The document discusses the role of emergency managers in addressing climate change. It provides definitions for key terms like mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. While emergency managers typically focus on short-term acute hazards, climate change involves chronic impacts that require longer-term planning. The document argues emergency managers should have a seat at the table in discussions around climate change adaptation due to their expertise in risk reduction and building community resilience.

1. John R. Labadie
Partners in Emergency Preparedness
April 26, 2011
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4. O i
Overview
 The Emergency Manager’s Worldview
e e ge cy a age s o d e
 Some definitions
 Mitigation and Adaptation
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 Where does climate change fit?
 A seat at the table

5. You and Your Premonition !!

6. O C t Cli t P bl S t
Our Current Climate Problem Set

7. Wh t Will Cli t Ch L k Lik ?
What Will Climate Change Look Like?
? ?
?
? ?
?

8. h ’ ld
The Emergency Manager’s Worldview
 A focus on extreme events
 Acute vs. chronic hazards (floods vs. droughts)
 An “all‐hazards” approach to preparing for disasters
An all hazards approach to preparing for disasters
 A shorter event horizon (5 years vs. 75‐100 years)
 A shorter planning and operational cycle
 Mitigation – Preparedness – Response – Recovery
 “Will current plans, actions, mitigation make things
better during the next flood (storm, earthquake,
hurricane, etc.)?”
h ) ”

9. An Interesting Debate
 “Climate change is a wholly new threat/hazard and
“Cli h i h ll h /h d d
thereby requires a unique set of responses.”
 “Climate change only makes existing hazards worse (in
terms of severity, duration, geographic spread, etc.)
and does not require special or novel adaptations.”
And, by extension…
 When does “emergency” become “business as usual?”

10. Some Definitions
Mitigation (Emergency Management)
 activities that reduce or eliminate the
probability of a hazard occurrence, or
eliminate or reduce the impact from the
li i d h i f h
hazard if it should occur.
(ICDRM/GWU Emergency Management
Glossary of Terms)

11. E i t l iti ti
Environmental mitigation
 steps taken to avoid or minimize negative
steps taken to a oid or minimi e negati e
environmental impacts. Mitigation can
include: avoiding the impact by not taking a
g p y g
certain action; minimizing impacts by limiting
the degree or magnitude of the action;
rectifying the impact by repairing or restoring
rectifying the impact by repairing or restoring
the affected environment; reducing the
impact by protective steps required with the
p yp p q
action; and compensating for the impact by
replacing or providing substitute resources.
(Biology Online.)
(Bi l O li )

12. Mitigation – Climate Change
 “An anthropogenic intervention to reduce the
sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse
gases” (IPCC).
 I. e., actions taken by individuals, governments,
k b d d l
or corporations to reduce the greenhouse gas
emissions in order to minimize their effects on
global climate change.

13. Adaptation
 Changes in an organism s physiological
Changes in an organism's physiological
structure or function or habits that allow it to
survive in new surroundings. (USEPA. Terms
of Environment: Glossary, Abbreviations and
of Environment: Glossary Abbreviations and
Acronyms)
 "adjustment in natural or human systems
in response to actual or expected climatic
stimuli or their effects, which moderates
ti li th i ff t hi h d t
harm or exploits beneficial opportunities."
(IPCC)

15. Members of the Maldives' Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals Saturday at
Members of the Maldives Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals Saturday at
an underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming to the lowest‐
lying nation on earth. (2009)

16.  Adaptive Capacity ‐‐ “...the ability or
potential of a system to respond
successfully to climate variability and
change, and includes adjustments in both
behaviour and in resources and
technologies.” (IPCC)
 Resilience ‐‐ The ability of a community to
remain strong or unharmed, and/or to be
g , /
able to quickly and effectively recover from
a disaster’s impact upon its infrastructure,
economy, social and natural environment.
economy social and natural environment

17. El t f Ad ti C it
Elements of Adaptive Capacity
 Excess capacity
i  Income levels
Income le els
 Economic surplus  Good governance and
E
Experience w/ natural
i / l transparency
disasters  Natural resources
 Strong governmental  Robust infrastructures
or social institutions  Social protection &
 Robust social transfer
communications mechanisms

18. E i I i Cli Ch
Equity Issues in Climate Change
 Poverty and Access to Services
 Governance and Transparency
 How do decisions get made?
 Who gets to make those
decisions?
 Ethics – what is right?
 Socio‐economic Development
Socio economic Development

19. Dimensions of a decent life
Dimensions of a decent life
Health &
H lth
Basic
Education
Income & Rights &
Material Empowerment
po e e t
Needs
Social,
cultural
affiliation &
security

20. P d Cli Ch
Poverty and Climate Change
“A realistic but proactive human development agenda
is needed that recognizes that poverty is not just
about lack of income; it is about individuals and
households being powerless to act and influence their
futures.”
[The Human Dimension of Climate Adaptation: The Importance of
Local and Institutional Issues.]
Issues ]

21. The Ethics of Climate Change
The Ethics of Climate Change
 The IPCC wrote in its 2007 report that determining what
7 p g
constitutes dangerous anthropogenic interference with the
climate system “involves value judgments. Science can
support informed decisions on this issue. Thus, coping
support informed decisions on this issue ” Thus coping
with climate change, both mitigation and adaptation,
becomes primarily an ethical issue.
[From Closing the Gaps: Disaster risk reduction and
adaptation to climate change in developing countries.
adaptation to climate change in developing countries
Commission on Climate Change and Development. 2009]

22. Some Ethical Issues
Some Ethical Issues
 Is it ethical to tear down a low‐income housing project
s t et ca to tea do a o co e ous g p oject
in order to build a wetland, if that wetland would help
to reduce future flood damages in other parts of the
community?i ?
 I it thi l t b ild d i i ti t t
Is it ethical to build a dam or an irrigation system to
stabilize water supply, if doing so will disadvantage
those who will lose access to important water resources
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that they use in coping with drought.

23. E i I i Cli Ch
Equity Issues in Climate Change
 Poverty and Access to Services
o e ty a d ccess to Se ces
 Governance and Transparency
 How do decisions get made?
g
 Who gets to make those decisions?
 Ethics – what is right?
 Socio‐economic Development
 Are emergency managers prepared (empowered?)
to act/participate in these discussions?

24. Continuum of adaptation activities
Continuum of adaptation activities
Source: R. J. T. Klein and Å. Persson, “Financing Adaptation to Climate Change: Issues and Priorities”
Vulnerability focus Impacts focus
Addressing the Building response Managing climate Confronting
drivers of capacity risks climate
vulnerability Activities seek to Activities seek to change
Activities seek to build robust incorporate climate Activities seek to
reduce poverty and systems for information into address impacts
other non‐climatic problem solving decision‐making associated
stressors that make exclusively
p p
people vulnerable with climate changeg
Primary focus
Not so much
Perhaps indirectly
Emergency or
case‐by‐case
Management

25. Emergency Managers would support
Emergency Managers would support...
 No‐regrets strategies
 Mainstreaming
Mitigation
 Sustainable development
 Resilience
 These all do (or could) increase a community’s ability to
h ll d ( ld) ’ bl
recover from, or be less affected by an extreme event.
 While specific adaptive projects would not be ignored or
rejected by EMs, those that contribute to a greater
capacity or resilience would be favored.

26. Emergency Management & Environmental Management
 Considerable overlap between environmental
management and disaster management.
 The overall objectives of these fields implicitly
promote sustainable & resilient communities.
 Sustainability & resilience should be considered:
 prospectively (in sustainable development planning and
adaptation)
 retrospectively (in response and recovery)
retrospectively (in response and recovery).

27. Collaborative Strategies
Collaborative Strategies
 Identifying enhancements to environmental &
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other assets/resources that support long‐term
recovery and reconstruction (e.g., enhancement of
ecosystem elements, habitats);
l h bi )
 Identifying development options that may serve to
mitigate future disaster damage (e.g., creation,
enhancement, or preservation of wetlands,
enhancement or preser ation of etlands
mangrove clusters, and coral reefs for flood
mitigation);

28. Collaborative Strategies
Collaborative Strategies
 Identifying and reconciling the tradeoffs between
adaptation opportunities and disaster‐resistant
construction and development practices (e.g., siting of
dikes/levees; identification and preapproval of waste
dik /l id tifi ti d l f t
disposal methods/sites);
 Identifying development techniques and practices that
contribute to both environmental quality and long‐term
survivability (siting of industrial sites; stricter
i bili ( i i f i d i l i i
environmental management requirements for
y y
environmentally‐risky facilities)

29. How does it fit together?
How does it fit together?
Environmental
Management
Resilience
Climate
Change Emergency
E
Adaptation Management

30. Emergency Managers in their own words
Emergency Managers in their own words
I asked 10‐12 emergency managers around the US (public
and private sector), “What are you – as an EM – doing
d i t t ) “Wh t EM d i
about climate change?”
 “Hmmm interesting question I should think about
Hmmm…interesting question. I should think about
it.”
 “I haven’t got time – I’m worried about next flood
g
season.”
 “I haven’t got the budget (staff, resources, mandate,
etc.) to deal with climate change.”
) d l h l h ”
 “The Department of ________ is responsible for that.”

31. A Seat at the Table
A Seat at the Table
 Disaster Preparedness is an accepted adaptation
strategy (one of many)
( f )
 For emergency managers, mitigation & adaptation are
essentially the same thing
i ll h hi
 Emergency management should be part of the
adaptation conversation – most effective in the
d t ti ti t ff ti i th
scoping phase
 Identify synergies no regrets actions multiple
Identify synergies, no‐regrets actions, multiple
positive outcomes

32. I S
In Summary
 Reaction to climate change is largely in the purview
eact o to c ate c a ge s a ge y t e pu e
of the environmental (& political) community
 Climate change is not a primary emergency
g p y g y
management concern – effects, yes; causes, no
 EMs deal with acute, not chronic, problems
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 EMs generally do not deal directly with underlying
problems/issues related to climate change
 EMs would support climate change adaptations, but
would not generally take the lead.

33. Conclusions
 Funds and resources invested in adaptation to extreme
events (floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, heat waves, etc.) will
produce more adaptive benefits, more quickly, and for
more people than investment in long term adaptation to
more people than investment in long‐term adaptation to
chronic problems (drought, sea‐level rise, etc.)
 Mainstreaming of adaptive strategies into development
efforts and pursuing “no‐regrets” projects may be the best
and most cost effective path to success. Doing so could
and most cost‐effective path to success. Doing so could
lead to immediate benefits and could thereby lend
credibility to longer‐term adaptive efforts.

34. Questions?