As part of President Biden’s whole-of-government approach to confronting the climate crisis, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its climate adaptation and resilience plan to ensure its facilities and operations adapt and are increasingly resilient to climate change impacts.
“With the Climate Adaptation Plan, HUD is taking an agency-wide approach in prioritizing climate resilience because we cannot put America on the path to building a stronger and more sustainable housing infrastructure without addressing the impacts of climate change,” Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said.
Federal agencies, and the people they serve, face a multitude of risks caused by climate change. This includes rising costs to maintain and repair damaged infrastructure from more frequent and extreme weather events and health and safety challenges to the communities across the country.
Acting now to manage climate risk will increase the resilience of communities to wildfires, extreme heat, tropical storms, heavy rains, and other disasters made worse by a changing climate, HUD noted.
To address these challenges, President Biden prioritized the revitalization of federal agency climate adaptation and resilience planning after a four-year pause, according to HUD.
Through this approach, agencies developed adaptation and resilience plans, called “climate action plans,” to address their most significant climate risks and vulnerabilities.
HUD’s plan seeks to drive innovation, increase resilience to climate change, and support the President’s commitment to implementing his Justice40 Initiative.
The climate action plans were developed in response to President Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.
As part of these efforts, agencies will embed adaptation and resilience planning and implementation throughout their programs and operations and will continually update their adaptation plans, HUD said.
In addition to these plans, President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal include investments to strengthen the nation’s resilience to climate change and extreme weather events, including historic investments in green and resilient housing.
HUD, alongside more than 20 major federal agencies, is making available its climate adaptation and resilience plan.
