Michelle E Miro

This report examines climate adaptation strategies for 25 National Critical Functions (NCFs) at risk of disruption from climate change. The focus is on impact pathways, each of which is a combination of climate drivers (such as drought and flooding) and impact mechanisms (such as physical damage and workforce shortages) affecting a given NCF. The emphasis is on strategies that owner-operators of critical functions might implement.

This report reviews strategies to mitigate the risk that climate changes poses to four National Critical Functions: Maintain Supply Chains, Provide Insurance Services, Prepare for and Manage Emergencies, and Provide Public Safety. Such strategies can reduce a function's vulnerability to or the consequences it would experience from direct or indirect effects of climate change.

Researchers assessed the risk that eight climate hazards--drought, extreme cold, extreme heat, flooding, sea-level rise, severe storm systems, tropical cyclones and hurricanes, and wildfire--will pose to National Critical Functions by 2050 and 2100 under current and higher emissions scenarios, as well as potential for cascading risk due to interdependencies between these functions.