Abstract

The devastating impacts of climate change increasingly cost lives, disrupt livelihoods and cause billions of dollars in damages across the nation. Climate change also exacerbates existing pollution problems and environmental stressors, challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to accomplish its mission of protecting human health and the environment. All these impacts disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color, children, the elderly, Tribes and indigenous people.

The Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic steps to provide the federal support, resources and investments needed to help the nation’s communities meet the climate challenges of today and prepare for the climate stressors of tomorrow. The EPA plays a central role in the Administration’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis and build a climate-resilient nation.

In May 2021 the EPA proactively worked to incorporate climate adaptation planning into the agency’s programs, policies, rules and operations, while also continue work to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Since that time, the EPA has made significant strides by partnering with states, Tribes, territories, local governments, community groups, businesses and other federal agencies to strengthen their adaptive capacity and increase their resilience, placing a particular focus on advancing environmental justice.

The agency is modernizing its financial assistance programs to encourage climate-resilient investments across the nation. The immediate focus of this effort is on investments made through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act to ensure that their outcomes will be resilient to the impacts of climate change. We are equipping communities and the recipients of our financial resources with the tools, data, information and technical support they need to assess their climate risks and develop the climate-resilience solutions most appropriate for them. We are integrating climate adaptation into our rulemaking processes, including regulations, permits and National Environmental Policy Act reviews, and our agency enforcement and compliance programs are including climate adaptation and resilience in case conclusions, whenever appropriate. We also recently launched an initiative to increase the climate literacy of our staff and agency partners, increasing people’s awareness of the risks posed by climate change to human health and the environment, and the opportunities to increase the nation’s resilience to climate impacts.

The EPA is implementing measures to protect our own workforce, facilities, critical infrastructure, supply chains and procurement processes from the risks posed by climate change. The agency will complete site-specific resilience assessments at all owned facilities within the next two years and continue to upgrade and increase the climate resilience of our facilities and protect our workforce.

This updated Climate Adaptation Plan highlights the EPA’s planned actions from 2024 to 2027. We will continue to work with our state, local, Tribal and indigenous partners to seize on opportunities to deal with the climate crisis in their communities.

Affiliated Organizations

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The Environmental Protection Agency is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. The Environmental Protection Agency has ten Regional offices, each of which is responsible for the execution of the Agency's programs within several states and territories.

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