UB experts, grad students contribute to NYS climate change report

New York State officials earlier this month released a report that details how climate change will affect the state — everything from agriculture and buildings to ecosystems and the economy — and how residents, businesses and governments can prepare for these changes.

The “New York State Climate Impacts Assessment: Understanding and Preparing for Our Changing Climate” report — supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) — provides a credible, science-based analysis of what to expect from climate change in the state. And it includes numerous contributions from UB experts and graduate students.

The release of the technical chapters of the assessment announced in February brought together more than 250 New York-based, national and Indigenous climate science experts and representatives from diverse communities and industries across the state.

The multi-year scientific study, which advances New York State’s initiatives to enhance statewide resiliency and preparedness for the impacts of climate change, has eight technical chapters covering how various economic sectors can address rising temperatures and increasingly frequent extreme weather events.

“From extreme examples like Superstorm Sandy, to more mundane issues such as dairy cows overheating, the climate is changing before our eyes. It is something that will touch all of our lives in one way or another and we must adapt in order to overcome new extremes,” says Bethany Greenaway, who contributed to the assessment as a graduate student in the Resilient Buildings Lab in the School of Architecture and Planning.

“The Impacts Assessment can be used to communicate these issues not only to official decision makers, but to the general public, all of whom must be equipped with the knowledge of how the built environment is responding to, and will respond to, climate change,” she says.

Nicholas Rajkovich, associate professor of architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, and director of the Resilient Buildings Lab, served as co-chair of the chapter on buildings, which in addition to examining the impacts of climate change on buildings across the state, highlights building types and populations of people that are at particular risk, while presenting adaptation strategies designed to protect the state’s existing and future building stock.

“The Resilient Buildings Lab was proud to partner with New York State on the Climate Impacts Assessment,” Rajkovich says. “The state is taking an innovative approach to helping people better understand the many ways in which a changing climate will impact them in the decades to come. More importantly, the assessment provides guidance on how residents, business owners and government officials can prepare for climate change now.”

The buildings chapter includes significant contributions from two graduate students from the Resilient Buildings Lab: Greenaway, who just graduated from UB with both her master of architecture and master of urban planning degrees (and received her bachelor’s in architecture from UB), and Meghan Holtan, a PhD student in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.

Greenaway and Holtan contributed the case studies in the chapter and did a significant portion of writing and editing of the document, which took more than two and a half years to research, write and edit.

“My background is in consulting, where I worked for 10 years as a data analyst, writer and project manager on planning projects,” says Holtan. “Through the New York State Climate Impacts Assessment, I enjoyed learning about the role of the public university and how interdisciplinary and cross-institutional teams work together to integrate the best available science into planning at the state level.”

Greenaway adds that it’s important for people to understand that climate change is real, and that they have the power to enact change. “There are actions we can take to reduce these impacts at the individual and community levels, especially in the cases when those with power over resources and policies fail to respond to the pressures of climate change,” she says.

Amanda Stevens, NYSERDA senior project manager said, working with UB experts and graduate students on the climate assessment report “provided the report with essential information to help New Yorkers understand the facts on climate change. Industries and economic sectors across the state can use the data here to take action to improve resiliency to climate change.”

Jason Corwin, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, is a co-author on the ecosystems chapter, which emphasizes how climate change is increasing the vulnerability of ecosystems to existing stressors, such as habitat fragmentation and invasive species, and highlights opportunities for New Yorkers to adapt and build resilience. Corwin’s work focused on Indigenous lands and environmental justice aspects of the topic.

Corwin also assisted with overall Indigenous-related content throughout the climate assessment report.

“Indigenous peoples and territories around the world, which hold 80% of global biodiversity, are at the frontlines of environmental issues including climate change. Indigenous knowledges and perspectives have a lot to say about sustainable relationships with the natural world, yet historically have often been marginalized or disregarded,” says Corwin.

“Scholars and environmental professionals from the Seneca, Mohawk and Shinnecock Nations collaborated on this report to ensure Indigenous issues and worldviews are taken into account as New Yorkers work to address climate change.”

In addition, Tonga Pham, associate vice president for university facilities, served on the buildings sector’s advisory group.

The UB faculty members’ and students’ work on the New York State climate assessment project is a reflection of the university’s commitment toward understanding climate change as well. When she visited UB in fall 2022, Vice President Kamala Harris called UB’s sustainability research a “model” for the rest of the country.

And UB has shown it is equally as serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions as New York State is, as evidenced by the university’s climate action plan, which demonstrates UB’s commitment not only to understanding the impacts of climate change, but also how students, faculty and staff can take direct action.