President Announces New Climate Resilience Actions and Partnerships

September 26, 2014 Anthony DeRosa

On September 23rd, President Obama announced multiple new actions and partnerships designed to harness the unique scientific and technological capabilities of the United States and to help vulnerable populations around the world strengthen their climate resilience. These actions build on the President’s Climate Action Plan, which includes efforts by the United States to reduce carbon pollution, promote clean sources of energy that create jobs, and protect American communities from the impacts of climate change. Some of the actions that should be of interest to state drinking water administrators include the following:

Higher Resolution Data to Enable Worldwide Planning for Resilience: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Geospatial-intelligence Agency (NGA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), will release a collection of higher-resolution elevation datasets for Africa and other global regions within one year. Future plans include making these datasets available on USGS’s Earth Explorer website and providing online training and regional workshops.
Extended Outlooks for Extreme-Weather Risk: NOAA will lead an effort to develop reliable extreme-weather risk outlooks in the 15-30 day range, beyond the 14-day limit of current reliable weather forecasts and will explore producing information products for longer time-scales at which climate change influences risk.
National Cooperation on Climate Change: The State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience and other partners will develop the following initiatives:
- Climate Action Champions: The Climate Action Champions initiative will recognize local and tribal government entities that are leading emission reductions and climate resilience efforts domestically. The initiative will enhance opportunities for financial and technical assistance, as well as facilitated peer-to-peer networking and mentorship, to support and advance their climate mitigation and resilience objectives.
- Public Transportation Resilience Projects: The US Federal Transit Administration announced the awarding of nearly $3.6 billion for climate resilient transportation infrastructure projects in the states impacted by Hurricane Sandy that were competitively selected.
- Federal-Tribal Climate Resilience Partnership: The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs launched a new $10 million program for delivering adaptation training.

For more information, read the fact sheet HERE.