Waxman-Markey adaptation plans: pay attention

If we completely stopped the carbon economy tonight at midnight, we would still be a century away from the crescendo of climate disruption already set in motion. Smartly, the recently passed Waxman-Markey bill (American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009) holds in it several provisions for adaptation planning and implementation to provide needed resilience to ecosystem function, but these will be predicated on state and federal coordination.

Here lies the potential for breakdown: states aren’t ready, and the feds can’t innovate. Together, these factors paint a bleak picture for what could be a great opportunity to make a difference as an applied matter.  

Less than 20 states have even started to develop their climate adaptation gameplans, and few of those would be robust enough to meet the bar laid out in the bill.  Data gaps, outmoded methods of management, and insufficient integration across agency silos at state and federal levels stand as barriers to action on the ground. 

Girding up our freshwater ecosystems with the resilience they need to face the coming climate challenges will not happen through traditional methods of conservation. The vast, pre-existing federal-state funding cloud will likely swallow the implementation dollars without gaining much ground. The last 40 years stand as testament: despite billions of dollars spent on freshwater health and restoration annually, our nation’s water quality continues to decline. Our wild fish flicker at fractions of historic abundance. And we are running out of time. 

The administration has the opportunity—indeed the imperative—to direct its agencies to focus on outcomes rather than procedures to protect, maintain, and restore ecosystem function. The Natural Resources Climate Change Adaptation Panel, led by the chair of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality and populated with natural resource agency heads, is charged with coordinating the plan at the federal level. Pay attention, because while the headlines will follow the cap and trade design, the first measure of success or failure happens here.