The UW Climate Impacts Group, along with nine community, nonprofit and university partners, is launching a program of community-led, justice-oriented climate adaptation work across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative will be founded with a five-year, $5.6 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The program will be one of eleven across the country funded through NOAA’s Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program.
The Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative will advance efforts to adapt to climate change in frontline communities – communities that have been excluded from spaces of power and who are disproportionately facing the impacts of climate change.
The program will be led by Climate Impacts Group Director Amy Snover, with several community members and university partners steering the direction of the collaborative as members of the leadership team. The leadership team will include Snover along with Aurora Martin, co-executive director of Front and Centered; Don Sampson, climate change program director of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians; Jennifer Allen, associate professor and senior fellow of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University; and Russell Callender, director of Washington Sea Grant.
“Many incredible organizations across Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington are joining with the UW Climate Impacts Group to work toward a future where all people and communities can thrive,” Snover said. “It is my hope that the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative will push the climate adaptation field toward equity and justice. I am proud that the Climate Impacts Group is helping to steward this shift, guided by the leadership of frontline communities, and I am honored by the trust and collaboration from these community partners.”
In addition to working with specific rural and coastal tribal communities, the collaborative is designed to accelerate climate adaptation in the Northwest, across the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments national network, and in state and federal climate resilience programs and policies. This will be accomplished through a variety of initiatives that transfer successful community-based innovations to similar communities; that influence the state and federal entities shaping the laws, policies and investment strategies that will determine future community resilience; and that invest in community capacity to help communities reduce vulnerability to a changing climate while pursuing their own community values.
The Resilience Collaborative is “breaking the mold of traditional climate adaptation efforts,” Snover said, “which, while important and necessary, will not be sufficient for preparing for the impacts of climate change. As the climate continues to change, impacting our economies, ecosystems and communities in ways that are varied and inequitable, this work has never been more urgent.”
