USDA Announces Plan to Integrate Climate Adaptation into Mission and Programs
- On October 20, 2021
On October 7, USDA released its climate adaptation and resilience plan detailing how the agency plans to prepare for current and future impacts of climate change. The plan is a part of President Biden’s Executive Order, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. The Adaptation Plan supports USDA’s broad effort to prioritize climate action and increase resilience to climate impacts among American producers, landowners, and communities. It identifies five cross-cutting adaptation actions:
- 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; and
- Leverage the USDA Climate Hubs as a framework to support USDA Mission Areas in delivering adaptation science, technology, and tools.
