EPA Releases Climate Plans for Obama's Sustainability Initiative

As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, EPA released plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for climate change impacts such as flooding, sea level rise, severe weather and temperature extremes. These Sustainability Plans and Climate Change Adaptation Plans coincide with the fifth anniversary of President Barack Obama’s 2009 Executive Order on Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance, which set aggressive energy, climate and environmental targets for agencies, and detail how EPA’s actions have already contributed to reducing the Federal Government’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 17 percent since 2008 – the equivalent of permanently taking 1.8 million cars off the road.

Climate Change Adaptation Plan

The Climate Action Plan would cut carbon pollution, prepare communities for the impacts of climate change and lead international efforts to reduce emissions. The climate change impacts that are hitting communities across the country – ranging from more severe droughts and wildfires to record heat waves and damaging storms – are also affecting Federal facilities, operations and resources.  The president directed agencies to assess their vulnerabilities to these impacts in Climate Change Adaptation Plans and outline how they will protect federal programs and taxpayer investments.  

EPA is also releasing final Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans from its National Environmental Program Offices and 10 Regional Offices.  The Implementation Plans, which also reflect responses to public comment, provide more detail on how EPA Programs and Regions will carry out the work called for in the agency-wide plan in partnership with states, tribes and local governments.  

EPA commitments include:

• Incorporating climate adaptation criteria in the Brownfields grants process to ensure cleanup actions taken by communities are effective as the climate changes.
• Integrating considerations of climate change into the Clean Water State Revolving Funds process and continue working with States to ensure investments in water infrastructure are resilient to changes in climate.
• Providing communities tools to increase their resilience. For example, a Storm water calculator and climate adaptation tool informs community planners to estimate the amount of storm water runoff that they’ll have to manage today and in the future.

Source: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency