By Shaun Donovan,
Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Christy Goldfuss,
Managing Director at the White House Council on Environmental Quality
Across the country, Americans see their
communities changing, increasingly at risk to the devastating impacts of
climate change. New data released last week by the National
Oceanic Atmospheric Administration underscores the threat: 2015 was the second
hottest year on record in the U.S., bringing about numerous billion-dollar
extreme weather disasters from coast to coast.
However, as the President underscored in his
State of the Union address earlier this week, while climate change poses
threats to our environment, economy, and national security, it also presents a
tremendous opportunity for innovation. And communities and local leaders will
pave the way. Through locally-driven climate action,
we will not only improve community resilience to the effects of climate change,
but build a stronger nation overall.
This
week, we took critical next steps to link two initiatives that help support
communities in applying creative solutions to address the impacts of climate
change. These initiatives reflect what we know all communities need:
individuals stepping up to the plate to support local priorities and innovative
approaches that use the best data to advance comprehensive community-driven
strategies.
Earlier this week, we welcomed the
first-ever group of Resilience AmeriCorps members to the White House as they
began their on-the-ground work in communities across the country to help
develop and implement local climate resilience plans. And today, the
Administration is announcing that each of the Resilience AmeriCorps host
communities is also being invited to participate in Climate Action Champion
programming—for leaders that are taking action to reduce carbon
pollution and build community resilience to the impacts of climate change – joining
16 other communities across the U.S.. Together, these initiatives represent a
deliberate approach by the Obama Administration to work hand-in-hand with
communities to advance locally-identified priorities.
The Resilience AmeriCorps program was
developed in response to clear feedback from the President’s State, Local, and Tribal
Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, with the
goal of improving how the Federal Government responds to the needs of
communities nationwide that are dealing with the impacts of climate change. In
addition to receiving enhanced capacity through AmeriCorps VISTA members,
through Climate Action Champions activities these communities will receive
peer-to-peer support to further their resilience efforts and technical
assistance from an inter-Agency working group launched in 2015 to focus on the
Champions and leverage existing Federal resources in a meaningful way. We are
learning from these communities too, gaining a better understanding of barriers
to local climate action and incorporating lessons learned into Federal
programs, tools, and processes. This means cutting red tape and unlocking
valuable data to help develop tailored solutions to meet local realities.
Both
the Climate Action Champions and Resilience AmeriCorps programs will further
enable a growing number of local communities across the U.S. to continue to
support the President’s Climate Action Plan and the historic international
agreement made in Paris to cut harmful carbon pollution. The first-ever group
of Resilience AmeriCorps members will be on the frontlines of this important
community-driven action – from Jared James and Cassondra Newman, who will work
with city officials in Anchorage to help improve the city’s energy grid
resilience and creatively bolster the food production system on the local level,
to Mia Dillard and Nancy Simpson who will support Minot, North Dakota’s vision
to reduce flood risk and build capacity for long-term economic resilience. In
doing so, these communities are not just responding to the threat of climate
change, but seizing the remarkable opportunity it presents. This is what we
need to continue to establish the United States as a climate leader, and we are
proud to be part of this milestone in building a better, safer, and more
climate resilient planet for our children and grandchildren.
Resilience AmeriCorps is a first of its kind effort to support
local resilience-building efforts. The Corporation for National and Community
Service (CNCS), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
have partnered with The Rockefeller Foundation and Cities of Service to place
AmeriCorps members in communities to provide capacity building and technical
support for climate resilience. http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps/resilience-americorps