Climate 21 Project: Transition Memo

NOAA’s goal in a new administration should be to expand and make climate data, products, and services even more easy to access and use, provide climate-related support to state and local governments as well as to the private sector, and connect people making specific adaptation and planning decisions with the tools and resources they need. At the same time, NOAA should expand both mitigation and adaptation opportunities to coastal communities and fisheries by expanding coastal resiliency and blue carbon habitat restoration efforts, and by establishing a mandate for climate-ready fisheries.

This memo provides the incoming NOAA Administrator and senior leaders with opportunities to maximize the agency’s contributions to an aggressive administration-wide climate change policy effort. This memo focuses on measures that will either generate positive near-term impacts or set the agency up to develop and implement a broader first-term climate agenda.