California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE)

In response to Executive Order S-3-05, this paper examines California’s opportunities and constraints for managing the impacts of climate change. It reviews the extant literature on adaptation and provides examples from selected sectors in California to illuminate the constraints and, in some cases, limits to the ability to adapt to climate change. Based on these insights, recommendations are made for how government, research, and civil society can help California most effectively prepare for climate change impacts. The key findings are: Key Finding #1: California’s response to climate change is not a simple choice between mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. Adaptation and mitigation are necessary complementary strategies for managing climate change. The state must determine the portfolio of solutions that will best minimize potential risks and maximize potential benefits. Key Finding #2: Today’s climate variability and weather extremes already pose significant risks to California’s citizens, economy, and environment. They reveal the state’s vulnerability and existing challenges in dealing with the vagaries of climate. Continued climate changes, and the risk of abrupt or surprising shifts in climate, will further challenge the state’s ability to cope with climate-related stresses. Key Finding #3: Adaptation is being addressed by the international community and largely ignored within the U.S. A deeper discussion is needed about the costs and challenges of adaptation in California and elsewhere in the U.S. Key Finding #4: To enhance Californians’ preparedness for climate variability and change, decision-makers in the private and public sectors require greater awareness of the risks they face, increased capacity to analyze such information and use it in decision-making, and the ability to remove any institutional, financial, political, and other barriers in the way of turning good intentions into actions. Key Finding #5:  Many opportunities exist to enhance California’s adaptive capacity and resilience in the face of change, even in the absence of perfect foresight about future climatic changes. In fact, California’s adaptive capacity—the ability to adapt—is significant. However, implementing that capacity into real adaptive actions on the ground is actually quite difficult and requires special attention and long‐term commitment at all levels of government, across climate‐sensitive industries, and throughout society.   Key Finding #6: The ability to cope and adapt is differentiated across population, economic sectors, and regions within the state. The state has an opportunity to ensure and enhance “environmental justice” while fostering California’s adaptive capacity to climate change and other interactive stressors