Delaware's Climate Change Programming

Abstract

Interviews were conducted with local officials in Delaware to understand how they acquire knowledge of climate impacts and whether that knowledge informs local development and administrative decisions. The analysis shows that climate education and training programs offered by the state (mostly the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control—DNREC) and its partners are able to communicate climate information, but first-hand observation and experience with climate impacts (flooding, heat) were frequently cited by interviewees. Despite this knowledge, and despite several instances of climate planning, climate-informed decision making and implementation is not occurring for a variety of reasons including deficits in local technical capacity, uncertainty around administrative and policy strategies for implementing climate-informed development, and a high demand for municipal resources that must manage the near term day-to-day activities and permitting processes. To advance climate-informed development and local administration, a program should be created that would pair state resources with willing communities. The program and the state-community partnership should establish a publicly-engaged process that seeks to transition the community from the climate planning phase into implementation (new ordinances, codes, policy, etc.).