Climate Change

President Obama Signs Executive Order on Climate Preparedness

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November 7, 2013

Credit: Teddy Yoshida On November 1, three days after the anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, President Obama signed an executive order, "Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change," directing federal agencies to work with state, local, and tribal leaders to enhance the nation's preparedness and resilience. Building on commitments made in the President’s Climate Action Plan , the Order is aimed at protecting American communities from severe heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms, floods, and other climate change impacts that are already being felt across the country.

Underlying the Order is the recognition that climate change is happening and that even if carbon emissions are cut, the global warming trend cannot be quickly reversed. When President Obama unveiled his Climate Action Plan in June, he stated, "We're going to need to get prepared. And that’s why this plan will also protect critical sectors of our economy and prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change that we cannot avoid." The Executive Order is a step in that direction.

The Order establishes a new State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience to assist and advise the Administration on key actions the federal government can take to support communities in local preparedness and resilience-building efforts. The Task Force includes eight governors, 16 mayors and county officials, as well as two tribal leaders, and will be co-chaired by the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

The Task Force will give recommendations to the interagency Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience , another working group created by the Executive Order. The Council, which will include senior officials from more than 25 agencies, will oversee the climate resilience authorities of federal agencies, and will be co-chaired by the Chair of CEQ, the Director of Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. The Council will replace the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force established by President Obama in 2009, shortly after he came into office.

The Task Force will work with the Council to provide recommendations on removing barriers to resilient investments, modernizing grant and loan programs to better support local efforts, and developing information and tools to better serve communities. Several key strategies outlined in the Executive Order include:

  • Modernize federal programs to support climate-resilient investments . Federal infrastructure investments will take climate change related risks into account; barriers that discourage climate-resilient actions or investments will be removed; and policies and programs that increase vulnerabilities will be reformed.
  • Manage lands and waters for climate preparedness and resilience . Federal agencies will evaluate how to better promote natural storm barriers, such as dunes and wetlands, and how to protect the carbon sequestration benefits of forests and lands to help mitigate climate change.
  • Provide information, data and tools for climate change preparedness and resilience . New data-driven tools will be developed to offer better information to state, local and private sector leaders as they make planning decisions in the context of climate change.
  • Plan for climate change related risk . Federal agencies will evaluate and address the most significant climate change related risks.

Also on November 1, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released, in support of the Executive Order, its draft Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans for a two-month public review. The plans detail EPA’s actions to help adapt communities to climate change. “To meet our mission of protecting public health and the environment, EPA must help communities adapt to a changing climate,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in a statement.

Author: Mengpin Ge

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