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Major report adds climate change to ‘high risks’ facing US government
The investigative arm of Congress has labeled climate change a “high risk” area for the U.S. government, a finding that liberal Democrats are using to seek political support for tougher measures to confront global warming.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in its biennial list of high-risk areas facing government operations, warned Thursday that the U.S. needs a better cross-government approach to a threat that’s creating huge financial exposure.
“Climate change creates significant financial risks for the federal government, which owns extensive infrastructure, such as defense installations; insures property through the National Flood Insurance Program; and provides emergency aid in response to natural disasters,” the report states.
“The federal government is not well positioned to address the fiscal exposure presented by climate change, and needs a government wide strategic approach with strong leadership to manage related risks,” GAO concludes.
Several Democrats quickly highlighted the finding, which arrives as President Obama is vowing new executive-level actions on climate but has provided few specifics on his agenda.
“Congress can’t ignore an issue that its own auditors say is a top risk to taxpayers,” said Waxman, who recently launched a bicameral climate change task force with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
“When GAO concludes that climate change is high risk, it becomes a fiscal imperative for the federal agencies and Congress to respond. The costs of inaction on climate change will be much higher than the costs of responsible action,” he said.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) a letter urging him hold hearings on the finding.
While the biggest political battles over global warming have been around bills and proposed rules to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the report focuses mostly on the need for preparation and adaptation to climate change.
GAO’s report credits the Obama administration with making “some progress toward better organizing across agencies, within agencies, and among different levels of government.”
But it calls for “more comprehensive and systematic” planning, such as more information to manage federal insurance programs’ long-term financial exposure to climate change; addressing gaps in satellite data; a government-wide approach to providing data and technical assistance to state and local governments, and other improvements.
The report describes a variety of ways that government infrastructure is vulnerable to climate change, such as defense installations at risk from rising sea levels.
“The federal government owns and operates hundreds of thousands of buildings and facilities that could be affected by a changing climate,” it states.
