White House Summit on Building Climate Resilient Communities
On Thursday, September 28th, President Biden is holding the White House Summit on Building Climate Resilient Communities to amplify the leadership of climate resilience practitioners nationwide.
This Summit was announced by President Biden earlier this summer, and will amplify the leadership of climate resilience practitioners nationwide – the construction workers, educators, resource managers, city and state resilience officers, local and Tribal leaders, and many others who are striving to help their communities adapt to today’s climate impacts and prepare for future climate risks.
The Summit will also explore how federal programs and funding, including the more than $50 billion secured for climate resilience through President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, can support leaders and practitioners nationwide in building communities that are not only resilient to the impacts of a changing climate, but also more safe, healthy, equitable, and economically strong.
Speakers during the event will include:
- Deputy Administrator Jainey Bavishi, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Secretary Deb Haaland, U.S. Department of the Interior
- Senior Advisor to the President Mitch Landrieu
- Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Chair Shelley C. Lowe (Navajo), National Endowment for the Humanities
- Chair Brenda Mallory, White House Council on Environmental Quality
- Senior Advisor to the President John Podesta
- Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, Madison, WI
- Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall
- National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi
Today’s actions include:
Boosting Climate Resilience in Buildings
Transitioning the Building Sector to Zero Emissions. The Department of the Treasury issued guidance this week on the 45L new energy efficient home tax credit that offers up to $5,000 to eligible contractors who construct, reconstruct, or rehabilitate an energy efficient home to meet EPA Energy Star Certification and DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Homes Certification. This comes on the heels of the Department of Energy opening applications for $400 million for states and territories to adopt and implement building energy codes that reduce utility bills, increase efficiency, lower greenhouse gas emissions that fuel the climate crisis, and make buildings more resilient to climate disaster.
Strengthening the Power Grid for States and Tribes. The Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing the eighth cohort of its Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants. This cohort includes $167.7 million in awards from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law across 11 states, 2 territories, and 20 Tribes. With this cohort, DOE has now awarded more than $748 million to modernize the electric grid to reduce impacts of climate-driven extreme weather and natural disasters, while also ensuring power sector reliability.
Promoting Climate Resilient Building and Energy Codes and Standards. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Mitigation Framework Leadership Group, which works with federal agencies to advance hazard risk reduction across the nation, is issuing a set of Federal best practices for incorporating latest consensus-based codes and above-code standards to achieve climate resilience and greenhouse gas reduction in physical assets that are funded with federal dollars. This publication is a product of the National Initiative to Advance Building Codes.
Advancing Federal Agency Leadership in Climate Adaptation Planning. Federal agencies are taking action to build a resilient government through the implementation of their Climate Adaptation Plans, which are roadmaps that agencies developed to adapt physical assets and operations to climate risk. The White House Council on Environmental Quality and Office of Management and Budget are directing agencies to use a data-driven, climate science-based approach to evaluate their climate risk and develop resilience and adaptation strategies that will ensure more resilient federal operations and a resilient workforce.
Strengthening Local Engagement and Partnerships
Establishing New Community Climate Resilience Centers. The Department of Energy is announcing the recipients – in Arizona, California, Maryland, Michigan, and North Carolina – of a combined $5 million to establish Climate Resilience Centers. These centers will improve the use and utility of DOE climate science and engagement with local communities to address local climate resilience challenges while also supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Climate Adaptation Partnerships program (CAP/RISA) is announcing eight new awards totaling approximately $3.9 million. Funded projects will work cross-regionally – in flood-impacted communities everywhere from Hawai’i and the U.S. Caribbean to the East Coast and in wildfire-impacted communities in Colorado and New Mexico – over the next three to four years to test, scale, and transfer knowledge that builds national adaptation capacity. Projects will also generate locally relevant knowledge and strategies to reduce risks from flooding and wildfires in frontline communities. NOAA will grow support for equitable adaptation by extending the reach of the CAP/RISA network to the Central Midwest (Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska). This is the first time there has been a CAP/RISA program in this region. This new CAP/RISA will focus on engaging Tribal Nations and women farmland owners in a community of learning about inland climate adaptation and community resilience. In alignment with the Administration’s policy goals, philanthropic organizations are leveraging new federal funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and committing resources to advance actions that help communities plan for and adapt to a changing climate. A dozen philanthropic organizations have invested more than a combined $800 million in complementary climate resilience priorities – and are committed to continuing to work with the federal government, communities, and local leaders on opportunities to further advance shared policy priorities and climate resilience goals.
Bolstering Workforce and Community Benefits
The Department of Labor is awarding $16 million to support organizations in 12 states as they pilot strategies to improve job quality and increase the availability of good jobs in the critical sectors of climate resilience, care, and hospitality. The Critical Sectors Job Quality grants being announced today will enable recipients to design and deploy programs that align with the Good Jobs Principles developed by the Departments of Labor and Commerce, leveraging workforce strategies, such as sector partnerships with workers and employers, to create good climate resilience jobs to benefit workers and employers. Programs will expand career awareness, provide training, and improve access to quality jobs within the climate resilience sector for historically underrepresented and underserved communities.
NOAA will award $12.7 million through its Climate Smart Communities Initiative (CSCI) to help communities protect people, property, infrastructure, economies and natural resources from climate-related hazards. CSCI will work to support communities by helping them to identify and use climate science data and tools needed to understand their exposure to climate-related hazards, and to use that information to create and implement climate resilience plans.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is announcing the Pacific Islands Cultural Initiative, a $1.3 million investment to fortify cultural heritage and resilience in the U.S. Pacific Islands. In August 2023, NEH awarded $2 million to cultural and educational organizations, Tribal Nations, and municipalities through its new Cultural and Community Resilience and Climate Smart Humanities Organizations programs, which support community-based and strategic planning efforts to safeguard cultural resources and foster cultural resilience against the impacts of climate change.
The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity and Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is launching a new Climate and Health Outlook Portal. Built on the data underlying the HHS Climate and Health Outlook, the Portal features interactive county-level maps with heat, wildfire, and drought forecasts for the current month, along with individual-level climate health risk factors. This tool, being released in initial beta form, is designed for emergency response and health care professionals to support planning and preparation for the potential impacts of these climate hazards and assist the public with learning more about the climate-related health risks they may face in their county.
Ensuring Resilient Lands and Waters
The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation is announcing up to $328 million in funding available through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and annual appropriations to help make Western communities more resilient to drought and climate change, including in the Colorado River Basin. Funding will support grants for water desalination, water recycling and reuse, and small water storage projects. In addition, earlier this week, NOAA announced availability of $2 million in funds through the National Integrated Drought Information System to support Tribal Nations in addressing current and future drought risk on Tribal lands across the western United States.
Earlier this week, the Wildland Fire Management and Mitigation Commission, established by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, released a report recommending improvements to Federal policies related to preventing, mitigating, suppressing, and managing wildland fires, as well as rehabilitating affected lands.
Earlier this week, the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service and the nonprofit American Forests signed a five-year agreement to help return the threatened whitebark pine to its range in the northern Rockies. At least half of all whitebark pines have died in recent decades due to threats including climate change, negatively affecting the long-term outlook for this critical keystone plant species. The new partnership, made possible through funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, will support restoration activities in national parks where whitebark pine grow – making whitebark pine ecosystems more resilient to climate impacts – and advance the Interior Department’s National Seed Strategy.