Thursday, June 4, 2009

Chicago's climate change adaptation plan

Climate Change Adaptation Symposium
3 and 4 June 2009

Julia Parzen
How Chicago has institutionalised Climate Change adaptation
I highly recommend this site www.chicagoclimatechange.org

Key messages

  • 'there was a lot of process'
  • built around involvement and engagement and collaboration
  • designed the plan with participation

  • Julia emphasised how much attention to process underpinned the development of their strategy 'there was a lot of process'
  • She spoke about how Chicago had institutionalised their climate change adaptation framework
  • She is not a climate change expert but experienced in organisations and process
  • Everything was based around stakeholder involvement and engagement and collaborations. This was built into their structures. They worked with industries, businesses, research institutions and community members
  • did not separate adaptation and mitigation - bringing them together in one strategy
  • wherever possible they built on existing initiatives, relationships - the assets based model [McKnight - very Chicago]
  • worked with whatever was important to people whether it was trees, gardening, concern about prices increases
  • asked extra questions of whoever was working on an existing project
  • the model can readily be updated
  • risk factors were based on assessment criteria to avoid personal preference
  • performance measures included permeability, morbidity
  • used infra red mapping to identify heat islands and focussed tree planting there
  • report emissions every 3 years

The five strategies in their plan are:

  • energy efficient buildings
  • clean and renewable energy
  • improved transport
  • reduced waste and industrial pollution
  • adaptation

see www.chicagoclimatechange.org

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