Every seat was filled when the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council hosted an all-day Climate Finance Workshop focused on resilience and mitigation for sea level rise. Government planners from throughout west-central Florida packed the Council’s Pinellas Park office for a variety of speakers on May 1st.
A top priority of the recently formed Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition is increasing local governments’ capacity to support mitigation and adaption efforts.
John Macomber, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, told the crowd that governments planning infrastructure need to start thinking like banks and insurance companies and make decisions based on probabilities and possibilities. How much should be invested in a new highway system that could be underwater in 50 years? How long until a crucial utility line needs to be relocated to higher ground?
Laura O’Connell of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government led a session on Methodologies for Financing Resilience. Chubb Insurance presented a program on Reducing Insurance Risks Along Vulnerable Coastlines. There was also a panel discussion on Financing Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Projects.
The Nature Conservancy partnered with the Planning Council to sponsor the day of important discussions.
