Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

National CASC Chief Douglas Beard was a panelist in the November 8, 2021 virtual session “Communities on the Front Line & the Locals That Support Them” at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. The COP26 summit brought parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The session highlighted vulnerable communities around the U.S. that are impacted by climate change and featured a panel of community adaptation and resilience leaders sharing their work supporting these vulnerable communities. Beard discussed the CASCs' contributions to climate adaptation science and shared videos that highlighted projects from the Pacific Islands and Alaska CASCs.

The Pacific Islands CASC’s video demonstrated their use of knowledge co-production between a University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo researchers working in collaboration with a Hawaiʻi County Planner to generate an inventory of Hawaiʻi Island shorelines. This information may be used by agencies and decision makers in their efforts to improve community resilience to rapidly changing climate conditions.

In the Alaska CASC’s video, Jerilyn Kelly, Mayor of the City of Quinhagak, Alaska shares her perspective about the challenges her community is facing as permafrost thaw and coastal erosion threaten infrastructure in her city. Jerilyn and her community were part of the Alaska CASC’s Looking Forward, Looking Back: Building Resilience Today project whose goal was to provide Alaska Tribal communities who are experiencing climate change with the information, support, and climate science to plan and adapt for uncertain futures.

View the:

• COP26 presentation recording here.  
• PI CASC video recording here.
• PI CASC news announcement here.
• AK CASC video recording here.