NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnerships – Capturing Local Knowledge In the Southeastern United States

In 2021 and 2022, the Southeast Climate and Energy Network (SCEN) Environmental Finance Center West (EFC West), Urban Climate Nexus, Hometown Action, and Exposure Labs applied to the NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnerships Program (formerly RISA) and were accepted to travel to engage in dialogue with some of the communities most impacted by climate change in the U.S. South. In the summer of 2022, all of the partners gathered to travel to 3 rural towns in the Southeastern US and conduct workshops and listening sessions with the communities therein. The goal was to elicit feedback from folks about the pressures that the climate crisis is putting on their communities and provide a space for them to advocate for the solutions they know they need. The team took the information gathered from those workshops and are now consolidating our findings into a white paper that will be shared, alongside this video, with NOAA. The overall goal of this project is to serve as a connection point between climate justice communities and government-level decision makers, providing a platform for grassroots organizers and everyday citizens to share their needs around adapting to and fighting against climate change.

Since the workshops, the team has been working on distilling all of the information we gathered on the ground into a whitepaper to be presented to NOAA along with this video. We’re so honored to have been a part of this project and hope this video can serve as an organizing tool and a testament to the power of community and collaboration.

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