National Climate Assessment

November 20, 2023

Tulane School of Architecture climate adaptation scholar Jesse Keenan joined senior Biden-Harris Administration and White House officials to announce the Fifth National Climate Assessment, an extensive federal report that evaluates climate change science, impacts and strategies to mitigate current and future risks.

Keenan, the Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning at Tulane University School of Architecture, is the lead author of the report’s chapter about how climate change will impact the nation’s built environment.

“It is a truly humbling experience to work with top experts across the federal government and academia to evaluate not only how climate change shapes our country, but also what it is that we are doing to reduce emissions and adapt to impacts,” Keenan said. “As a Congressional mandated exercise, this is the single-most authoritative source for climate information for the United States. It is a resource for a wide variety of audiences from school children to small businesses and from local mayors to congressional policymakers.”

Keenan’s chapter outlines how the built environment contributes to climate change, how it is affected by climate change, how cities can reduce emissions and how municipalities can adapt to its impacts. It examines both the science and social impacts, Keenan said.

“As an author of the chapter on the built environment, we spent years trying to understand how every aspect of how the built environment is both part of the problem and part of the solution. This new knowledge is at the heart of the innovations that drive the Tulane School of Architecture.”

The full report is available online on the National Climate Assessment website.