A RESILIENT FUTURE FOR COASTAL COMMUNITIES

The report outlines 30 federal policy recommendations to improve coastal resilience in the United States, emphasizing community-led planning, nature-based solutions, and equitable financing. It argues that federal policies must shift from relying on past climate data to anticipating future conditions, particularly for infrastructure and land use. Key priorities include integrating climate justice, supporting tribal sovereignty in adaptation planning, and reforming benefit-cost analysis tools to better value social and environmental outcomes. The document also advocates for the creation of a national 'green bank' and a federal climate heritage coordination office to manage the intersection of cultural preservation and climate change.

• Federal policies and infrastructure must be designed based on future climate projections rather than historical data to avoid catastrophic damage.
• Current federal benefit-cost analysis (BCA) tools are flawed because they favor rapid return on investment, disadvantage nature-based solutions, and reinforce structural inequalities by favoring high-value properties over low-income communities.
• There is a critical need for the federal government to prioritize and fund nature-based solutions (such as wetlands, dunes, and coral reefs) as equal or preferential alternatives to traditional 'gray' infrastructure.
• Climate adaptation planning must be community-driven, specifically empowering Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and low-income communities to lead decision-making and project implementation.
• Tribal and Indigenous knowledge should be co-produced with Western science in climate adaptation efforts, while respecting tribal sovereignty over their knowledge systems.
• The U.S. faces significant data gaps in coastal elevation and bathymetry, particularly in Alaska, which hinders the ability to project community-level flood risks.
• Cultural heritage is currently underfunded and poorly coordinated within federal agencies; the report recommends establishing a dedicated federal coordination office for climate heritage.
• The federal government lacks a national framework to manage the inevitable movement of people and the relocation of communities due to coastal hazards.
• To scale up adaptation projects, the report proposes the creation of a national 'green bank' and the use of revolving loan funds to provide accessible capital to underserved communities.
• Disaster recovery funding is often delayed by agency bureaucracy and outdated BCA tools; the report calls for more funding to be shifted toward pre-disaster mitigation.

APA

Environmental and Energy Study Institute (2020). A RESILIENT FUTURE FOR COASTAL COMMUNITIES. https://www.eesi.org/files/EESI-Coastal-Resilience-Report.pdf

Chicago

Environmental and Energy Study Institute. A RESILIENT FUTURE FOR COASTAL COMMUNITIES. 2020. https://www.eesi.org/files/EESI-Coastal-Resilience-Report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |title=A RESILIENT FUTURE FOR COASTAL COMMUNITIES |date=October 2020 |url=https://www.eesi.org/files/EESI-Coastal-Resilience-Report.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{environmentalandenergystudyinstitute2020resilient, author = {{Environmental and Energy Study Institute}}, title = {{A RESILIENT FUTURE FOR COASTAL COMMUNITIES}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2020}, month = oct, url = {https://www.eesi.org/files/EESI-Coastal-Resilience-Report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }