Communities are beginning to build and rebuild with an eye toward a changing climate. But creating more resilient infrastructure, also called climate adaptation, is not occurring at the scale needed to prevent billions of dollars in damage to infrastructure, buildings and the U.S. economy, according to the fourth National Climate Assessment released late last month.
“Infrastructure damage will cascade,” said David Easterling, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s director of technical support for the assessment, in a conference call. There will be “substantial net damage to the U.S. economy, especially in the absence of increased adaptation efforts.” Adaptation should occur alongside continuing movements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, called mitigation, because even if emissions were curbed, the heat trapping gases will remain in the atmosphere.