EPA Releases Final Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans

On October 31, EPA released the final versions of its Agency-wide Climate Change Adaptation Plan and the 17 Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans produced by the Program and Regional Offices. These final versions were revised from earlier drafts following public comment periods. They respond to directives in the Presidents Executive Order 13653 – Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change. The final EPA Plan and the 17 Implementation Plans are living documents that will be periodically revised in subsequent years to account for new knowledge, data, scientific evidence, and lessons learned from the Agency’s ongoing efforts to integrate climate adaptation planning into its programs, policies, rules and operations. The EPA Office of Water’s Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plan is intended to help implement the EPA National Water Program 2012 Strategy: Response to Climate Change that describes long-term goals for the management of sustainable water resources and is intended to be a roadmap to guide future programmatic planning and inform decision makers during the Agency’s annual planning process.