The Action Plan for Climate Adaptation and Resilience: 2022 Progress Report provides an update on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) adaptation efforts, illustrative examples of the crosscutting adaptation actions, and responds to specific priority topics including environmental justice, Tribal engagement, and operational and financial climate risk.
The USDA Action Plan for Climate Adaptation and Resilience, released in October 2021, demonstrates the Department’s understanding of the climate risks facing farmers, ranchers, forest landowners, and communities across the country.
In 2021, USDA also revised its Departmental Regulation 1070-001 Policy Statement on Climate Adaptation, which directs the Office of Energy and Environmental Policy (OEEP) within the Office of the Chief Economist to issue guidance to USDA Mission Areas, agencies, and staff offices to complete or update their own climate adaptation plans. Initiated in September 2021 and released in July 2022, 16 USDA entities prepared their own organization specific climate adaptation plans.
Through the climate adaptation planning process and using the Department’s plan as an overarching framework, each organization considered the impacts of climate change to their mission delivery and developed adaptation actions that address and integrate these risks into their planning, programs, operations, and management. Each plan also highlights the climate-related professional development needs of USDA staff, how to enhance collaboration with USDA’s Climate Hubs, and the alignment of these climate adaptation efforts to the Departmental priorities of equity and environmental justice.
In this Climate Adaptation Progress Report, we provide examples and draw on the Agency-level adaptation plans to demonstrate progress towards the actions in USDA’s Action Plan for Climate Adaptation and Resilience.
USDA Action Plan for Climate Adaptation and Resilience: 2022 Progress Report. (2022). U.S. Department of Agriculture.
