YoYo Climate Policy

We are “blessed” to live in interesting and historic time. Many a book will be written about the first 25 years of the 21st century. In disaster terms there will certainly be a chapter or two written about climate change and its impact on the size, frequency and duration of natural disasters.

My concern is what might happen in the near term based upon the results of the 2024 Presidential election when it comes to climate change. One party did not even mention climate change in their 16-page party platform and there were many verbal references during the recent nominating convention about the fake news on climate change being an existential threat for the future.

What does the above mean to federal, state and local emergency management programs? Should there be a victory for the party that denies climate change, we will need to take many aspects of our efforts and throw them into reverse. A myriad of policies and grant funding guidelines will be need to be changed quickly. I would expect an executive order implementing such a change almost immediately upon a new administration taking office.

That will throw us and our efforts into a period of limbo when we are directionless on what our efforts need to be to move forward. I expect the executive order would be “stop doing this” without another form of direction and policies that provide guidance on what can be done, other than to not use the term climate change when it comes to the use of federal resources.

I guess the only good news at this point is that our future direction on the topic of climate change in the short term will be resolved in less than four months. Standby for news and policy guidance!