White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience Recommended Actions

The White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience provided 35 recommendations across seven themes to help U.S. communities adapt to climate change. Key priorities include increasing coordination between federal agencies, integrating climate vulnerabilities into all federal policy and funding, and supporting vulnerable populations, including tribal and low-income communities. The federal government has responded with several initiatives, such as the Climate Resilience Toolkit, the National Disaster Resilience Competition, and specific funding requests in the FY 2016 budget for flood, coastal, and drought resilience.

• The Task Force emphasizes that the federal government must play a central role in supporting local resilience by providing funding, leadership, and information, with a specific need for increased coordination and transparency between federal agencies.
• The Task Force proposes five guiding principles for federal action: accounting for climate vulnerabilities in all policies and investments; pursuing actions that simultaneously increase resilience and reduce emissions; strengthening partnerships across jurisdictions; providing actionable climate impact tools; and cooperating with tribal and indigenous communities.
• Recommendations for infrastructure and community resilience include developing federal resilience standards for building and siting, prioritizing 'green infrastructure' like wetlands and coral reefs, and amending the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to require studies on greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts of proposed actions.
• The Task Force highlights the need to protect vulnerable populations, specifically tribal and low-income groups, and suggests expanding the CDC's Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative to address shifting disease distributions caused by climate change.
• To improve disaster recovery, the Task Force recommends revamping the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) and the Pre-Disaster Grant Program to operate as block grants to reduce expensive federal project reviews, and strengthening National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) standards to prevent building in natural buffer areas.
• The White House has implemented several tools and programs in response, including the Climate Resilience Toolkit (toolkit.climate.gov), a $13.1 million 3-D Elevation Program for flood and erosion mapping, and the National Disaster Resilience Competition offering nearly $1 billion for modern disaster recovery models.
• The FY 2016 Budget Request includes specific funding for resilience, such as $400 million for NFIP Risk Mapping, $89 million for the WaterSMART program for drought resilience, and $108 million to research natural carbon sequestration across the USDA, EPA, and USGS.

APA

Small, L. (2015). White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience Recommended Actions. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/files/IssueBrief_White_House_Climate_Task_Force_Recommendations_040115.pdf

Chicago

Small, Laura. White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience Recommended Actions. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2015. https://www.eesi.org/files/IssueBrief_White_House_Climate_Task_Force_Recommendations_040115.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Small |first1=Laura |title=White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience Recommended Actions |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=April 2015 |url=https://www.eesi.org/files/IssueBrief_White_House_Climate_Task_Force_Recommendations_040115.pdf |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 Recommended Actions}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2015}, month = apr, url = {https://www.eesi.org/files/IssueBrief_White_House_Climate_Task_Force_Recommendations_040115.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }