Happy New Year! The Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative is gearing up for a busy and exciting year. We are delighted to share that we have been awarded a Caltrans Adaptation Planning Grant of $487,775 to help address and reduce the urban heat island effect for the Capital Region. Our project will model the regional heat island effect and develop recommendations and strategies to reduce heat exposure for communities and transportation infrastructure, with a focus on the needs of disadvantaged communities. Extreme heat will threaten public health and air quality for the Capital Region, as well as damage infrastructure and increase energy demand. By helping to deploy strategies such as cool roofs, cool pavements, and green infrastructure, our project will help improve the Capital Region's resilience to extreme heat, protect transportation infrastructure, and improve safety, quality of life, and comfort for communities.

Photo: Gene Blevins / Reuters

Despite devastating storms like Katrina and Maria, wildfires, and tornadoes, the government does not have a full accounting of the budget effect of extreme weather-nor a sense of how more-frequent and more-intense storms might tax public coffers in the years to come. Aside from losses and the direct costs of disaster relief and recovery, there is also the cost of cuts to other agencies to free up money for disasters, and the burden of increased spending on social insurance and safety-net programs. Lost tax revenue from closed businesses and increased unemployment will impact local and state budgets. More broadly, catastrophic weather events change individuals' and businesses' economic decision-making, with people shifting their behavior away from long-term investments (college) toward short-term needs-with a profound longer-term effect on the economy that is not always apparent in a jobs report or a GDP number. (  The Atlantic)

	Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

One of the largest credit rating agencies in the US is warning cities and states to prepare for the effects of climate change or risk being downgraded. In a new report, Moody's Investor Services explains how it assesses the credit risks to a city or state from short-term "climate shocks" like a wildfire, hurricane or drought, or a longer-term "incremental climate trend" like rising sea levels or increased temperatures. Community preparedness for climate risks and their adaptation actions will also be taken into account. ( NPR)

Photo: Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times

The question of rebuilding is emotionally and politically fraught. Rebuilt homes could soon be at risk again from a fire cycle that experts say is shortening from decades to only years. But as thousands of property owners deal with the loss of homes and possessions, their ordeal also highlights the moral impediment to asking them to surrender their land. Cal Fire plans to revise its fire-risk maps next year and will likely include even more neighborhoods based on updated fire risk understanding. But the areas designated as very high hazard are so extensive - encompassing half a million households in Southern California alone - that they have little value for zoning decisions or pinpointing particular houses or neighborhoods for more aggressive prevention, such as mandatory retrofits. Some proposed recommendations include preventative purchases of land or development rights, discouraging development in fire-prone areas - only 16% of the wildland-urban interface has been developed in the West - and having local agencies shoulder more of the costs of fire suppression, losses, and recovery. ( LA Times)

	Photo: Shutterstock/MDay Photography

Residential real estate markets are increasingly vulnerable to climate change. People are beginning to recognize this new reality - and markets are starting to reflect the change. This shift present opportunities and risks for developers, lenders and investors that do business in this market. Understanding these dynamics will help them better navigate the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities. Here are three ways they can do so: help municipalities adapt; build with resilient designs; and move to higher ground. ( GreenBiz)

Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty

Basic theory suggests that climate change will lead to more extreme weather, but making the link to individual events is difficult. But the science has advanced over, and now, for the first time, climate researchers are reporting that some weather events would have been outright impossible without the warming influence of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Specifically, the record heat of 2016 would have been impossible without elevated GHG emissions. These results suggest that the climate is entering uncharted territory, and that would mean that weather will increasingly fall outside the historical norm. ( Link)

Join Office of Planning and Research and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to hear about a new resource for local governments, the CAP-Map, which aggregates climate policies from local jurisdictions across California. This webinar will provide a demo of the tool's features, relationship to other State efforts such as the general plan guidelines, and will serve as a forum for feedback. We hope you will join us to learn more about this exciting new resource, and to help CARB ensure that it accurately captures your city or county's climate efforts. ( Link)

As cities seek to accelerate their transition to clean energy-not only to help reverse climate disruption, but also to make their local economies more vibrant and their communities more equitable and resilient-financing remains a large barrier. That's why a growing number of countries, cities, and communities are turning to green banks for innovative financing to support their clean energy transition. This webinar, hosted by the Institute for Sustainable Communities in partnership with the Coalition for Green Capital, will share how green banks work and feature success stories from the nation's leaders on green banks. ( Register)

Current US forest fire policy emphasizes short-term outcomes versus long-term goals. This perspective drives managers to focus on the protection of high-valued resources, such as ecosystem-based or developed infrastructure, at the expense of forest resilience and adaptation. One of the most difficult obstacles to revising forest fire policy is that agency organizations and decision-making processes are not structured in ways to ensure that fire management is thoroughly considered in management decisions. If increases in forest restoration fail to accompany the change in how large wildfires are funded, then US fire suppression costs will remain high while resilience will continue to decline. New federal partnerships with States and local governments are needed to address this problem. ( Link)

There is still time to register for the 17th annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in San Francisco. Eight thematic tracks include "One Water" for Resilient Communities, Adapting to a Changing Climate, and Building Capacity in Small Towns and Rural Communities, while the themes of smart growth and equity are woven throughout the program. ( NPSG)