Key elements of America's infrastructure— such as transportation; energy generation and transmission; water, sewer, and telecommunications; and coastal defense—may be compromised by the extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and other effects of global climate change. These threats are assessed in a new RFF Report, "Adapting to Climate Change: The Public Policy Response—Public Infrastructure."
Authors James E. Neumann and Jason C. Price, of Industrial Economics, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., examine climate-sensitive areas that could be imperiled by flooding of lowlands, roads, and railway; loss of permafrost; clean water availability; damage to power lines and refineries; and overloading of sewer systems.
The authors offer three key suggestions for improving infrastructure adaptation policy—a better integration of planning, a stronger push for new technologies, and turning the aftermath of extreme weather events into opportunities to upgrade infrastructure:
More frequent and destructive extreme events, such as recent hurricanes and riparian floods, have already proven to be a huge challenge to maintaining public infrastructure. At the same time, many studies note that adaptation to climate stresses is more cost‐effectively accomplished during the design phase of projects, rather than as a retrofit to existing capital. Although extreme events are devastating to affected regions, the rebuilding process can be used as an opportunity to replace damaged infrastructure with more resilient capital.
“Adapting to Climate Change: The Public Policy Response—Public Infrastructure,” is an installment from a six-part series of U.S. climate change adaptation policy reports.
