Climate Change Adaptation with Columbia Climate School’s Dr. Lisa Dale

Path to Zero
Path to Zero
5.01 - Climate Change Adaptation with Columbia Climate School’s Dr. Lisa Dale
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Tucker kicks off a series of special episodes recorded from the Reuters Global Energy Transition Summit in New York by welcoming Dr. Lisa Dale, an expert on climate change adaptation from the Columbia University Climate School.

Dr. Dale spent some time talking about how climate change has fueled more frequent and extreme wildfire since that was top of mind in New York City at the time of the recording on June 8, 2023. Smoke from wildfires in Canada was pouring into the city and pushing air pollution to record levels.

Wildfires in the American West is one of the areas of research for Dr. Dale. She’s an expert in Sustainable Development at the Columbia Climate School, the nation’s first climate school to serve as a hub of climate-related academic work.

Tucker and Dr. Dale spent a great deal of time talking about her book, Climate Change Adaptation, where Dr. Dale describes key strategies that governments, communities, and the private sector are now deploying to adapt to climate change.

Among the other topics discussed in this episode:

  • How we’re starting to see the movement of population centers away from climate hazards like wildfires and rising sea levels.
  • The complexities surrounding the policy of Managed Retreat, government-driven external force managing a community retreating out of harm’s way.
  • Why climate change adaptation has traditionally taken a back seat to mitigation but now becoming a higher priority.
  • Adaptive Capacity in areas that face climate hazards, which is adapting to be less vulnerable.
  • Two examples of governments successfully supporting climate change adaptation: Rising sea levels in The Netherlands and identifying high risk zones in Rwanda.
  • How demonizing fossil fuel companies is unproductive and the need to work with industry to tackle a problem that impacts all of us.

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