Abstract

Treasury anticipates that climate change will continue to be a significant global challenge and that aspects of its mission and operations will be impacted by global warming, sea level rise, increased intensity, and frequency of major weather events, and impacts on energy availability. To manage the process of climate change adaptation and resilience within Treasury’s operations and its facilities, the Department has developed a comprehensive management framework, in accordance with the Interim Instructions for Preparing Draft Climate Action Plans under Executive Order 14008. Treasury’s Departmental Offices (DO) and operating bureaus will continually assess changing conditions and scientific understanding of climate change to adjust policies, programs, and activities to improve resilience and adaptation.

This Climate Action Plan establishes five priority actions to strengthen and build upon Treasury’s climate resilience and adaptive capabilities:

1. Rebuilding programs and capabilities that may have atrophied or stagnated in recent years
2. Addressing climate change impacts and vulnerabilities across the range of Departmental operations, including administrative, manufacturing, and law enforcement activities
3. Ensuring a climate-focused approach to managing Treasury’s real property portfolio footprint
4. Enabling procurement management to fully consider climate change realities
5. Providing, measuring, and accounting for a financial investment approach appropriate to the Department’s climate objectives.

Treasury will develop and manage these climate actions with a focus on communities and infrastructure that are particularly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts. At-risk communities may include underrepresented groups, low-income communities, communities of color, limited English proficient communities, and individuals with disabilities.

Treasury recognizes that educating its management workforce is key to this effort and will ensure that its climate literacy initiative for its management workforce is especially focused on the fundamental principles of environmental justice.

Lastly, this plan includes an initial assessment regarding Treasury’s vulnerability to climate change effects; an approach to rebuilding climate change literacy within Departmental staff; and a strategy for identifying, and where needed, building climate resilience at Treasury facilities and in critical supply chains, in order to effectively sustain Treasury’s mission.

It is the expectation of Treasury that this Plan will evolve over time to account for advancements in our understanding of climate science, our capacity for resilience and adaptation, the impacts of climate change, and national and global climate policy.

Affiliated Organizations

U.S. Department of the Treasury

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's mission is to maintain a strong economy and create economic and job opportunities by promoting the conditions that enable economic growth and stability at home and abroad, strengthen national security by combating threats and protecting the integrity of the financial system, and manage the U.S. Government’s finances and resources effectively.

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