On November 17, 2014, the Obama Administration launched the new US Climate Resilience Toolkit. The Toolkit is a “website that provides centralized, authoritative, easy-to-use information, tools, and best practices to help communities prepare for and boost their resilience to the impacts of climate change,” according to John P. Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Mike Boots, Senior Official in the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, in their announcement on the White House blog.




The Toolkit was developed in response to input from the State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as well as other federal agencies. The NOAA reports: “The Toolkit offers information from across the federal government in one easy-to-use location so that Americans are better able to understand the climate-related risks and opportunities impacting their communities and take steps to improve their resilience.” 

The Toolkit is comprised of numerous components, such as: the Climate Explorer, the Coastal Resilience Index, and “Taking Action” case studies. It provides in-depth information on multiple topics, including ecosystem vulnerability and food resilience, as well as several areas of climate-related risks within these topics, such as food production, food distribution, food safety, and nutrition. For example, in its analysis on climate change risks for international food security, the Toolkit incorporates findings presented in The Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ recent report, Advancing Global Food Security in the Face of a Changing Climate.

According to the White House blog:

"The Toolkit is a key piece of the President’s Climate Action Plan and builds upon the Administration’s efforts to boost access to data and information through resources such as the National Climate Assessment and the Climate Data Initiative. Like the Climate Data Initiative, the Toolkit will evolve based upon the information needs of various sectors. Today, the Toolkit is launching with resources to help communities address coastal flooding, food resilience, human health, and ecosystem vulnerability, and in the coming months, it will be updated with resources to help decision-makers plan for climate impacts related to water security, energy, and transportation risks."

For more information, visit the US Climate Resilience Toolkit website or view The Chicago Council’s work on advancing global food security in the face of weather volatility and climate change.