Climate change has the potential to affect everyday life in New York City. Environmental conditions as we experience them today will shift, exposing the city and its residents to new hazards and heightened risks; we will be challenged by increasing temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, rising sea levels, and more intense and frequent extreme events. While mitigation actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions will help to decrease the magnitude and impact of future changes, they will not prevent climate change from occurring altogether. Given the impacts of climate change and the high costs and long-term planning needed to adapt effectively, it is essential that investments be made today to begin the adaptation process. Taking action now will limit damages and costs through the coming decades and, in many cases, can provide near term benefits and operational cost savings. Prepared by the New York City Panel on Climate Change, this report outlines the need for early and ongoing adaptation actions in New York and suggests approaches to create an effective adaptation program. New York City Panel on Climate Change Cynthia Rosenzweig (co-chair), NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA GISS)/Columbia University Earth Institute Center for Climate Systems Research (Columbia EI CCSR) William Solecki (co-chair), CUNYInstitute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College (CUNY CISC) Reginald Blake, CUNY, New York City College of Technology Malcolm Bowman, SUNY, Stony Brook Andrew Castaldi, Swiss Reinsurance America Corporation Craig Faris, Accenture Vivien Gornitz, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies Klaus Jacob, Columbia Earth Institute Alice LeBlanc, Consultant Robin Leichenko, Rutgers University Megan Linkin, Swiss Reinsurance America Corporation Edna Sussman, SussmanADR, LCC Gary Yohe, Wesleyan University Rae Zimmerman, New York University Science Planning Team Megan O'Grady (Project Manager), Columbia EI CCSR Lesley Patrick (Project Manager), CUNY CISC David Major (Lead, Adaptation Planning), Columbia EI CCSR Radley Horton (Lead, Climate Science), Columbia EI CCSR/NASA GISS Daniel Bader, Columbia EI CCSR Richard Goldberg, Columbia EI CCSR Michael Brady, CUNY CISC Mayor's Office of Long-term Planning & Sustainability Adam Freed, Deputy Director Aaron Koch, Policy Advisor NOTE: Annals volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/nyas. ACADEMY MEMBERS: Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order (www.nyas.org). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to the Annals online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit http://www.nyas.org/MemberCenter/Join.aspx for more information about becoming a member.