Inside the Biden White House: Climate Adaptation Wins, Misses—and the Road Ahead
In episode 232 of America Adapts, host Doug Parsons has a candid conversation with Laurie Schoeman, former senior advisor on climate resilience in the Biden White House. Laurie offers a rare, unfiltered look inside the administration’s climate resilience efforts. Laurie helped coordinate adaptation strategy across agencies. While she didn’t lead the National Climate Resilience Framework, she had a front-row seat to its evolution—and its compromises. She speaks openly about what worked, what fell apart, and what was left on the cutting room floor. From the outsized influence of youth climate politics to the glaring absence of adaptation finance—and especially the neglect of communications—Laurie brings an insider’s experience in the development of federal climate policy. Doug and Laurie critique the performative nature of federal resilience efforts, the muddled conflation of climate justice and adaptation, and the critical failure to include communications in the resilience framework. Her message is clear: if we’re serious about climate risk, we need to rethink not just how we fund adaptation—but how we talk about it. Laurie also reflects on her role in a groundbreaking blue ribbon commission on wildfire resilience in Los Angeles, which recently released bold recommendations positioning the city as a national leader in adaptation.
Topics Discussed:
How adaptation finance was neglected, with no real champions for the complex work of funding climate resilience.
Why the administration’s climate justice efforts were often more performative than impactful, despite unprecedented federal funding.
The conflation of adaptation, equity, and justice, which Doug and Laurie argue muddied priorities and weakened results.
The quiet removal of communications from the National Framework—a missed opportunity with lasting consequences.
A call for foundations to pivot toward adaptation communications, not just emissions reductions.
A critical look at staffing and leadership gaps in the federal government’s approach to climate risk.
Her current role addressing wildfire resilience in Los Angeles, where she continues to push for real-world adaptation solutions.
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Links in this episode:
Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery
https://labrcommission.org/blue-ribbon-commission-on-climate-action-and-fire-safe-recovery/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurieschoeman/
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