The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, on behalf of the Climate Change Interagency Council, has submitted to Governor Roy Cooper the North Carolina Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan. Designed to address North Carolina’s vulnerability to climate change, the plan “is a framework to guide state action, engage policy-makers and stakeholders, and facilitate collaboration across the state and focus the state’s attention on climate resilience actions and address underlying stressors such as the changing climate, aging infrastructure, socio-economic disparities, and competing development priorities.”
This blueprint addresses projected climate change, climate justice impacts, state sectors that are vulnerable to climate and non-climate stressors, actions underway, and recommendations for nature-based solutions to enhance ecosystem resiliency and sequester carbon in the state’s natural and working lands.
The development of the plan involved engaging stakeholders and partners such as federal partners, state universities, local governments, community planners, nongovernmental organizations, and climate justice leaders, among others.