Environmental Reviews and Case Studies: Reasonably Foreseeable Futures: Climate Change Adaptation and the National Environmental Policy Act

Abstract

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) clearly has a role to play in how projects with a federal nexus prepare for climate change. To help agencies improve their consideration of climate change, the Council on Environmental Quality in February 2010 released the NEPA draft guidance, which addresses both emissions and the effects of climate change on agency actions and the affected environment. We analyzed every available final environmental impact statement (154 total) released in July 2011–April 2012, and found that very few incorporated the climate adaptation elements of the 2010 draft guidance. Even the environmental impact statements with the most attention to climate change adaptation considered the effect of climate change with respect to only a limited number of the elements of the affected environment, failed to fully compare the various alternatives, or used short, qualitative statements rather than full analysis based on the best available science. We explore the possible reasons for this and present recommendations for overcoming these obstacles.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the support of Defenders of Wildlife and the Duke Foundation. We thank Dinah Bear for feedback and input on this report and Isabel Ricker for editorial assistance.