White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience

This briefing describes the establishment and outcomes of the State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, created by President Obama via Executive Order 13653 on November 1, 2013. The Task Force, comprising 26 governors, mayors, tribal leaders, and county officials, provided the federal government with 35 key recommendations to improve community climate resilience, emphasizing the need for inter-agency coordination and the integration of climate vulnerabilities into all federal policies and investments.

• The Task Force released a 49-page report on November 17, 2014, containing 35 key recommendations. These recommendations were organized into seven cross-cutting themes: resilient communities; infrastructure resilience; natural resources resilience; human health and population resilience; climate-smart hazard mitigation, disaster preparedness and recovery; the economics of resilience; and building capacity for resilience.
• The Task Force advised the federal government to follow five core principles: incorporating climate vulnerabilities into all federal policies, investments, regulations, and programs; pursuing actions that simultaneously increase resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; strengthening partnerships across jurisdictions and sectors; providing actionable information and tools for decision-making; and cooperating with tribal and indigenous communities on all aspects of resilience efforts.
• The White House implemented several initiatives in response to the Task Force, including the Climate Resilience Toolkit (toolkit.climate.gov), a $13.1 million 3-D Elevation Program for flood and hazard mapping, and a $10 million Federal-Tribal Climate Resilience Partnership and Technical Assistance Program. Other actions included $236.3 million for rural electric infrastructure in eight states and the National Disaster Resilience Competition, which offered nearly $1 billion for disaster recovery models.

APA

Small, L. (2015). White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/issue-brief-white-house-task-force-on-climate-preparedness-and-resilience-r

Chicago

Small, Laura. White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2015. https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/issue-brief-white-house-task-force-on-climate-preparedness-and-resilience-r.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Small |first1=Laura |title=White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=3 April 2015 |url=https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/issue-brief-white-house-task-force-on-climate-preparedness-and-resilience-r |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{small2015white, author = {Small, Laura}, title = {{White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2015}, month = apr, url = {https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/issue-brief-white-house-task-force-on-climate-preparedness-and-resilience-r}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }