In a December 11 executive order, President Obama named Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shaun Donovan as a fourth co-chair of the Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience. The Council was created under Executive Order 13653 (Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change) to develop, coordinate and track interagency efforts related to climate preparedness and resilience and to support the work of states and regions to assess and address vulnerabilities to climate change impacts. The Council is also intended to facilitate integrating climate science into the policies and planning of government agencies and the private sector by promoting accessible climate change data. As director of OMB, Donovan has been vocal about the costs of climate change to the nation’s economy and the federal government’s budget.
The other three Council co-chairs are Mike Boots, acting chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ); John Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. When it was formed in 2013, the Council replaced the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force. Thirty federal agencies and offices are members of the Council. Led by CEQ, the Council will be responsible for implementing the recommendations of the State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience.
Most recently, the Council helped launch the Climate Resilience Toolkit, an online portal of resources and case studies on coastal risk, human health, ecosystem vulnerability and food resilience. In the first half of 2015, tools, data and case studies for the water resources topic will be added to the Toolkit.