Developing Collaborative Environmental Policy Solutions in a Warming World

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The landscape of environmental policy is changing. Our warming climate is forcing practitioners to constantly adapt to new circumstances and face novel challenges. Environmental management strategies that worked in the past are unlikely to work in the future. Resilient policy solutions are required if we are to overcome the consequences of climate change, such as extreme heat, rising seas, and habitat degradation. To this end, collaboration is essential – there is perhaps no larger number of stakeholders than those of the natural environment. Thus, a diversity of stakeholders is the rule, not the exception. The impacts of climate change cut across communities, political jurisdictions, and national borders.

This Panel sheds light on three areas of environmental policy that have been impacted by climate change: extreme heat events, estuarine resources, and the management of fisheries. Through a variety of methodological techniques, the authors uncover and discuss the distinct policy challenges posed by a warming world. Their research demonstrates the inflexibility of previous policies and governance structures, which have become antiquated in the face of climate change. Likewise, they reveal the complex nature of transboundary governance that is inherent to environmental policy.

The first paper by Ahn asks: how well have different local governments in Arizona and New Mexico been preparing and managing for extreme heat events? Ahn surveys county-level public managers to understand the perceived heat impact, preparedness, governance arrangements, and the perceived effectiveness of heat mitigation and management. To define underlying mechanisms and factors driving heat-resilient outcomes, Ahn then conducts in-depth interviews with public managers. The analysis identifies challenges and opportunities of resilient heat governance in the U.S. Southwest, sparking a debate on how to balance heat mitigation and adaptation across urban and rural contexts within current governance landscape.

In the second paper, Nepf et al explore the extent to which economically and culturally important U.S. estuaries present specific cases of vulnerability (e.g., economic and health outcomes), warranting attention from policymakers as the climate warms. Spatial models are employed to characterize climate risk within 28 National Estuary Program (NEP) regions. The 10 NEPs identified as most at-risk to climate change were then contacted to initiate an interview protocol. Interviews investigate whether variation in stakeholder engagement is observed relative to climate risk. Through document analysis and interviews with NEP stakeholders, this paper explores how climate risk shapes the approaches to collaboration and the use of scientific knowledge in those collaborative processes.

Finally, the third paper evaluates the extent and pace of shifts in fish distributions to understand whether current fishery policies are resilient to climate change. Indivero uses fish catch data and environmental observations from 2003-2024 to run statistical spatial analyses that estimate historical sensitivities to oxygen and temperature for over twenty bottom-dwelling fish species in the northeastern Pacific Ocean (Bering Sea through California). These estimates are then used to identify risks and policy options for managing fisheries under a changing climate, including identifying sources of uncertainty, research priorities, and resilient management strategies.

Policy Area

• Natural Resource, Energy, and Environmental Policy

Secondary Policy Area

• Methods and Tools of Analysis

Chair

• Grant Blume, University of Washington

Discussants

• Yixin Liu, Baruch College (City University of New York)

• Fustel Mwamba Ngalula, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Organizer

• Mark Nepf, University of Washington

Individual Presentations

• How can county-level public managers address extreme heat? - Presenting Author: Minwoo Ahn, University of Arizona

• American Estuaries: An Assessment of Characteristics & Climate Change Risk - Presenting Author: Mark Nepf, University of Washington; Presenting Author: Yulan Kim, University of Washington; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Grant Blume, University of Washington

• Policy options for climate-resilient transboundary fisheries governance - Presenting Author: Julia Indivero, University of Washington

• An Alarming Long-Term Side-Effect of Promoting Green Industry: A Case of Taiwan's Solar Policy (2016-2024) - Presenting Author: Jou Fei Huang, Academia Sinica; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Thung-Hong Lin, Academia Sinica