Federal Policy Recommendations for Coastal Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in the United States

The document provides a set of policy recommendations aimed at the 117th Congress to improve coastal resilience in the United States. It emphasizes the integration of climate justice, the use of nature-based solutions, and the necessity of basing federal decision-making on future climate projections rather than historical data. The recommendations are supported by regional models, such as Louisiana's LA SAFE initiative and living shoreline projects in North Carolina, highlighting the need for community-centered planning and updated benefit-cost analysis tools.

• Federal policies and programs must integrate climate justice and equity, ensuring that community-centered design allows frontline communities, low-income communities, and Black, Indigenous, and people of color to shape adaptation policy.
• Federal agencies should prioritize nature-based solutions as infrastructure and update benefit-cost analysis tools that currently disadvantage these solutions and reinforce structural inequalities.
• Federal decision-making and building strategies must shift to be based on the climate of the future rather than the climate of the past.
• The federal government should provide technical support to small, rural, and resource-scarce communities to utilize data, and increase funding for co-produced knowledge with Native American communities while respecting their sovereignty over that knowledge.
• Federal support for resilience should include diverse funding mechanisms such as green banks, revolving loan funds, and bond measures, with a design that gives communities ultimate control over grant funding.

APA

Environmental and Energy Study Institute (n.d.). Federal Policy Recommendations for Coastal Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in the United States. https://www.eesi.org/files/Poster-Federal-Policy-Recommendations-for-Coastal-Climate-Change-Adaptation-and-Resilience.pdf

Chicago

Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Federal Policy Recommendations for Coastal Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in the United States. n.d. https://www.eesi.org/files/Poster-Federal-Policy-Recommendations-for-Coastal-Climate-Change-Adaptation-and-Resilience.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |title=Federal Policy Recommendations for Coastal Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in the United States |url=https://www.eesi.org/files/Poster-Federal-Policy-Recommendations-for-Coastal-Climate-Change-Adaptation-and-Resilience.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{environmentalandenergystudyinstitutendfederal, author = {{Environmental and Energy Study Institute}}, title = {{Federal Policy Recommendations for Coastal Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in the United States}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, url = {https://www.eesi.org/files/Poster-Federal-Policy-Recommendations-for-Coastal-Climate-Change-Adaptation-and-Resilience.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }