OMB Encourages Use of Current and Future Climate Data for Infrastructure Investments
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has published a memorandum to heads of executive departments and agencies that provides tangible steps federal agencies can take to enhance the climate resilience of infrastructure investments across the nation and strengthen the federal government’s ability to respond to future climate impacts.
Through the memo, Advancing Climate Resilience Through Climate-Smart Infrastructure Investments and Implementation Guidance for the Disaster Resiliency Planning Act, federal agencies are strongly encouraged to help prospective financial assistance recipients use evidence-based information, decision-support tools and best-available climate data to identify and reduce current and future climate risks over a prospective infrastructure project’s anticipated service life.
The 20-page memo has two primary sections. The first section provides climate-smart infrastructure technical best practices and the second section provides guidance to agencies on incorporating natural hazard and climate risk information into federal real property management as required by the Disaster Resiliency Planning Act (DRPA).
The term “climate-smart infrastructure” refers to infrastructure and natural infrastructure that:
(1) Incorporates current and future climate change risk in planning, siting, design, and operation of the infrastructure system. Approaches for incorporating climate change risk should make use of climate change projections and emission scenarios that are reflective of the infrastructure system’s anticipated service life. This includes consideration of the infrastructure system owner’s and beneficiaries’ risk tolerance, and also consideration of climate change risks posed to the individuals, communities, local governments, organizations, or other entities served by the infrastructure system, over its anticipated service life. (2) Maximizes sustainability over the system’s anticipated service life. This can be accomplished through incorporating sustainable design principles and operational practices.