In 2009, Washington’s state executive and legislative leadership instructed state agencies to determine specific steps the state should take to mitigate and prepare for the anticipated impacts of climate change. State agencies, working with four advisory groups composed of policy, management and scientific experts, developed the Washington State Integrated Climate Response Strategy. The Strategy identifies over 200 near- and long-term adaptation actions to help Washington become more resilient in the face of a changing climate.

Implementation of risk reduction actions from the Strategy have lagged, however. In 2018, the Climate Impacts Group and the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs released a summative report, “Are Washington State Agencies Preparing for Climate Change?” and found that only six percent of the actions being pursued qualified as risk reduction measures (as opposed to collaboration/coordination, policy/administrative, research/monitoring/tool development or education/training/awareness raising measures). In 2020, the Washington State Office of Financial Management was tasked with developing a prioritized list of actions and investments that mitigate the effects of climate change. They found that while progress has been made toward improving climate resilience indirectly, current climate resilience efforts do not necessarily target the biggest climate risks, nor are they sufficient to meet the size of the challenge.

Additional challenges the Office of Financial Management work group identified included:
- Lack of a comprehensive framework to evaluate key climate risks and needs and to address them strategically (i.e., an updated statewide plan or strategy)
- Insufficient funding for existing programs, projects or activities
- Absence of authorization or directive to address the need, including inconsistent consideration of climate risks in capital grant programs
- Inconsistent or competing prioritization and mandates for and by agencies
- Lack of required reporting and specific performance metrics for climate resilience
- Need to evaluate potentially conflicting or competing state goals, mandates, policies and laws to advance climate resilience

Given the shortcomings found among several assessments of Washington state’s climate resilience efforts, the Climate Impacts Group conducted a detailed analysis of one specific climate impact — the impact of extreme heat on public health in urban and suburban areas of Washington state — to illustrate a potential framework for an updated statewide plan or strategy. Using a problem-oriented approach, our research highlights:
1) The diversity of ways that extreme heat affects public health across different vulnerable populations.
2) A broad suite of specific actions and strategies that can make measurable progress in reducing heat related illness and death from extreme heat events.
3) A range of agencies, departments, non-governmental organizations and other policy actors across geographic and jurisdictional levels that have a role in making progress in responding to heat impacts on at-risk communities.

In addition to our fully developed analysis of extreme heat impacts on public health, we guided a team of four master’s students from the University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy and Governance to conduct problem-oriented analyses of four other distinct climate-related impacts, albeit in less detail.

Our research and findings were published in the journal Urban Climate. Five key takeaways from this paper are:
1) Problem-oriented analyses identify context-specific climate resilience strategies.
2) Economic disincentives, risk perception and misinformation complicate policy success.
3) Community-wide reduction in heat-related death requires a suite of policy measures.
4) Policy actors without formal public health mandates can improve climate resilience.
5) Coordinating a diverse array of policy strategies is a genuine governance challenge.

Photo credit: Nicola, via Flickr. CC-by-2.0

In the Hot Seat: Saving Lives from Extreme Heat in Washington State describes the problem of extreme heat and outlines specific, actionable guidance for short-term emergency response and long-term risk reduction.

Summary Report: Are Washington State Agencies Preparing for Climate Change? | To take stock of agencies’ efforts, the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group and School of Marine and Environmental Affairs reviewed publicly available online documents, administered an online survey, and convened focus group discussions involving over 60 agency staff.

Climate Risk Assessment | This project will support the Office of the Governor, Washington State agencies, and some local jurisdictions in addressing climate resilience by developing resources to fill critical information needs, including: open-access, locally-specific data on climate impacts across Washington state for use by local governments and communities; and a holistic description of the economic implications of climate change in Washington and the costs of climate change adaptation strategies.

Framing Climate Adaptation Opportunities: Four Case Studies on Increasing Resilience to Precipitation Extremes in Washington State | This report by the Student Consulting Lab at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy & Government tests the use of a problem orientation framework to identify policy problems and organize policy alternatives across four distinct climate impacts.

Prioritizing Actions and Investments for Climate Resiliency in Washington | This 2020 report from the Washington State Office of Financial Management reviewed existing state agency programs and activities related to climate resiliency to provide recommendations on how existing state policies and programs can better prepare Washington to respond to the impacts of climate change.

Preparing for a Changing Climate: Washington State’s Integrated Climate Response Strategy | This 2012 report from Washington State Department of Ecology lays out a framework to protect Washington’s communities, natural resources and economy from the impacts of climate change and build capacity to adapt to expected climate changes.

We would like to thank Jeremy Hess at the University of Washington and Vivek Shandas at Portland State University for their contribution to understanding factors contributing to increased vulnerability to extreme heat. Additional thanks to Pamela Braff at the City of Olympia in Washington, Rad Cunningham at the Washington State Department of Health, and the team at the Climate Impacts Group who provided supportive readings to early drafts and additional insight.