NEW YORK — Federal agencies will need to factor how the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, drought, floods and other extreme weather linked to it, would affect international development programs and investments under a new executive order President Obama will issue Tuesday, according to a White House official.
Such actions likely would cover a range of infrastructure and agriculture projects, seeking to bolster the ability to withstand the effects of climate change in developing nations and elsewhere. The administration also announced it would make federal data and modeling available to other nations to give them more tools to adjust to a changing climate.
The move comes as Obama prepares to address the United Nations climate summit, where he will try to leverage his administration’s agenda into securing similar commitments from other nations. Though the summit is not part of the formal negotiating process — that begins next year in Paris — Obama plans to meet with national leaders throughout the day.
The announcements the administration plans to make Tuesday appear to hew more toward preparation for climate change than new steps to reduce the emissions that most scientists say cause a warming planet, largely through the burning of fossil fuels.
As expected, Obama won’t announce new targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the official noted. Nations have until the first quarter of 2015 to do so. Instead, the White House made a loose commitment to setting that mark next year.
“Internationally, the U.S. continues to press for an ambitious, inclusive, and pragmatic global climate agreement in 2015, and intends to put forward a robust post-2020 climate commitment in the context of other major economies doing the same,” the White House official said. The White House also will announce participation in “more than a dozen” new partnerships on climate change, the official said without offering more details.
Observers have been looking for the administration to make a significant new pledge at the summit to build momentum heading into Paris. Whether the plans revealed Tuesday ride to that level remains to be seen.
Nations are looking to the U.S. to lead in the months leading up to Paris, where they will seek to secure an international agreement to cut enough greenhouse gases by 2020 to avoid a 2 degree Celsius temperature rise by the end of the century. Administration officials have said the actions the White House has taken domestically — such as a proposal to slash electricity emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 — put it in a position to do so.
“The most important thing he could do to affect the global architecture of the way climate mitigation will take place is by being a leader here domestically,” White House adviser John Podesta told reporters last week of Obama’s approach to an international climate deal.
The implications of the executive orders could cover a range of efforts.
It could include building stronger roads as cities in developing countries add more people. It could involve introducing more drought- or flood-resistant crops to certain regions. It might focus on developing renewable energy resources that can operate in remote, rural locations, apart from a traditional electric grid.
It includes measures that won’t get much attention, but must occur to keep emissions at a tolerable level, World Resources Institute President Andrew Steer said.
“Fortunately, there’s much we can do: We can slow deforestation, accelerate restoration of degraded landscapes, design more compact cities, reduce water risks, invest in renewable energy, and put a price on carbon,” Steer said in a general statement about the summit, and not Obama’s specific plans.
The efforts would dovetail with other policies Obama has enacted through executive order.
Federal agencies now must consider making infrastructure more resilient to climate change. The White House also blocked public financing of most overseas coal-fired power plants, with exceptions for communities that have severe poverty and lack viable alternatives for electricity.
