U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled a government-wide plan to address the systemic threat climate change poses to all sectors of the economy.
The roadmap is part of the Biden administration’s longer-term agenda to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and transition to a net-zero emissions economy by mid-century.
This year, extreme weather events affected 1 in 3 Americans, according to federal disaster declarations, and interrupted supply chains across the country. In the past five years, extreme weather has cost the country more than $600 billion in damages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Department of Labor “is leading efforts to remove regulatory barriers and ensure that employee benefit plan fiduciaries can incorporate material climate-related risks into their investment decisions,” the report said. “These efforts will better protect the life savings of America’s workers and their families from the impacts of climate change, and could also mobilize capital towards sustainable investments.”
The roadmap also identifies how agencies can strengthen the resilience of infrastructure in response to climate disasters. It shows how agencies can leverage federal procurement to address climate-related financial risk, as well as incorporate climate-related risk into federal lending and budgeting.
