OSTP Climate & Environment Leaders Emphasize Key Role of Nature in U.S. Federal Policy

The Biden-Harris Administration has implemented the most ambitious climate agenda in history—advancing the largest ever investment in climate action, including more than $50 billion in climate resilience, taking bold action to reduce climate pollution across every sector of the economy, and protecting more than 21 million acres of public lands and waters. Today, to build on that work, key leaders from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) are publishing a vision in which all U.S. federal policy routinely considers impacts on and benefits of nature across all policies, not only those focused on natural resource management or conservation.

“The Biden-Harris Administration has worked tirelessly to advance evidence-based policy supported by science. Accounting for nature in every aspect of policymaking is a key step in that work,” said Jane Lubchenco, OSTP’s Deputy Director for Climate and Environment. “Incorporating nature into strategic policy decisions across domains is both good governance and the pathway to a more sustainable, thriving planet.”

In a new paper for Science, experts from across OSTP portfolios highlight the need to integrate nature into policy decisions to advance good governance and effective, long-lasting outcomes. The group outlines how nature can and should be considered at appropriate points throughout the decision-making process for all policy domains, including sectors where nature has not historically been accounted for, such as health, national security, and the economy. This could mean accounting for benefits provided by nature in economic benefit-cost analyses to promote the more efficient use of tax-payer dollars and improved outcomes or routinely considering natural infrastructure options such as protection or restoration of coral reefs or wetlands alongside built infrastructure for more cost-effective and durable results.

This new paper reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to address critical challenges facing Americans and our environment. Accounting for the many facets of nature and the inherit interconnectedness of policy domains through integrated approaches can increase transparency about decisions, improve economic outcomes, make clear the full range of policy options, identify solutions with benefits to both people and nature, and align government actions across sector to shape more effective and responsible policy.

The full paper can be found here.

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