Biden Administration Reinforces Federal Government’s Resilience to Climate Impacts

The Biden administration on Oct. 6 announced new actions by over 20 agencies to strengthen the federal government’s resistance to the exacerbating effects of climate change. The actions of agencies are outlined in their annual adaptation progress reports and emphasise an administration wide responsibility to tackling the climate crisis, by incorporating climate-enthusiasm across each agency’s objective and program plan.

The administration aims to reduce disruptions, create safer working conditions, strengthen supply chains, save taxpayer funds, whilst striving for climate goals. Regular and serious weather events throughout the U.S., involving droughts, severe heat, floods, and hurricanes have caused extensive climate related costs across the nation. Moreover, in 2021 the U.S. experienced 20 extreme weather and climate related catastrophe events, with costs surpassing over $145 billion.

Last October, federal bureaus issued climate modification proposals that detected and addressed their most important climate issues. Through these proposals, agencies introduced actions to tackle a wide array of risks, which included programs, facilities, worker safety, supply chains, grants, and contracts. As part of the initiative, the White House also initiated an attempt to reform the federal government’s knowledge sources and capability to take actions based on climate data.

Besides reinforcing federal government operations and procedures, the Biden administration continues to engage with states, tribes, and local administrations in a managed attempt to shield U.S. neighbourhoods, economies, and transportation from the most critical impacts of climate change.

Furthermore, the administration has operated directly with Congress to support key adaptation financing endorsed by the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act and 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, involving $50 billion in financing to safeguard U.S. infrastructure from devastating wildfires, heat, and floods, and $4.5 billion for drought preparation.

The reports released indicate considerable improvement made by organisations to strengthen modification and enhance resilience to climate impacts. Key parts from the 2022 Climate Adaptation Progress Reports include: protecting federal investments, developing a more resilient supply chain, expanding and deepening agency resilience efforts, strengthening institutional climate adaptation capacity and incorporating environmental justice and equity into federal adaptation efforts.