The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released its climate adaptation and resilience plan describing how USDA will prepare for current and future impacts of climate change.
The plan is part of USDA’s response to Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, according to a news release.
That executive order asked all federal agencies with preparing action plans for integrating climate adaptation into their missions, programs, operations, and management.
The climate adaptation and resilience plans were previously submitted to and reviewed by the National Climate Task Force, White House Council on Environmental Quality’s Federal Chief Sustainability Officer and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in response to President Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, according to the release.
“Integrating climate change into USDA’s planning and decision making is critical to ensuring that America’s producers, who are on the front lines of climate change, are positioned to be successful in the long term,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in the release. “This Adaptation Plan lays out the framework for USDA to carry out sustained climate adaptation that addresses current and emerging climate risks and challenges.”
The Adaptation Plan is aligned with a renewed and broad effort across USDA to prioritize climate action and increase resilience to climate impacts among American producers, landowners, and communities. The agency said the plan builds on USDA’s earlier Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Strategy: 90-Day Progress Report, which focused on opportunities in the agriculture and forestry sectors for climate change mitigation and carbon sequestration.
The plan follows the USDA announcement on Sept. 29 of a new initiative to finance the deployment of climate-smart farming and forestry practices to aid in the marketing of climate-smart agricultural commodities.
The Adaptation Plan identifies key climate threats to agriculture and forestry and outlines five cross-cutting adaptation actions USDA can take, according to the release:
- Build resilience across landscapes with investments in soil and forest health.
- Increase outreach and education to promote adoption and application of climate-smart adaptation strategies.
- Broaden access to and availability of climate data at regional and local scales for USDA Mission Areas, producers, land managers, and other stakeholders.
- Increase support for research and development of climate-smart practices and technologies to inform USDA and help producers and land managers adapt to a changing climate.
- Leverage the USDA Climate Hubs as a framework to support USDA Mission Areas in delivering adaptation science, technology, and tools.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and Office of Management and Budget seek public input on the agency climate adaptation plans. Members of the public may submit comments via the docket at www.regulations.gov (Docket ID: CEQ–2021–0003) until Nov. 6, 2021. CEQ also will hold a virtual convening this fall with national organizations who have expertise in climate adaptation and resilience or have expressed interest in the agency plans.
For more information on USDA climate programs and solutions, visit www.usda.gov/topics/climate-solutions.
