Coastal cities are preparing for climate change

In recent weeks, flooding from storms has ravaged cities on the South and East Coast, from Louisiana to New Jersey. Overlapping atmospheric rivers over the west coast have brought heavy rainfall that is likely to return in the coming days.

So far this week, Californians have not seen the kind of weather-related disasters that struck last winter, with flooding in Ventura County in December and in San Diego in January, my colleague Jill Cowan reports.

Storms are part of the natural cycle that replenishes the water supplies that several states will depend on in the drier months ahead, The Times meteorologist Judson Jones told me.

“The problem comes when there's too much at once,” he said.

Climate change makes that much more likely. Warmer air holds more moisture, meaning storms in many parts of the world become wetter and more intense, as my colleague Ray Zhong explained during last year's floods.

Coastal areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change, not only because of storms and flooding, but also because of rising sea levels and erosion. Put these factors one-tenth of the world's populationthe 896 million people who live near the oceans are at risk. That includes a fifth of Americans.

The good news is that we can do a lot. Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank that promotes environmental policies for coastal cities, designed this a framework that outlines dozens of solutions that governments and communities can implement.

“So often people assume that we need more technological innovation, or that we need vast amounts of more money before we can actually do anything meaningful,” said the group's co-founder Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. But she added: “There are so many solutions we already have at our fingertips”

Prepare

Many U.S. coastal cities are large and influential, but they also have vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by pollution and global warming. Whatever cities decide to do, it can have a huge impact on the climate and the lives of these communities.

Several policies can address both problems. Cities can create programs to develop a new workforce that will help build solar farms, or redesign waterfronts in ways that are both resilient to climate change and strengthen local economies.

City authorities can also help take care of nature. Protecting and restoring coastal ecosystems is a relatively inexpensive strategy to both store planet-warming carbon and protect residents, especially the most vulnerable, from storm surges and sea level rise.

“It's important to remember that there are solutions at every geographic scale,” Johnson said. “From a city block to an entire city.”

The work has already started

More than a third of American cities have climate plans, according to research from Urban Ocean Lab and Columbia University. But implementation has been slow, and many cities underestimate how much climate change will transform their communities.

There is money to trade. Urban Ocean Lab identified $21.7 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden's signature climate bill, that coastal cities could use to prepare for global warming.

There are cities that are already doing good work in the field of climate:

• My colleague Michael Kimmelman recently reported on the progress he has seen over the past decade in flood-prone Hoboken, NJ. The city is laying power lines, building and redesigning water reservoirs and new sewers to cope with rising sea levels and heavier rainfall.

• New York City is working on a major environmental restoration project in Jamaica Bay to return salt marshes and sand dunes to their natural state to protect the ecosystem and the city.

• In Baltimore, Maryland, the city has “resilient hubs”, places where people can come together to talk about their community, cool off, or get food supplies when disaster strikes.

You can act too

A big part of Johnson's message is that communities need to be organized, and governments need to involve them in the decision-making process, if any strategy to tackle climate change is to work.

That means you, and your neighbors, too.

It's much easier to influence municipal policy or a city council battle than it is to influence the outcome of a presidential election, Johnson said.

“Community organizations can certainly approach city government and influence how resources are allocated and how policies and regulations are developed,” she said. “There is a lot of citizen power at the local level.”

That could mean showing up at seemingly insignificant meetings that could ultimately decide how our cities are protected (or not) from climate change.

“Extreme weather doesn't have to be a disaster,” Johnson said. “It's the infrastructure and the built environment and where people live and how people live that determine how bad the consequences of something are.”

Related storm news:

Where do the US and China go from here?

This week we learned that John Podesta is replacing John Kerry as President Biden's advisor on international climate policy. That raises some questions, including where the US-China relationship is headed when it comes to climate.

The world's two largest economies are also the world's two largest polluters. The speed at which the US and China agree to reduce emissions sets the tone for the world as a whole.

Kerry, 80, had a strong relationship with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua. Even as the US and China were at odds over security, trade and more, Kerry was able to resume climate talks last year. These talks paved the way for an agreement in November between the two countries to ramp up renewables, boosting ambition ahead of COP29.

Podesta, 75, also has a long history of dealing with China. As my colleague Lisa Friedman reported, Podesta helped broker a historic 2014 climate deal between the United States and China during the Obama administration, was an architect of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and has close ties to climate leaders all over the world.

But there are also potential sources of tension ahead. Over the past two years, Podesta has led the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, a climate bill fundamentally designed to help the US compete with China in solar panels and renewable energy sources.

Whatever the case, the US and China are unlikely to reach a major climate deal this year. And if former President Donald Trump regains the White House in November, the US may not have a climate adviser for much longer.

But for now, Podesta's appointment “reassures the international community that the United States will continue to lean into leadership on global climate action,” Manish Bapna, chairman of the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Lisa. — David Gelles