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April 3, 2015
On November 1, 2013, President Obama signed Executive Order 13653, establishing the State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience. Its creation was part of the President’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), originally outlined on June 25, 2013, during a speech at Georgetown University. The Task Force assembled 26 governors, mayors, tribal leaders and county officials who'd shown leadership on climate change, and tasked them with advising the federal government on how to help communities become more climate-resilient.
One year after its establishment, on November 17, 2014, the Task Force released a 49-page report with 35 key recommendations. On the same day, the White House released a climate resilience toolkit, available at toolkit.climate.gov, which was assembled with input from the Task Force and addresses how climate change affects coastal flooding, food access, health, transportation, water, and ecosystems. The White House took over a dozen actions throughout the year as a result of the Task Force's work, even before the formal release of its recommendations: it backed a $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition, a Climate Education and Literacy Initiative, and investments in the country’s rural electricity system.
The Task Force’s recommendations to the President encompass not only the advice of the governors, mayors, tribal leaders and county officials who comprised its membership, but also input from trade associations, civil society, academia, nonprofits, private companies and other stakeholders. The Task Force states that the federal government has an “essential and unique role” in supporting localized climate preparedness and resilience actions, by providing funding, leadership, information, and intelligent federal program design. The federal government is also well-situated to encourage and coordinate greater cooperation between jurisdictions within the United States.
Overall, one of the greatest emphases throughout the recommendations is the need for increased coordination between federal agencies. The Recommendations repeatedly say that federal agencies need to work together, create central resources, and increase transparency to help accomplish many of the stated goals. The Task Force calls for increased federal guidance, education, tools and resources to empower local officials and decision makers to take action to improve the climate resilience of their own communities. The Task Force also emphasizes the federal government’s role in funding projects across the country, stating that it is important to require grant applicants to consider climate vulnerabilities and preparedness in their proposals.
The Task Force advises the federal government to align its actions with five principles. First of all, the government should be required to take climate-related vulnerabilities and threats into account as it designs and implements all federal policies, investments, regulations and programs. Secondly, the government should do all it can to take actions that both increase community resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Thirdly, federal agencies should strengthen coordination and partnerships with federal, territorial, state, local, and tribal jurisdictions and economic sectors. Fourthly, federal decision making at all levels needs to be supported with actionable information, tools and assistance on climate change impacts. Finally, the federal government should “consult and cooperate” with tribal and indigenous communities on “all aspects” of its efforts towards climate preparedness and resilience, and state and local communities should consider doing so as well.
The Task Force organized its recommendations into seven cross-cutting themes: resilient communities; infrastructure resilience; natural resources resilience; human health and population resilience; climate-smart hazard mitigation, disaster preparedness and recovery; the economics of resilience; and building capacity for resilience.
“The impacts from a changing climate will stress infrastructure, strain social networks, hamstring economies, and tax available resources.”
“Climate change impacts water delivery and wastewater treatment systems; flood risk management infrastructure; rail, road, and port infrastructure; natural infrastructure; energy production and distribution systems…”
“Protecting and conserving natural systems, including agricultural lands, rural and urban forests, grasslands, lakes, oceans, coral reefs, and other natural habitats, can help protect critical livelihoods...”
“A comprehensive approach to climate preparedness and resilience […] must account for the resilience of people and communities.”
“Scientific findings and recent experience alike demonstrate that certain types of extreme events will become more frequent or severe in a changing climate, with potential impacts to the economy and communities…”
“In the face of increasingly frequent and severe storms, flooding, heat waves, and other climate-related disruptions, investments in resilience can reduce future risk and help to protect against severe economic losses and threats to public health and safety.”
“In order to adequately plan for climate impacts and make smart investments in resilience, communities must first have the capacity to recognize, understand, and assess relevant climate-related risks, and the impact of those threats to local economies, infrastructure, property, agriculture, natural resources, and human populations.”
In conclusion, the Task Force recommended the designation of a senior administration official who could oversee the implementation of the Task Force’s recommendations across the executive branch, as well as the creation of benchmarks and a reporting process for progress on the recommendations moving forward.
The White House has already unveiled a series of initiatives in response to the Task Force’s recommendations. In response to the Task Force's preliminary recommendations on July 16, 2014, the President announced a series of initiatives that same day. When the Task Force released its final recommendations on November 17, 2014, the White House announced additional initiatives, and stated its commitment to continue collaborating with Task Force members on resilience efforts going forward. The White House's key resilience announcements are listed below.
The Climate Resilience Toolkit. To support Task Force members and other local leaders nationally in their work on climate resilience, the White House unveiled the Climate Resilience Toolkit, a website developed with input from the Task Force. The website, available at toolkit.climate.gov, provides access to dozens of tools planners can use to better understand climate change impacts on their communities. The Climate Resilience Toolkit features a tool called the “Climate Explorer,” which offers visualizations of different data and climate change scenarios on a map of the United States, such as different amounts of sea level rise, current areas in drought, and the mix of crops across the country. There are also 44 case studies—“Taking Action” stories—showcasing the ways in which different communities have mounted resilience efforts to protect against local vulnerabilities. The website provides a central database with 125 links to external websites with their own climate-related online tools, which range from maps of soil surveys to photo editing software that creates “before” and “after” pictures for different climate-changed futures. Finally, the website has a section offering free training courses, both online and in-person.
A $13.1 million 3-D Elevation Program partnership between the Department of Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey and other federal agencies, to create 3-dimensional maps of the United States. These maps will help professionals accurately model flood risks, water management, coastal erosion, storm surge, and landslide hazards.
Visit http://nationalmap.gov/3DEP/ for more information.
A Climate Education and Literacy Initiative, offered through the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), which will convene thought leaders in education and climate science from across the country to create steps to help students access climate science information.
A new guide, “Assessing Health Vulnerability to Climate Change,” released by the CDC. The guide aims to help public health departments understand climate change’s impacts on health. www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/pubs/AssessingHealthVulnerabilitytoClimateChange.pdf
A Hampton Roads Preparation and Resilience Exercise, conducted by the National Security Council with assistance from the National Exercise Division, held December 2, 2014. The tabletop exercise examined how storm surge and flooding under a sea level rise scenario would affect Hampton Roads, VA.
Two “Preparedness Pilots,” in partnership with the City of Houston, the State of Colorado, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Flight Center, and the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The pilots will convene federal agencies and communities to plan for regional vulnerabilities from climate change.
A total of $236.3 million in funding awards for eight states to improve rural electric infrastructure, supported through the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
A $10 million Federal-Tribal Climate Resilience Partnership and Technical Assistance Program to create and provide adaptation training to tribes, through the Department of Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the DOI created an interagency group to support tribal adaptation and mitigation efforts.
A $1.5 million competitive funding grant for helping states and tribes improve coastal management programs, under the auspice of Section 309 of the Coastal Zone Management Act, administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Online climate adaptation and resilience training for local government officials, offered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with help from the EPA’s Local Government Advisory Committee. Once ready, this will be available online through the Climate Resilience Toolkit.
Funding assistance to a minimum of 25 communities for the implementation of green infrastructure, especially green stormwater infrastructure. This will be conducted by the EPA under the new Green Infrastructure Collaborative, and will involve help from NGOs, government agencies and the private sector.
A disaster recovery app, called Lantern Live, which will display in real-time which areas still have electricity and which gas stations still have fuel after a natural disaster. Lantern Live is being developed by the Department of Energy, and is currently available only on Android phones.
energy.gov/articles/energy-department-launches-mobile-app-energy-emergencies
President Obama first announced the National Disaster Resilience Competition in June 2014, but the July 16 announcement updated and expanded his prior comments. The one-year competition offers close to $1 billion in resources for communities which have suffered recent natural disasters, to enable them to build “replicable models of modern disaster recovery” which will be more resilient to future disasters. Funding is provided through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
FEMA updated its State Hazard Mitigation Plans to ask states to consider and prepare for climate change as they plan for future natural disasters. State Hazard Mitigation Plans aim to help states plan resilience measures, such as raising houses above flood plains and rebuilding to a higher standard, to protect against future disasters.
The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) established a Mitigation Integration Task Force, which was to create a Mitigation Integration Pilot Program by the end of August.
The President’s FY 2016 Budget Request contains funding for initiatives the Task Force recommended. While not yet approved by Congress, the request represents an important outline of what the White House would like to do to address the Task Force’s concerns and promote national resilience. These include:
The White House State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience recommendations are at once a request for support from the federal government, a guide for leveraging federal resources wisely, and a large and visible statement of the urgent need for help from communities attempting to grow their resilience to extreme weather in a world with a changing climate. Across the country, communities are already making large investments in resilience, confronting hard choices about how to allocate limited resources in the face of many urgent needs, and working to ensure their populations will be safe when disaster strikes. In convening the Task Force, the White House displayed its understanding of the federal government's vital role in supporting these communities. The Task Force’s final recommendation to the federal government is that it should keep open the lines of communication forged by the creation of the Task Force, and continue to engage tribal, state and local leaders as it acts to promote resilience across the country.
Author: Laura Small
Editor: Amaury Laporte
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