UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience is Creating Solutions and Partnerships that Benefit California and Beyond
The UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience(CCCR) is building solutions to reduce climate risks to people and nature. Center Faculty and Fellows work strategically to advance climate adaptation; develop nature-based solutions; support climate justice; and strengthen climate communications.
Jeff King, Lead for the USACE Engineering With Nature program and Mike Beck at the National Academy of Sciences, National EWN Policy Form
The UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience(CCCR) is building solutions to reduce climate risks to people and nature. Center Faculty and Fellows work strategically to advance climate adaptation; develop nature-based solutions; support climate justice; and strengthen climate communications.
Established by a $20 million endowment from the State of California in 2022, the Center is currently funding over 40 research projects led by UC Santa Cruz faculty across all divisions. CCCR supports over 35 fellows including postdocs, graduate students, and international climate activists. It has independently raised another 3 million in funding, primarily through partnerships with national institutions on the front lines of climate resilience, including the US Army Corps of Engineers, The Nature Conservancy, The Ocean Risk and Action Alliance, and the U.S. Geological Survey. A number of other formal partnerships have been established with agencies, businesses, NGO's and organizations with a focus on environmental justice, including Black in Marine Science, and the Pajaro Community Action Board. Through these efforts, the Center works to engage partners and foster new leaders to address challenges from climate change in California and beyond.
Recent highlights from CCCR include their work to get coastal habitats such as coral reefs identified as natural infrastructure, a policy which has been approved nationally and in 4 Territories and Hawai’i. The Center has led two recent Policy Forums in Science on Mainstreaming Nature in US Federal Policy, by a senior fellow at the Center, as well as on challenges and Recommendations for governing geoengineering climate mitigation experiments. Other researchers and fellows are using game engine technology to Visualize Climate Risk and Solutions. The Center has also convened high-level meetings of insurance leaders to discuss integrating nature-based solutions into risk management models and will be a co-sponsor of an upcoming nature-based solutions policy forum to be held at the National Academy of Sciences (Beckman Center in California) in February 2025.
“Climate change is putting people and nature at great risk on our coasts in California, the U.S., and worldwide. Events like Blue Innovation are important in helping the Center connect with individuals, organizations, and communities who are passionate about protecting our coasts, to help build the workforce and develop the solutions needed to address these risks and build resilience to them,” said Mike Beck, Director of the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience.
Eric Palkovacs, CCCR Principal Investigator in the field researching how to restore Chinook Salmon on the Klamath River to rebuild resilient tribal fisheries
