President Biden announced more than $6 billion in investments aimed at strengthening climate resilience in the U.S., targeting areas including the electric grid infrastructure, reducing flood risk, advancing drought resistance, and advancing community-level clean energy deployment and climate justice efforts.

Addressing climate change has been a significant focus for the Biden Administration, starting with the return of the U.S. to the Paris Agreement on the President’s first day in office, though many of the administration’s initiatives have targeted climate mitigation. Since coming into office, the administration has passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which together include allocations of nearly $500 billion to climate-focused investments in areas including carbon-free energy, manufacturing, and clean technologies, as well as more than $50 billion towards climate resilience and adaptation.

In a statement announcing the new investments, the White House said:

“Today’s announcements build on the Biden-Harris Administration’s unprecedented commitment to tackling the climate crisis, strengthening America’s resilience, and delivering for underserved and overburdened communities.”

The bulk of the administration’s new investments, totaling nearly $4 billion, are aimed at strengthening and modernizing the U.S. electric grid. The investments, which will be funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, form the second round of the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program, which funds activities to reduce the impact of natural disasters and extreme weather, help unlock solar, wind, and other clean energy sources by increasing grid reliability, flexibility, and efficiency, and deploy innovative approaches to electricity transmission, storage, and distribution.

The launch of the second round of the GRIP program follows the administration’s announcements last month of $3.5 billion of awards for selected projects under the program’s first round.

The investments also include $2 billion of funding to be announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through its Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants program. Funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, the program supports community-driven projects that deploy clean energy, strengthen climate resilience, and build community capacity to respond to environmental and climate justice challenges.

Additional investments include $300 million through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) is announcing $300 million Swift Current Initiative, aimed at helping communities impacted by flooding during the 2022-2023 flood season become more resilient to future flood events, and $100 million through the Department of the Interior (DOI) for water infrastructure upgrades that advance drought resilience.

The new investments were announced with the release of the U.S. Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), a comprehensive report including assessments of the state of climate science and communicating the impacts of climate change on people, communities, and ecosystems across the U.S.

Biden said:

“This assessment shows us in clear scientific terms that climate change is impacting all regions, all sectors of the United States.. It shows that communities across America are taking more action than ever to reduce climate risk. It warns that more action is still badly needed. We can’t be complacent.”

Click here to access the National Climate Assessment report.