This guidebook from ICLEI USA and Duke University’s Nicholas Institute offers a practical framework to help local governments systematically remove barriers to finance and structure their resilience projects in ways that can attract private investment.

Communities across the country are losing ground to floods, fires, heat, and storms. Insufficient resilience investment is often framed as a simple shortage of money; however, there is existing capital across federal agencies, state programs, pension funds, philanthropy, community lenders, and private infrastructure investors. Better coordination is needed, not just access to funding. On April 20, 2026, Duke University and the Milken Institute brought together more than 40 senior practitioners—from green banks, infrastructure investment, commercial finance, think tanks, academia, housing and community development finance, local and state government, climate adaptation and resilience organizations, and international development—to examine what financial infrastructure is needed so that capital consistently reaches the communities and projects that need it.

Explore key findings, action opportunities, examples, and a readiness guide informed by an April 21, 2026, workshop at Duke in DC during DC Climate Week, hosted by Duke University in partnership with Tailwind Futures.

Almost a year after Hurricane Helene poured over western North Carolina, the region is rebuilding—and communities and businesses across the state are reckoning with the increased likelihood of extreme weather events. In June, Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability teamed up with the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality to bring together stakeholders from across the state to develop ideas for rebuilding stronger and safer.

Federal policy and programs can play a critical role in helping communities—especially those with limited resources—ensure both security and economic vitality in the face of increasing threats from natural hazards. This summary builds on legislative history in the hopes that past priorities can provide some indication of who may be Congressional leaders and where opportunities lie for legislative action to help promote resilience against potential risks.

This report empirically examines the determinants of private participation in flood mitigation programs that use a payment for ecosystem services (PES) framework and suggests improved PES program designs and enhancements to their flood mitigation effectiveness. It offers evidence suggesting income from farming and potential participants' past experiences with PES programs may increase participation in programs aiming to mitigate flooding and that in turn could reduce economic damages from flooding impacts.

Federal policy and programs can play a critical role in helping communities—especially those with limited resources—ensure both security and economic vitality in the face of increasing threats from natural hazards. But to get there, the federal government needs a more coordinated approach to empower state and local governments, as well as local institutions and private-sector partners that are working hand in hand with homeowners, businesses, and local and Tribal governments. In this brief, the authors recommend four critical proactive actions the federal government could take to effectively and cost-efficiently prepare the nation for these extreme events and reduce their catastrophic impacts.

The goal of this research is to understand the implications of using nature-based solutions, or natural infrastructure (NI), to mitigate the impacts of flooding. The two solutions I evaluate to supply NI are a program that financially incentivizes its supply by private landowners, and a government-run floodplain property acquisition program. This dissertation consists of three papers examining payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs in terms of enrollment, incentives, and outcomes. 

With climate change driving more frequent and intense heat events, North Carolina's Heat Action Plan Toolkit aims to help communities adapt and build resilience to extreme heat. Primarily targeted for use by local governments, including health and emergency management departments, the toolkit focuses on approaches to reduce the human health impacts of increasing temperatures and heat waves.

The 2023 Durham Community Health Assessment was produced as part of the accreditation process for the Durham County Department of Public Health and Affordable Care Act requirements for Duke Health. Nicholas Institute experts Ashley Ward and Jordan Clark contributed to a section on extreme heat, highlighting the disparate impact of extreme heat on Durham residents and current and future resources to mitigate the worst impacts of extreme heat exposure.