Selected governments have approached enhancing resilience through climate change adaptation, and some have aligned adaptation with broader resilience efforts (see figure). All five selected governments have enacted laws and developed long-term plans as a part of their approaches to climate change adaptation. These plans established frameworks for addressing climate risks. For example, the European...

Many federal efforts are under way, but the climate information needs of federal, state, local, and private sector decision makers are not being fully met, according to recent GAO reports, National Academies and other studies, and interviews with stakeholders. The November 2013 Executive Order 13653 on Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change calls on certain federal agencies...

Selected federal agencies have identified climate-related risks to their critical supply chains to varying degrees—including not at all—based on GAO's analysis of survey responses and adaptation plans from 24 selected agencies. According to GAO's analysis of these plans, 12 included information on agency-specific risks, 6 acknowledged general risks, and 6 did not mention risks. In survey respo...

Solid, steady progress has been made in the vast majority of the high-risk areas. Eighteen of the 30 areas on the 2013 list at least partially met all of the criteria for removal from the High Risk List. Of those, 11 met at least one of the criteria for removal and partially met all others. Sufficient progress was made to narrow the scope of two high-risk issues—Protecting Public Health through...

Since GAO's 2007 report on flood and crop insurance, exposure growth in hazard-prone areas has increased losses, and climate change and related increases in extreme weather events may further increase such losses in coming decades. Scientific and industry studies GAO reviewed generally found that increasing growth and property values in hazard-prone areas have increased losses to date and that cli...

The Agency for International Development provided at least $810 million from FY 2014-2018 for projects that directly and indirectly help countries adapt to climate change. Direct efforts have included, for example, creating hazard maps to help cities in the Philippines prepare for evacuations due to extreme weather events. Indirect efforts have included helping Guatemalan farmers transition to cro...

Sea level rise due to climate change threatens areas where millions of Americans live. In all but the lowest projections, retreat or relocation of communities from coastal areas will be unavoidable, according to the U.S. Global Change Research Program. One way to prepare is to preemptively move away from vulnerable areas. But few communities have considered such climate migration. There is some r...

Extreme weather related to climate change potentially threatens utilities that produce drinking water and treat wastewater. We examined federal technical and financial assistance to make such infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather and asked experts about additional options. For example, EPA provides technical assistance to utilities to improve resilience. However, EPA’s program is sm...

Disaster costs will likely increase as extreme weather events become more frequent and intense due to climate change, scientists report. In 2018 alone, weather and climate disasters in the United States cost at least $91 billion. We testified about our work on reducing the federal government’s fiscal exposure from climate change, a topic on our High Risk List since 2013. Among other things, the...

Climate change may increase the frequency and intensity of certain natural disasters, which could damage Superfund sites—the nation’s most contaminated hazardous waste sites. Federal data suggests about 60 percent of Superfund sites overseen by EPA are in areas that may be impacted by wildfires and different types of flooding—natural hazards that may be exacerbated by climate change. We fo...

There were 14 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disaster events in the U.S. in 2018—with a total cost of at least $91 billion. These costs will likely rise as the climate changes, researchers say. The federal government’s fiscal exposure from climate change is on our High Risk List. We testified about potential budget impacts from climate change and how the government can reduce fis...

How much does the federal government really spend on climate change programs? According to Office of Management and Budget reports, federal climate change funding was $13.2 billion across 19 agencies in 2017. In the 6 agencies we reviewed, we found that 94% of their reported climate change funding went to programs that touch on, but aren’t dedicated to climate change, such as nuclear energy res...

The expected impacts of weather effects associated with climate change pose operational and budgetary risks to overseas infrastructure according to the Department of Defense (DOD), but DOD does not consistently track the impacts' estimated costs. Operational risks (including interruptions to training, testing, and missions) and budgetary risks (including costs of repairing damages) are linked to t...

Climate-related impacts, such as coastal property damage, have already cost the federal government billions of dollars, and these costs will likely rise in the future. We found that information on the economic effects of climate change is developing and imprecise, but it can convey insights into the nation's regions and sectors that could be most affected. As an initial step in establishing gover...

The houses we live in, buildings we work in, and roads and bridges we use daily are supposed to be built to last—whatever the local forecast has in store. However, design standards and building codes generally use historical climate observations. Forward-looking climate information would help account for the changing frequency and intensity of extreme weather. Continuing to build with current...