Climate Change

The best available scientific evidence indicates global climate change is currently altering our coastal, aquatic, and forest ecosystems. This environmental change is spilling over into the human domain as more intense storms stress our municipal stormwater infrastructure, prolonged heat events limit crop production, and insurance companies reassess rates on coastal property. The surest way to meet this global challenge is to control what we can by taking local action.  

The Environmental Finance Center at the University of Maryland helps municipalities, institutions of higher education, and other Mid-Atlantic organizations plan for the challenges of climate change head-on through mitigation and adaptation assistance.

Mitigation            

Local, day-to-day activities such as commuting and home electricity consumption are important contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. There are multiple opportunities for mitigating the emissions we create, many of which can actually result in a cost savings such as energy efficiency investments. EFC assists in the development of greenhouse gas inventories and mitigation strategy cost analysis.  

Adaptation

Whether a small town on the Chesapeake Bay or a county dependent on an agriculture-based economy, it is critical to understand how climate change impacts your community. Local decisions related to land use planning, economic development, and emergency management will benefit from climate change knowledge. EFC assists communities in assessing their vulnerabilities to short and long-term climate change, developing potential adaptation measures, and evaluating adaptation (and inaction) costs.

EFC is currently helping the Universities at Shady Grove and Towson University with greenhouse gas inventories as well as actively researching municipal responses to sea level rise on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

For more information, contact Sean Williamson at srw46@umd.edu.