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Full-Text Articles in Law
Changing The National Flood Insurance Program For A Changing Climate, Dena Adler, Michael Burger, Rob Moore, Joel Scata
Changing The National Flood Insurance Program For A Changing Climate, Dena Adler, Michael Burger, Rob Moore, Joel Scata
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Congress established the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1968 to reduce flood damages nationwide and ease the federal government’s financial burden for providing disaster recovery.1 To achieve this goal, the program was designed to perform three primary functions. First, the program provides federally backed insurance to property owners and renters. Second, the program established minimum requirements for building, land use, and floodplain management practices that local communities must adopt in order for their residents to be eligible to purchase NFIP insurance coverage. Third, the program is responsible for mapping high floodrisk areas. These maps inform local land use decisions …
Integrating Climate Change Resilience Into Hud’S Disaster Recovery Program, Justin Gundlach, Channing R. Jones
Integrating Climate Change Resilience Into Hud’S Disaster Recovery Program, Justin Gundlach, Channing R. Jones
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s community development block grant disaster recovery program (CDBG-DR) can better and more clearly incorporate climate resilience and adaptation priorities. This article identifies and analyzes the statutes that have guided HUD's approach to disaster recovery to date, as well as forms of “soft guidance” issued by HUD for use by various stakeholders, including both HUD CDBG-DR program officers and the state and local officials that interact with them. Comparing these materials reveals a tension between the requirement that all projects funded by CDBG-DR “tie back” to the most recent disaster, and the logic …
Sea-Level Rise And Changing Times For Florida Local Governments, David Markell
Sea-Level Rise And Changing Times For Florida Local Governments, David Markell
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
The legal environment for local government in Florida is beginning to change when it comes to sea-level rise (sometimes referred to as SLR). Innovations in institutional structure and governance strategies are underway in the State as well. This paper reviews three recent developments, which relate primarily to comprehensive planning in the State, and explores their implications for Florida’s local governments, among others. It begins with the State’s decision, in 2011 legislation, to give local governments a new, optional tool – referred to as “Adaptation Action Areas” (AAAs) – to address sea-level rise and related issues in local comprehensive plans. The …
Designing A Climate Change Displacement Coordination Facility: Key Issues For Cop 21, Jessica A. Wentz, Michael Burger
Designing A Climate Change Displacement Coordination Facility: Key Issues For Cop 21, Jessica A. Wentz, Michael Burger
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
There have been several proposals to include a “climate change displacement coordination facility” in the upcoming UNFCCC agreement, but there has been very little public discussion about what this facility would entail and how it would operate. This briefing note highlights some of the functions that the displacement coordination facility could fulfill, as well as some key questions for negotiators in the lead-up to COP 21 and subsequent talks. The note is not intended to be a proposal for how the facility should operate, nor do the functions highlighted below necessarily reflect what is politically or economically feasible. Rather, the …
Climate Change And Forced Displacement, Jessica A. Wentz
Climate Change And Forced Displacement, Jessica A. Wentz
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
This note, written at the request of former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed, calls on policy-makers to initiate a more concerted dialogue on how to prepare for and respond to displacement and migration caused by climate change.
Managed Coastal Retreat: A Legal Handbook On Shifting Development Away From Vulnerable Areas, Anne Siders
Managed Coastal Retreat: A Legal Handbook On Shifting Development Away From Vulnerable Areas, Anne Siders
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Numerous legal tools already exist to assist federal, state, and local governments in conducting managed retreat away from the most vulnerable coasts. Scattered publications, toolkits, and websites describe a broad range of legal, policy, and regulatory tools. These tools have, with little fanfare, been used by communities around the United States to implement managed retreat. This Handbook collects examples, case studies, and lessons learned from some of these early innovators in the hope that their lessons can inform future efforts to limit the exposure of our communities to coastal threats. The key legal issues raised by these examples are also …
Assisted Migration: A Viable Conservation Strategy To Preserve The Biodiversity Of Threatened Island Nations?, Jessica A. Wentz
Assisted Migration: A Viable Conservation Strategy To Preserve The Biodiversity Of Threatened Island Nations?, Jessica A. Wentz
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Anthropogenic climate change poses a substantial threat to biodiversity. The IPCC estimates that 20-30% of species will face an increased risk of extinction if the average global temperature rises more than 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius. Additional scientific studies indicate that 15-37% of species may become extinct by 2050 due to global warming, based on current emissions trajectories. Domestic and international strategies to manage this threat have traditionally focused on conservation and mitigation. In the last few years, however, policy makers have recognized that near-term climate impacts are inevitable and thus adaptation strategies are required to protect both humans and …