Introduction and summary
Wildfires—that are growing in number and intensity—are destroying and displacing entire towns. Record rainfall is flooding farms and communities. Infectious diseases are spreading to recent regions and straining health care systems. Longer and warmer heat waves are threatening vulnerable populations and overpowering electrical grids. These are only a number of examples of the brand new normal in a climate-changed America.
Although individuals experience climate change in alternative ways across the country, communities of color and low-income communities are hit hardest. Furthermore, the results of a changing climate are disrupting the systems, infrastructure, services, and institutions on which communities rely each day. Local stakeholders need data, tools, and support to reply effectively to climate change. As a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group made clear, without immediate and significant efforts to cut back emissions and reach the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degree Celsius warming limit, the results of climate change will proceed to grow catastrophically.1 Immediate motion to mitigate and adapt to climate change is required to stop the worst climate scenarios and to organize for current and future climate impacts.
As a part of this effort, the Biden administration must construct on its past work to be certain that federally collected climate data are accessible to local stakeholders. Such data might help businesses, municipalities, planners, land managers, community leaders, and farmers develop and deploy the variation strategies which might be badly needed across the country. These strategies would require effective outreach, trainings, and deployment of the recently released Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation (CMRA) portal; a rise in climate science and adaptation funding; and enhanced workforce development initiatives for climate-vulnerable communities.
This report outlines the steps that the Biden administration has taken to make climate change data available to local stakeholders and leaders. It also offers recommendations for a way the administration can expand the accessibility and usefulness of federal climate data going forward.
Closing the gap in climate adaptation and resilience finance
Climate adaptation is critical to assist communities prepare for, reply to, and recuperate from climate impacts, yet many years of inaction have left U.S. residents and businesses vulnerable across quite a few indicators, from health care access to the integrity of the country’s infrastructure. Furthermore, the World Bank Group estimates that by 2030, climate change will drive 32 million to 132 million more people globally into extreme poverty.2 In North America, human life, safety, and livelihoods are and can increasingly be in danger from sea-level rise, severe storms, and hurricanes even when warming is proscribed to 1.5 degree C.3 Flooding is predicted to change into a dominant risk to cities, disrupting and damaging infrastructure, businesses, and houses. Wildfires have gotten increasingly deadly, expensive, and damaging to infrastructure; 2018, the most costly fire season on record, cost greater than $25 billion.4 Wildfires from 2010 to 2021 cost $100.1 billion, greater than 3 times the wildfire costs from 1980 to 2009.5 And a record-shattering heat wave in 2021 caused 800 deaths within the Pacific Northwest, with older Americans, people of color, and low-income individuals experiencing disproportionate harm.6 From 2018 to 2021, there was a 56 percent increase in heat-related deaths, and these deaths are expected to extend as temperatures proceed to rise.7
The Biden administration has taken necessary steps to handle the challenges driven by climate change. The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) invests roughly $47 billion in resilience funding to organize communities for extreme weather.8 IIJA funding will go to programs corresponding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Constructing Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program for hazard mitigation projects.9 The funds will even be directed toward coastal resilience efforts to guard communities from flood risk, sea-level rise, and coastal erosion, in addition to to projects that increase the ability grid’s resilience to extreme weather. The Inflation Reduction Act also contributes a unprecedented amount of funding to this work, including $3 billion for environmental and climate justice block grants, $2.6 billion for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to place toward coastal and climate resilience, $235 million for Tribal climate resilience, $24 million for the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) 3D Elevation Program, and $33 million for the Council on Environmental Quality to fund environmental justice mapping.
Other recent federal efforts to jump-start climate resilience programs include:
- The CMRA portal,10 which provides a dashboard of current climate hazards and a risk assessment tool for climate exposures, along with centralizing federal funding opportunities
- President Joe Biden’s fiscal yr (FY) 2023 budget request, which asked for greater than $18 billion to take a position in climate resilience and adaptation11
- Executive Order 13985, which mandated the 2022 release of greater than 90 federal agency equity motion plans12
- A straightforward-to-access Department of Energy (DOE) website for state and native governments, nonprofits, and businesses to view resilience funding opportunities13
- Executive Order 14008, which mandated that greater than 20 federal agencies release 2021 climate adaptation and resilience plans14
- Recent initiatives on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other agencies to guard employees and communities from extreme heat15
- Executive Order 14030, which directed federal agencies to investigate and mitigate climate-related financial risks16
- Updates to the National Flood Insurance Program’s standards to assist communities align their construction and land-use practices with the newest data on flood risk reduction17
Still, more can and should be done. In 2021, U.S. climate and weather disasters cost $152 billion.18 This pales compared to the $2 trillion per yr that climate change is predicted to cost the USA by 2100.19 The estimated upward costs for 2100 include $2.1 billion in federal expenditures for crop subsidies, $94 billion for coastal disaster recovery and rebuilding within the wake of increased hurricane frequency, $9.6 billion to reply to increased wildfire severity and frequency, and $43.7 billion for infrastructure repair.20 As well as, climate change will jeopardize the affordability of insurance, with increasing claim costs resulting in higher premiums.21 All levels of presidency, particularly the local level, must develop informed, data-driven climate adaptation plans with the intention to lower the prices of climate change and address existing and future inequities.
Some cities, states, and regions are already undertaking their very own adaptation and resilience plans. Recent York City has experienced increasingly severe and frequent hurricanes, including Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which resulted in $60 billion in economic damage, and Hurricane Ida in 2021, which cost $9 billion and led to the deaths of 16 people.22 In response to sea-level rise and increased extreme weather events, Recent York City launched a series of resiliency plans, including Resilient East Harlem and Hunts Point Resiliency Project, and mandated a 2022 climate adaptation plan that will likely be renewed every 10 years.23 These projects are well on their technique to implementation, but completion of serious infrastructure might be years or many years away.
The planning efforts, advocacy, and leadership going down across Recent York City, and more widely across the state and region, have allowed town to be progressive in its climate adaptation response. The strong cross-collaboration between Recent York state, the Recent York City Department of Environmental Protection, and the Mayor’s Office of Resiliency has put resilience on the forefront of policy priorities. Alongside these efforts, the Recent York City Panel on Climate Change provides access to data and policy recommendations to city and state officials, in addition to access to additional technical expertise, academic institutions, and scientific resources throughout the city.24 Other cities that face similar adaptation challenges but don’t have the identical broad access to technical expertise, political capability, and monetary capability require more federal data support to make informed decisions about climate adaptation.25
See also
See also
Addressing climate justice and the needs of stakeholders and communities
Historically marginalized individuals and communities face disproportionate risks from climate change.26 Health, economic, and environmental disparities in communities of color and low-income areas elevate residents’ vulnerability to the results of climate change and related public health threats.27 A long time of disinvestment and policies corresponding to redlining have left these communities with insufficient climate-resilient infrastructure and housing and fewer resources to finance and manage household evacuations during extreme weather events. Individuals in marginalized groups—corresponding to women, older adults, individuals with disabilities, Indigenous people, and other people of color, who proceed to face institutionalized discrimination—often have restricted access to the economic, legal, and health resources which might be at the guts of climate resilience.
Marginalized communities are also disproportionately exposed to extreme climate threats, as they’re more often positioned in or near flood-prone areas, heat islands, or toxic waste sites.28 For instance, the historically Black town of Barrett, Texas, faced an influx of toxicants leached from nearby Superfund sites after intense flooding from Hurricane Harvey. After testing the river sediment near the breached San Jacinto Waste Pits, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found the presence of dioxin, a human carcinogen, at a level that exceeded the clean-up standard by 2,300 times.29 While the EPA works to scrub up the positioning, greater than 600 residents have brought a civil lawsuit against several corporations, claiming that they’ve developed health problems as a result of toxic substance exposures.30 What happened in Barrett is just not an isolated risk: The Government Accountability Office has found that wildfires, floods, and hurricanes threaten a minimum of 60 percent of Superfund sites.31 As well as, the Union of Concerned Scientists concluded that under the present emissions trajectory, greater than 1,000 Superfund sites are liable to sea-level rise by 2100.32
Recognizing that disadvantaged communities are on the front lines of climate change, President Biden committed to deliver 40 percent of federal climate and infrastructure investment advantages to those communities.33 In February 2022, the White House Council on Environmental Quality launched the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) to assist agencies discover at-risk populations.34 This tool combines environmental, health, and socioeconomic indicators to find out where federal investments needs to be directed to learn those most in need. If a census tract surpasses a specific amount of environmental, socioeconomic, or health indicator thresholds, then the CEJST designates it as a disadvantaged community.
National scale adaptation and resilience tools
Along with CJEST, other tools that help local stakeholders evaluate climate impacts and community resilience include:
- The Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation portal, which centralizes information on communities’ climate exposure risks
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability Index, which maps the doubtless negative impacts of external stressors on human health on the census tract level35
- The EPA’s EJScreen 2.0, which maps environmental, health, and demographic indicators on the census tract level36
- Climate.gov and the NOAA Climate Data Mapper, which give maps and tools for historical and predicted climate trends on the national scale37
- NASA’s Extreme Heat Data Pathfinder,38 which maps temperature, humidity, land cover, weather, and social vulnerability
State-level adaptation and resilience tools
Helpful tools also exist on the state level, including:
- California’s CalEnviroScreen, which maps cumulative impacts of environmental, health, and demographic indicators39
- The Maryland Environmental Justice Screen Mapper, which uses pollution burdens and demographic data to supply an environmental justice rating40
- The Recent York State Energy Research and Development Agency’s Disadvantaged Communities for Recent York, which identifies disadvantaged communities through economic data41
Although the event and deployment of those tools is a crucial step in increasing resilience, continued technical support and community engagement are essential to be certain that data are accessible to local stakeholders and climate adaptation planning. The discharge of recent mapping tools, corresponding to CEJST and CMRA, require robust outreach and technical trainings in order that disadvantaged and climate-vulnerable communities can understand and reap the benefits of the mapping information. While all U.S. regions are already experiencing the results of climate change in some form, the resources to face up to, recuperate from, and prepare for future climate consequences should not equally available, and data and access needs will look different at different scales—from the person up through the community. Due to these disparities, the recommendations in the subsequent section point to actions that the Biden administration can take to proceed to support essentially the most climate-vulnerable communities across the USA.
Policy recommendations
The Biden administration, Congress, and relevant federal agencies have a possibility to raised prepare communities for the worst consequences of climate change. The recommendations below seek to foster adaptation decision-making that’s more inclusive and driven by accessible data.
Conduct technical trainings for CMRA using best practices for community engagement
The discharge of the CMRA portal in September 2022 was a crucial step in centralizing climate information to assist communities and state and native governments strengthen their climate resilience plans. Developed through the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), CMRA has a real-time dashboard of current climate hazards, an assessment tool that gives risk reports for past and potential climate exposures, and links to federal funding opportunities for managing these risks. The CMRA will be an incredibly powerful tool for communities, helping them to not only understand the impacts of climate change but in addition access funding to administer these risks.
To be certain that communities are using CMRA effectively, USGCRP and other contributing partners42 should lead a comprehensive and inclusive community engagement and stakeholder outreach plan for CMRA technical trainings. Step one of the outreach plan would involve creating a listing of critical stakeholders, from environmental justice groups and climate-impacted businesses to local governments and Tribal communities, to be certain that there may be sufficient and targeted outreach for CMRA trainings. Using CEJST’s designation of disadvantaged communities, the CMRA trainings also needs to prioritize disadvantaged and climate-vulnerable communities. Moreover, training sessions for state and native government officials and agency staff should explain not only tips on how to use the tool but in addition how CMRA will be integrated into existing programs and funding opportunities.
Finally, the USGCRP and contributing partners should establish and implement best practices for accessibility to CMRA trainings, including translating the technical assistance documents of climate data tools into common languages, providing language translators and captioned translations for training sessions, and offering easy and accessible links to training session recordings for individuals who need to look at asynchronously. The USCCRP also needs to apply the guidance developed by the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform to trainings and community engagement. Specific guidance includes letting communities speak for themselves, using townhalls and regional convenings for communities, and convening stakeholders in a culturally respectful way.43 Along with including accessible outreach, the CMRA website should offer common language translations. Establishing best practices for accessibility will be certain that disadvantaged and climate-vulnerable communities are in a position to understand the data inside CMRA.
Proceed to enhance the CMRA website’s design and functionality
Future updates to the CMRA website should take user feedback into consideration through submitted comments and questions. Currently, the feedback mechanism will be reached by clicking “Contact” at the underside of the CMRA homepage, and an email address to which to submit comments can be available at the underside of the Contact page. An update should be certain that the contact area is simpler to seek out by labeling a tab at the highest of the homepage “Feedback” or “Contact.” This page should then include an in-site form, quite than a link to a separate email address, which might make it easier for USGCRP to receive feedback and would streamline the method for users to submit comments.
The funding opportunities that the CMRA details also needs to be more accessible and visual. On the present homepage, the funding opportunities are listed under the “Climate-related hazard information” heading and split by risk: extreme heat, drought, wildfire, flooding, and coastal inundation. To enhance this feature, an update should place a separate “Funding opportunities” tab at the highest of the homepage that results in a funding database and permit users to look by risk type, eligibility, application availability, funding amount, and whether this system is roofed under Justice40. It will streamline funding applications for users and permit those searching for funding to raised prepare their applications using relevant data.
Increase funding for climate science tools, science communications, and adaptation
Budgetary increases for climate science communication and climate service programs are needed to support local stakeholders’ climate adaptation plans and project implementation. The Biden administration and Congress should prioritize increases to NOAA’s Communication Program,44 and NOAA needs to be more practical at reaching underserved and disadvantaged communities. Fulfilling the agency’s FY 2023 request for a $2 million increase in NOAA’s Strategic Communication and Outreach to Underserved Communities could mobilize tens of billions of federal dollars and incentivize private investment in locally led climate adaptation projects.45 Moreover, the Biden administration should consider ways to streamline adaptation financing for communities and augment existing funding streams corresponding to the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery.
Moreover, the Biden administration and Congress should expand existing climate science data programs corresponding to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Climate Hubs, the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Climate Adaptation Science Centers, NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System, USGCRP’s working groups, and NOAA’s Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments, amongst others. They also needs to make additional efforts to speak the work of those programs to vulnerable communities. These changes could make substantial improvements within the lives and livelihoods of Americans, with far-reaching co-benefits.
Ensure climate-vulnerable communities can access and profit from federal employment and volunteer service programs
A big selection of occupations, from manufacturing and construction to policymaking and climate science, are critical to extend climate resilience. The Biden administration should expand workforce development and education schemes to not only be certain that good-quality jobs go to climate-vulnerable communities but in addition foster effective local partnerships and encourage the subsequent generation of climate leaders. The next workforce development and education recommendations outline how the Biden administration can uplift good-quality jobs within the climate adaptation sector and center equity and variety in climate adaptation efforts.
Implement the Clean Energy Corps
The implementation of the Clean Energy Corps is a crucial opportunity to inclusively involve historically marginalized communities in climate science and clean energy efforts. The DOE launched the Clean Energy Corps in January 2022 after receiving $62 billion in IIJA funding.46 Currently, the Clean Energy Corps is hiring individuals across the USA inside multiple industries to catalyze the nation’s transition to scrub energy. The Clean Energy Corps should recruit and hire employees from disadvantaged and climate-vulnerable communities. By doing so, it is going to include those that are most impacted by climate change in decision-making and solutions. The Clean Energy Corps can use CEJST to discover climate-vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. Workforce pipeline programs, corresponding to the Clean Energy Corps and Civilian Climate Corps, should end in participants’ placement in high-quality jobs that provide family-sustaining wages and advantages and permit without spending a dime and fair access to a union.47
Strengthen partnerships in communities
Lessons learned through long-term work in communities can inform the design and implementation of federal workforce and community development initiatives. Existing community-led planning, leadership development, and capacity-building efforts exhibit how investments in a climate resilience workforce can align federal priorities with local resilience needs and methods. Collaborations amongst local and regional nongovernmental organizations, charitable and community foundations, and states are emerging across the country to help vulnerable communities with data and capability needs.
In Richland County, Montana, for instance, the Communities in Motion public health planning process integrated AmeriCorps volunteers in an area process that allowed community leaders to pursue and sustain necessary collaboration and motion.48 In Oregon, Rural Development Initiatives49 and the Ford Family Foundation50 are training local leaders, funding community capability, and securing federal dollars for vulnerable communities across a big selection of sectors. Inside this partnership, leadership development and native capacity-building efforts are designed to fulfill communities where they’re and to balance and center community, economy, and environmental needs. Standing up and nurturing these relationships makes federal partnerships more practical and sturdy, ensuring continuity and lasting advantages.
Prioritize youth engagement
Lastly, the Biden administration and Congress should prioritize youth engagement opportunities and initiatives to empower the subsequent generation of climate scientists and policymakers. President Biden’s Executive Order 14008 launched the Civilian Climate Corps through the DOI to encourage youth engagement in public service and conservation work. The Civilian Climate Corps received $20 million through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022,51 and the FY 2023 budget request included $60 million to expand this system and the related Indian Youth Service Corps.52 Continued implementation and funding for these programs are necessary opportunities for youth engagement.
The Biden administration also needs to create a youth climate advisory committee throughout the Office of Domestic Climate. This committee needs to be much like, albeit more robust than, the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) Youth Perspectives on Climate Change work group that was energetic from 2016 to 2018. The committee could consider ways to ascertain climate change curricula in schools and develop grants and funding programs in universities, particularly historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. By making a youth climate advisory committee and implementing youth skilled development programs, the Biden administration can create the subsequent generation of climate leaders.
Conclusion
Without immediate and significant reductions in domestic and global emissions, the present climate crisis will change into substantially worse in the approaching years and many years.53 The Biden administration is moving in the proper direction, having undone Trump-era policies that restricted access to climate science data and having taken recent, positive steps to extend data accessibility and support data-driven decision-making. Now is a vital moment for the Biden administration to construct on this work and ensure data access when and where it is required most. Local stakeholders and communities should have access to federal climate data to extend community resilience and plan for climate adaptation. The information exist; now’s the time to be certain that the proper people can use it to advocate for and empower their communities.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Laurie Schoeman, director of climate and sustainability at Enterprise Community Solutions-Capital Division, and Mark Haggerty, Cathleen Kelly, and Shannon Baker-Branstetter on the Center for American Progress for his or her contributions to this piece.