miami-Dade Back Bay Coastal Storm Risk Management study. This multibillion-dollar proposal contains traditional, hardened infrastructure projects, including a massive seawall that would extend across Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami, reaching up to 20 feet in some places.

The proposal has received significant pushback from the public and stakeholders who are concerned about negative impacts to the environment, economy and quality of life.  

As the Corps seeks to address flood vulnerability in Miami and elsewhere, here are three ways the agency can reduce risk while also preserving the natural beauty of Florida’s coastal communities.

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10 ways policymakers can support climate resilience in the West

By / Bio / Published: July 20, 2021

It seems every day I come across a heartbreaking headline about how extreme heat, wildfires and ongoing drought are plaguing the West.

Indeed, the climate crisis has hit home in the Colorado River Basin and is threatening everything from agriculture to water supplies. The basin’s two main reservoirs­ — Lakes Powell and Mead — are at record low water levels, threatening the water security essential to communities, wildlife, recreation and agricultural production across the Southwest.

To help policymakers address these pressing climate challenges, EDF contributed to a recent report, Ten Strategies for Climate Resilience in the Colorado River Basin, authored by Martin & McCoy and Culp & Kelly, LLP, that analyzed multiple approaches to building climate resilience and identified the top 10 priorities. Read More »

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This landmark water conservation agreement is good news for Arizona. We need more like it.

By / Bio / Published: July 8, 2021

Water scarcity in the Colorado River is becoming more urgent by the day. As temperatures soar to record levels — 122 degrees in Phoenix last month — Lake Mead has plummeted to 37% of its capacity, the lowest level since the nation’s largest reservoir was filled in 1935.

Amid this dire picture comes one significant piece of good news: In the largest ever multisector response to drought, final funding has been committed to enable the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to conserve nearly 49 billion gallons of water (or 150,000 acre-feet) in Lake Mead over three years.

This project is the largest single conservation effort to date, both in dollars and volume of water, in the Colorado River Basin. It is a harbinger of the unprecedented collaboration that will be required going forward to build resilience to climate change and water scarcity in the West.

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Hurricane season is here. We need a national plan to protect our coastal communities.

By / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: July 1, 2021

The Atlantic hurricane season is underway as many coastal areas still recover from an endless barrage of storms last year that culminated in the most active hurricane season on record. With climate change, we can expect to see more intense hurricanes, leaving many communities at risk. 

In fact, a new report indicates that as many as 32 million U.S. homes and $8.5 trillion in assets are vulnerable to hurricane damage. 

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To meet sustainability goals, food companies need to slash methane

By / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: June 29, 2021

As the recent surge in corporate net zero commitments suggests, the risks associated with climate change are top of mind for today’s leading businesses and investors.

For companies that produce, process or sell beef, pork and/or dairy, there’s an often overlooked, invisible source of climate pollution lurking in the supply chain: methane.

An extremely potent greenhouse gas, methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in the short term. This means cutting methane emissions is one of the fastest ways for businesses to make progress toward their sustainability targets, meet growing stakeholder demands for bold climate action and be more resilient.

The opportunity for leadership is especially urgent in the livestock sector, which is responsible for roughly one-third of all human-caused methane emissions globally.

While some food and agricultural companies are making progress on methane, there’s still a long way to go. Here’s what these companies need to know.

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Texas leaders made a big mistake ignoring water this session. But not all hope is lost.

By / Bio / Published: June 23, 2021

Last weekend I paddled on the Blanco River with my family. We swam in spring-fed swimming holes, fly fished and lounged in shallow sections of the river, which was flowing nicely thanks to recent rains that ended drought conditions across Texas.

But it’s hard to ignore that Texas is sitting in the shadow of one of the worst droughts in history — one that’s crippling the rest of the West.

As temperatures rise and groundwater levels remain low with little rain in the forecast, it is imperative that we develop solutions to manage our water supplies more sustainably.

Unfortunately, state leaders put water on the back burner this legislative session, failing to take action on several water bills — even a benign bill to study groundwater and surface water interactions. But just because state leaders haven’t taken action doesn’t mean we can’t.

Here are three steps that all Texans can take now to build momentum behind protecting our rivers, streams and groundwater. Read More »

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3 recent USDA wins and what the department should do next

By / Published: June 22, 2021

Over the past several weeks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made important progress in advancing climate-smart agriculture and creating equitable opportunities for producers to be part of the climate solution.

Here are three recent examples of progress you may have missed in the news, plus next steps for the agency to continue this momentum. Read More »

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