Dive Brief:
- More than 20 federal agencies last week released updated climate adaptation plans for 2024 through 2027, building on plans first developed in 2021.
- Agencies updated their plans to “better integrate climate risk across their mission, operations, and asset management,” according to a White House press release. That includes considering climate impacts on projects and advancing climate resilience when deciding where to direct grants and other external funding.
- For the first time, the updated climate adaptation plans include a common set of metrics measuring agencies’ progress on climate resilience.
Dive Insight:
The United States saw a record 28 billion-dollar disasters in 2023, from floods to droughts to hailstorms. In total, those events cost more than $92 billion.
The Biden administration in September released a plan to increase climate resilience nationwide, which includes ensuring communities can access validated climate projection data and tools, supporting the adoption of new building codes and helping local governments that are planning for the effects of community relocation in the path of severe climate change impacts.
An executive order from President Joe Biden directed federal agencies to create their first climate adaptation and resilience plans, which they released in 2021. Those agencies published progress reports in 2022.
“By updating our own adaptation strategies, the federal government is leading by example to build a more resilient future for all,” Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement. The CEQ worked with leaders across agencies to develop the resilience metrics that are newly included across the climate adaptation plans.
The metrics attempt to quantify:
- Whether agencies are including resilience goals in their plans and budgeting.
- Whether data management systems and analytical tools are being updated to incorporate relevant climate change information.
- Whether agency policies incorporate nature-based solutions, co-benefits from climate change mitigation and equity principles.
- Whether agencies are evaluating the risk climate change poses to federal assets and supply chains.
- Whether agencies are training workforces in climate adaptation and resilience protocols and procedures.
The White House highlighted numerous ways federal agencies are preparing for climate change impacts. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is including climate change “preference points” in notices of funding opportunities to encourage applicants to invest in climate resilience, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
