Prospects for Mitigation

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, Florida’s political leadership has promoted distinctly different policy responses with respect to sea-level rise mitigation. In the first decade of the current century, a Governor’s Action Team on Energy and Climate Change outlined specific policy recommendations to increase energy efficiency, including the establishment of a “cap-and-trade” program. More recently there has been far less enthusiasm for state government intervention and at times even denial of climate change. The survey research reported here indicates that those residents living in areas susceptible to coastal or riverine flooding are aware of their risks and generally support new regulations requiring greater set-backs from the coast and the construction of flood barriers or sea walls. They are less enthusiastic about measures that would involve increased costs to the individual such as increasing taxes on fossil fuels to encourage energy conservation.