What It Takes to Build Climate Resilience: A Conversation with David Festa

Event Details

Resilience – a term for the ability of social-ecological systems to adapt, bounce back, and even thrive through shocks or stresses. At the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), David Festa, Senior VP of Ecosystems, has been working to develop strategies to incentivize resilient ecosystems management practices throughout his tenure. David is an expert on ecosystem resilience and has a long track record of bringing diverse stakeholders together to meet growing needs for food, water and shelter in ways that benefit the environment and the economy. EDF is focused on creating resilient ecosystems that make it possible for people and nature to thrive, even as the planet changes because of climate change, population growth and other stressors. It’s clear in the long-term, planning for resilience is cost-effective. In the near term, it takes work to align the financing, interests, and policy to design climate adaptive systems.

Join the Environment and Natural Resources Program for a conversation with David Festa about what it takes to build climate resilience. David will look at the three major challenges to most climate adaptation projects: financing, building equity, and aligning diverse stakeholders and conflicting policy structures. He’ll share lessons learned from his years of work at EDF on water rights and coastal erosion in dialogue with Professor Henry Lee, Director of the Belfer Center's Environment and Natural Resources Program.

Speaker Bios

David Festa is an expert on ecosystem resilience and has a long track record of bringing diverse stakeholders together to meet growing needs for food, water and shelter in ways that benefit the environment and the economy. David currently heads up EDF’s Ecosystems Program, which works with farmers, ranchers, policymakers and businesses to: increase biodiversity on working lands; eliminate fertilizer pollution as a major agricultural problem; rebalance water supply in the arid American West; and restore coastal ecosystems. David earned a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard. He served as policy director in the Department of Commerce during the Clinton administration and as part of the Obama transition team. David began his career as a correspondent for The Economist.

Professor Henry Lee is the Jassim M. Jaidah Family Director of the Environment and Natural Resources Program within the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Faculty Co-Chair of the Sustainability Science Program, and a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Harvard Kennedy School's Kuwait Program. Before joining the school, Mr. Lee spent nine years in Massachusetts state government as Director of the State's Energy Office and Special Assistant to the Governor for environmental policy. He has served on numerous state, federal, and private boards, and advisory committees on both energy and environmental issues. Additionally, he has worked with private and public organizations, including the InterAmerican Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the State of Sao Paulo, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Interior, the National Research Council, the Intercontinental Energy Corporation, General Electric, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the U.S. EPA.