Building Resilience: How Recent Federal Policy Is Laying the Groundwork for Improved Climate Adaptation

TFAH has analyzed three federal climate adaptation and resilience strategies that protect actions: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the the health and well-being of all people and communities, Inflation Reduction Act, and the Justice40 Initiative. [...] l Heat forecasts from NOAA’s National Weather Service Heat.gov exemplifies a robust collaboration among multiple l National Climate and Health Outlooks developed by the Office federal partners, including NOAA, the CDC, the EPA, and of Climate Change and Health Equity within the Department FEMA, and integrates contributions from state and local of Health and Human Services. [...] However, of local health needs and vulnerabilities to advocate for the disparity between the current state of adaptation actions adaptation measures that prioritize populations most at and the growing scale and urgency of climate impacts has risk, such as low-income communities, older residents, and underscored the need for more comprehensive, proactive, and people with pre-existing health conditi. [...] S.’s climate strategy.39,40 significant step forward in equipping public health officials, healthcare providers, and individuals with the tools they need An early example of the new approach was the to stay safe and healthy in the face of increasingly frequent establishment of the Office of Climate Change and and severe extreme heat events driven by climate change. [...] Furthermore, the expansion of of initiatives aimed at developing and implementing the wildland-urban interface has placed more people and wildfire preparedness and mitigation projects, focusing on property in harm’s way, complicating fire management reducing the volume of flammable materials in forests, and efforts and elevating the risks to safety.