Climate Resilience

Climate change is an urgent issue we face together. On this page, learn how we are addressing climate change and find resources for emergency managers.

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FEMA and the Changing Climate

Understand FEMA’s role in and resources for addressing climate change, along with tools to help you know your climate risk.

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Initiatives

Climate Essentials for Emergency Managers offers foundational learning opportunities for the emergency management community and beyond. By sharing communication techniques, climate information, data resources, and guidance for connecting with experts, this resource helps advance the integration of climate change considerations into actionable efforts before, during, and after disasters.

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On Nov. 30, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the launch of a new Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation program, led by the Department of the Interior, to assist tribal communities severely impacted by climate-related environmental threats. In August 2022, the interagency Community-Driven Relocation Subcommittee was announced and is co-led by FEMA and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). This subcommittee convenes federal agencies to explore key considerations, issues and strategies for community partnerships to support voluntary movement away from high-risk regions.

A fact sheet is available that has more information this about community-driven relocation available funding from FEMA grant programs and current projects underway.

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Press Releases

In 2023, FEMA led crucial engagements to strengthen readiness and adaptation within the global crisis management community. FEMA’s landmark year of international cooperation was capped by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell being the first FEMA Administrator to attend the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP28).
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Landslides and coastal erosion were two of the most frequent impacts suffered by Puerto Rico's municipalities because of Hurricane María in 2017. These and other threats may worsen and increase as the effects of climate change continue to intensify across the Island. To address this challenge, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), through its Community Assistance - Recovery Support Function (CA-RSF) unit, organized a workshop to advise municipal staff on new tools and strategies that can increase the resilience of their recovery projects by considering climate change variables in their jurisdictions. Emergency planners and managers, among other local officials from the municipalities of Bayamón, Cataño, Ciales, Dorado, Florida, Guaynabo, Manatí, Morovis, Orocovis, San Juan, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Vega Alta and Vega Baja participated in the event.
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As FEMA launches 2024 as its “Year of Resilience”, the agency is announcing the second funding opportunity for the Safeguarding Tomorrow Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grant program to make communities safer from natural hazards.
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NEW YORK—An East Harlem public housing development is the recipient of a FEMA grant to make it more resilient to flooding threats. Clinton Houses will receive more than $8.3 million for a stormwater resiliency project funded through FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program’s FY21 funding cycle. The project aims to reduce the effects of extreme rainfall events in the low-income housing community.
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In the two years since President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, FEMA has taken significant steps to build a more resilient nation.
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 Today, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and White House Infrastructure Coordinator and Senior Advisor to the President Mitch Landrieu announced that as part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, FEMA is making $1.8 billion available for two grant programs designed to help communities increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change, including increasingly frequent and extreme weather events.
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To kick off Climate Week NYC, White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi joined FEMA and the NAACP for an intergenerational roundtable on disaster preparedness, climate resilience and instilling equity in emergency management.
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Today, FEMA is announcing that seven states and the District of Columbia will receive a combined $50 million in capitalization grants to help communities reduce vulnerability to natural hazards and disasters.
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BOTHELL, Wash. - Today, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, and Senior Advisor to the President and White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu announced the project selections for nearly $3 billion in climate resilience funding as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The selections, through two competitive grant programs, will help communities across the nation enhance resilience to climate change and extreme weather events.
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Today, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, and Senior Advisor to the President and White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu announced the project selections for nearly $3 billion in climate resilience funding as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The selections, through two competitive grant programs, will help communities across the nation enhance resilience to climate change and extreme weather events.
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Emergency Management in a Changing Climate

The challenges posed by climate change, such as more intense storms, frequent heavy precipitation, heat waves, drought, extreme flooding and higher sea levels could significantly alter the types and magnitudes of hazards faced by communities and the emergency management professionals serving them. Emergency managers should adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Strategy and Policy

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