President Obama Issues Executive Order and Establishes Climate Change Task Force

Also on November 1st, President Obama issued an Executive Order (EO) entitled, “Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change.”  The purpose of the EO is to direct Federal agencies to take a series of steps to make it easier for American communities to strengthen their resilience to extreme weather and prepare for other impacts of climate change.  To implement these actions, the EO also establishes a an Interagency Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, chaired by the White House and composed of more than 25 agencies, as well as a Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience (made up of state, local and tribal leaders from across the country).  The EO specifically directs Federal agencies to:

1. Modernize Federal programs to support climate-resilient investments;
2. Manage lands and waters for climate preparedness and resilience;
3. Provide information, data and tools for climate change preparedness and resilience; and
4. Plan for climate change related risk.

The purpose of the State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force is to make recommendations to the Interagency Council and advise the Administration on removing barriers to resilient investments, modernizing Federal grant and loan programs to better support local efforts, and developing the information and tools that communities need to prepare for the impacts of climate change.