Climate Action Plan and Sustainability Plans
Climate Action Plan
On January 27, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order (EO) 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. Federal agencies are responsible for developing a Climate Action Plan (CAP) that describes their efforts to increase resilience to climate change impacts. Agency CAPs also address climate vulnerabilities, increasing climate literacy within the management workforce, and plans to achieve climate -resilient facilities and supply chains. NASA’s CAP was reviewed by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and released to the public in early October 2021. The CAP contains NASA’s Policy Statement for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience. NASA’s 2021 CAP is found here.
Continual work on climate planning has been in progress since the published 2021 plan, with further internal strategies in development. Center managers are collaborating agency-wide with NASA climate researchers to understand climate risks to infrastructure and incorporate the scientific expertise into Master Planning efforts for NASA operations and infrastructure and Agency resilience planning. NASA’s mission priority is to ensure access to space and advance climate research.
Sustainability Plans
Revitalizing Agency sustainability efforts is a critical step in achieving the goals of EOs 14008 and 14057. These EOs (and previous sustainability EOs) require annual Sustainability Plans describing an agency’s progress and plans for meeting goals . Links for NASA’s prior plans and scorecards are here.
Since the 2022 Sustainability Plan was published, further sustainability planning has been conducted internally for each fiscal year with guidance from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The agency is focused on strategies to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity, net-zero emission buildings, and a zero-emission vehicle fleet while supporting NASA’s missions.
![NASA recognizes the urgency and the need to pursue and achieve the goals of the Executive Order. The Agency is committed to achieving these goals. Implementing actions are embedded in NASA’s 2022 Strategic Plan, including NASA’s infrastructure objective to “[r]ebuild and right-size NASA’s infrastructure and technical capabilities to advance the Nation’s science and aerospace leadership, while supporting environmental stewardship, sustainability, and enhancing resource conservation efforts.”](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2022-sustainability-plan.png)
