The effort includes providing resources to help federal agencies address employee exposure to climate hazards such as extreme heat, flooding, and wildfires. Image: ARM Photo Video/Shutterstock.com
The Biden administration has posted updates to climate adaptation plans of more than 20 federal agencies, with initiatives ranging from “retrofitting and upgrading federal buildings to better withstand climate hazards” to “encouraging climate-smart sourcing to enhance resilience to climate-related disruptions.”
“With more than 300,000 buildings, four million employees, 640 million acres of public land, and $700 billion in annual purchases of goods and services, the federal government must continue to be a leader and partner in advancing adaptation and resilience,” says a White House fact sheet.
It says the plans “better integrate climate risk across their mission, operations, and asset management, including: combining historical data and projections to assess exposure of assets to climate-related hazards including extreme heat and precipitation, sea level rise, flooding, and wildfire; expanding the operational focus on managing climate risk to facilities and supply chains to include federal employees and federal lands and waters; broadening the mission focus to describe mainstreaming adaptation into agency policies, programs, planning, budget formulation, and external funding; and adopting common indicators of progress.
One common theme, it says, is “fostering a climate-ready workforce.” That includes “establishing protocols to ensure continuity of operations and safeguard federal employee wellbeing in the face of increasing exposure to climate-related hazards” and “providing resources to help federal agencies address employee exposure to climate hazards such as extreme heat, flooding, and wildfires” and “enhancing communication systems to alert employees to climate hazards in the workplace and, where needed, improving air filtration standards to manage health impacts of wildfire smoke.”
Other areas of focus include applying climate data and tools in decision-making, developing climate-informed policies and programs, and integrating consideration of climate impacts in federally supported projects.
Agency-by-agency plans are at www.sustainability.gov/adaptation.
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