Robert Freudenberg
Vice President, Energy & Environment
Regional Plan Association
Biography
Robert Freudenberg is vice president of RPA’s energy and environmental programs, leading the organization’s initiatives in areas including climate mitigation and adaptation, open space conservation and park development, and water resource management.
He oversees a comprehensive program of projects and policies to improve public health, quality of life, sustainable development and climate resilience in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area. Rob works closely with other RPA staff to integrate these objectives with RPA’s economic, transportation, land use, design and community development initiatives.
Rob has been with RPA since 2006 and most recently served as New Jersey director, where he managed the state program with a focus on sustainability planning and policy. He led projects including developing an arts and revitalization plan for Paterson and a neighborhood revitalization plan for East Camden; producing an economic and land use study for a future bus rapid transit corridor in Union County; advancing regenerative design efforts in the New Jersey Highlands; and facilitating land use and urban design recommendations and leading local demonstration projects for the 13-county Together North Jersey effort.
Prior to joining RPA, Rob served as a coastal management fellow at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where he focused on policies for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Rob holds a master’s of public administration in environmental science and policy from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and a bachelor’s in environmental biology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Rutgers Climate Bridge Panel 3: Impact on Policy
Abstract
The New York Metropolitan Region is a region of water. Shaped by our ocean coastline, and teeming with estuaries, bays, tidal straits and coastal and inland rivers and streams, water is a way of life here. But our historic patterns of development – which have resulted in the loss of nearly 80% of our historic wetlands – combined with intensifying climate impacts such as sea level rise, and more frequent and intense storms and precipitation events, mean that millions of residents in the region face a certain future of increased, and in some cases permanent flooding. At the same time, more extreme temperatures will mean hotter summers and potential periods of sub-zero temperatures in the winter. These climate impacts – which disproportionately affect our region’s most historically marginalized communities – do not affect any one municipality or state at once. In fact, they threaten to disrupt or displace hundreds of thousands of residents in urban, suburban, and rural communities across the region, while impacting the transportation, energy, water, and sanitary infrastructure that connects and supports them. Climate impacts, and the things they impact, cross governance boundaries and cannot be adequately managed at a local or even state level. The climate crisis demands a regional approach to adaptation. From broadly accepted scientific findings, to shared design guidelines and best practices, to pooled funding and joint implementation of adaptation projects, a new governance approach is required that ensures states and municipalities are rising to the challenge of resilience together, with a common set of goals.