EPA Releases Draft Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans

On November 1st, EPA released its draft Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans for public review and comment.   The comment period on EPA’s draft Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans closes on January 3, 2014.  These Implementation Plans provide detailed information about the actions EPA plans to take across the country to help communities adapt to a changing climate and support President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and Executive Order on Preparing the U.S. for the Impacts of climate change that was announced on the same day.  The draft Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans recognize that EPA must integrate climate adaptation planning into its programs, policies, rules, and operations to ensure that the agency’s work continues to be effective even as the climate changes.

EPA released its draft agency Climate Change Adaptation Plan in February 2013 for public review and comment, and expects to issue the final version this fall.  In 2009, all Federal agencies were required to develop Climate Change Adaptation Plans by the Federal Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force.  Under Executive Order 13514, the Task Force was charged with developing recommendations for the President on how to increase the nation’s resilience to climate change. The new Implementation Plans provide information about how EPA will meet the agency-wide priorities identified in the draft Climate Adaptation Plan released earlier this year.

More information on EPA’s Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans are available at: http://epa.gov/climatechange/impacts-adaptation/fed-programs/EPA-impl-plans.html.

More information on EPA’s draft Climate Change Adaptation Plan are available at: http://epa.gov/climatechange/impacts-adaptation/fed-programs.html.