Climate Change Risk Mitigation by U.S. Foreign Assistance Agencies

Many in Congress have a keen interest in climate change, and determining how best to address that issue is a source of continuing discussion. Gaining increased attention in such discussions are federal efforts to reduce the risks of a changing climate by planning for and adapting to projected climate change, both in federal agency operations and in achieving agencies’ respective missions.

Specifically, U.S. foreign assistance agencies—the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Peace Corps, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)—are considering how climate change may affect both overseas programming and internal operations. For example, USAID requires climate assessments at each stage of its program cycle to help ensure that potential climate change or variability does not put development gains at risk. The Peace Corps considers how climate change may affect volunteers’ physical safety