Events

US federal agencies use cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to make decisions about the types of infrastructure projects to implement. In the third session of the Nature-Based Solutions: Current Issues webinar series, experts working with the federal government discuss how these policies might be updated to enable more nature-based solutions projects.

One of the major hurdles keeping NbS projects from scaling up is finding ways to pay for them. This session, the second of the Nature-based Solutions: Current Issues webinar series, highlights insights about various mechanisms that can be used to pay for NbS, including state and federal policies and programs, as well as finance tools.

Session one of the Nature-based Solutions: Current Issues webinar series focuses on assessing the costs and benefits of NbS. How can we account for all the benefits NbS provide? How do they compare to more traditional (gray infrastructure) solutions? What is the return on investment for NbS?

As extreme weather takes an increasing toll across the country, congressional interest in making communities more resilient is on the rise. Resilience funding was a prominent area of bipartisan climate cooperation in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. And bipartisan congressional proposals to improve U.S. climate resilience are being put forward in the House and Senate. 

The infrastructure we build today will be with us for many decades to come, so it needs to be “future proofed” to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Bipartisan infrastructure legislation (such as the recently passed IIJA) authorizes a generational investment in new and upgraded transportation facilities – roads, bridges, rail, ports, airports, and public transit. Many new transportation projects will be in coastal areas, home to almost forty percent of Americans. There is growing evidence that more severe storms and rising sea level pose a risk to transportation infrastructure in coastal areas.

This webinar will examine the steps that governments are and could be taking to make sure that new transportation investments are resilient to risks posed by coastal storm flooding and rising sea levels.

How should the U.S. move forward with a climate resilience strategy that places racial, economic, and environmental justice at its core? At this virtual event, Biden-Harris administration officials will exchange ideas with leaders from the resilience, environmental justice, and climate policy communities.