Growing Returns

As farmers in the EU protest, climate change impacts are already making food production harder.

Co-authored by: Anushi Garg and Ravena Pernanand Anushi is the senior analyst for Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Resilient Coasts & Watersheds program in New York-New Jersey. Ravena is a research analyst at Regional Plan Association. Across the globe, we are experiencing detrimental impacts from climate change, with low-wealth communities and communities of color hit the […]

Co-authored by Pinion The use and production of fertilizer in agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and a major cause of pollution in the nation’s rivers and lakes. Agriculture is the largest global source of nitrogen pollution, and annual damages from nitrogen pollution are estimated to exceed $200 billion in the US. […]

Social networks play a pivotal role in shaping human behavior. To accelerate climate-smart practices, farmers’ social networks are crucial.

By: Rachel Rhode, Manager, Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds and Eve Cooke, Fellow, Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds Buying a home is often one of the biggest financial decisions individuals and families will ever make. More than one-third of Florida properties are at risk of severe flooding in the next 30 years, and despite these […]

  A new survey of agricultural lenders in the upper Midwest reveals important insights about their perceptions and support for farmers’ conservation efforts. As the first of its kind, the survey can inform agricultural lending institutions’ climate and sustainability strategy development. Farmers rely on agricultural lending institutions for loans to cover equipment, land and operating […]

Following the Sackett v. EPA Supreme Court decision in May 2023, millions of acres of wetlands across the U.S. lost critical federal protections they once had under the Clean Water Act

North Carolina's Flood Resiliency Blueprint is a big step forward, resulting in a massive statewide effort dedicated to building resilient communities equipped to reduce and manage flood risk and vulnerabilities. 

During the summer of 2023, Kansas endured a historic heat wave with temperatures soaring above 110°F in some areas. As climate change continues to intensify, the frequency and severity of extreme heat are projected to increase. Are Kansas farmers at risk of losing money in the face of these extreme growing conditions? A new study […]

RISDoC participants are building a more resilient future in Cuba. Check out a few of their key priorities in this blog post.

As discussions at COP28 wrestle with climate impacts on global food and water security, we hear from a Hopi farmer on his thriving practice of dry farming and his hopes for shared learning in Dubai. ______ The arid climate of the Hopi reservation in northeastern Arizona receives a mere 8.5 inches of annual rainfall. For […]

Water has finally reached the highest levels of global climate negotiations. The path to a sustainable freshwater future, however, lies with ground-level users. At COP 28, EDF is elevating their voices, their needs and the approaches they find most useful. _______ While greenhouse gases drive climate change, many of its impacts are inherently liquid. Whether […]

In early December, the EDF climate-smart agriculture team will join hundreds of farmers, food and agriculture companies, university experts and other conservation organizations at the 2023 Sustainable Agriculture Summit, “Scaling Collective Impact: Collaborating to Accelerate Agricultural Sustainability.” This conference is one of the largest annual gatherings of people working to improve sustainability in U.S. agriculture, […]

Vulnerable communities facing increased risk from flooding, hurricanes, wildfires, and other extreme weather could soon receive a big lifeline thanks to the introduction of the National Coordination on Adaptation and Resilience for Security (NCARS) Act. If passed, this bipartisan legislation would create a unified national strategy for disaster planning. This proactive approach would consolidate government […]

Increasingly intense and more frequent severe weather events are impacting our marshlands, wetlands, and sounds, which in turn directly - and adversely - affects our coastal communities and our hunting, fishing and outdoor recreational history and traditions.

Earlier this year, city officials and community members celebrated the completion of a $112 million watershed resilience project. It shows that transformational climate action is possible when community members have a seat at the decision-making table. 

This blog is co-authored by Yiwei Gan. One of the largest rivers in the world struggles to reach the ocean. Spread across a huge slice of a continent, its basin supports millions. Yet the weight of its work to irrigate and power booming farms and cities in an increasingly arid zone is straining the river […]

Environmental Defense Fund andCornell University partnered this past year to better understand the programs that support proactive retrofitting or relocating to accommodate flood risk for a range of housing types in New York City. We are sharing our preliminary takeaways about opportunities to close the resilient housing gap. 

In Presidio County, running water is a luxury that some residents do not enjoy. Families in Las Pampas, a Colonia near the Mexican border, must truck water from the City of Presidio to their homes north of town, spending money and time to secure what many Texans take for granted – running water and the […]

The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction was established by the United Nations General Assembly to accelerate action to strengthen disaster resilience. In the United States, this day comes on the heels of a major blow to our Nation’s wetlands. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to narrow the scope of protections for wetlands, as defined in the Clean Water Act. As result, this landmark decision could cause detrimental impacts to the environment, communities and economy.