The Promise of Climate Resilience and Biden’s Jobs Plan

President Biden is unveiling his American Jobs Plan today, laying out a much-anticipated and bold vision for creating jobs, addressing inequity and inequality, and setting in motion one of the biggest single investments in the nation’s infrastructure of all time.  And the administration committed to making climate resilience central to its vision.

The American Jobs Plan specifically states, “Every dollar spent on rebuilding our infrastructure during the Biden administration will be used to prevent, reduce, and withstand the impacts of the climate crisis.”

That’s exciting to hear, and feasible. And it’s consistent with President Biden’s climate executive orders issued in January.

After his inauguration, the President reinstated a federal flood protection standard (EO 13690) and re-started the federal Interagency Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience (EO 13653), which will coordinate climate resilience work across 30 federal agencies and offices. As with today’s announcement, these executive orders make climate resilience the responsibility of all federal agencies.

The flood protection standard requires all projects built using federal funding to be built with a higher margin of safety for flood risks and account for future sea level rise in coastal areas. This means that all bridges, roads, schools, water treatment plants, public buildings, etc. must be built to withstand future storms and flood risks. 

The work of the Interagency Council on Climate Preparedness will help identify how all federal agencies programs and operations can proactively address the current and predicted impacts of climate change, as well as how to avoid adding to vulnerabilities that already exist or will be exposed in the future.

The commitment that every federal dollar that flows from the American Jobs Plan will support climate resilience is inspiring and much-needed. And it’s critically important, because if the nation spent $3 trillion on infrastructure that was destined to fail, be damaged, or destroyed in climate related disasters, then that would not be money well spent. 

The Plan also calls for an additional $50 billion in spending on climate resilience which will be distributed through FEMA’s Building Resilience Infrastructure and Communities program, HUD’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief program, and a program at the Department of Transportation. 

These are welcome developments and much needed investments in the nation.