HUD to join 14 entities in U.S. climate change research alliance

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is set to join the U.S. Global Change Research Program, a coalition of federal entities that coordinates research on climate change, HUD officials announced Wednesday at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. 

The program was established in 1989 and has 14 other member entities: the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, State, and Transportation, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, NASA and the United States Agency for International Development. 

DHS was the most recent agency to join, signing on in February. DHS and HUD are the first new entities added to the program in nearly two decades.

“HUD joining will help make sure that the needs of low-income households people of color and other vulnerable communities are considered and addressed in federally supported research related to climate change communities that are most severely impacted by extreme weather and natural disaster and the least able to fully recover,” Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Beth Lynk said on a press call Wednesday. 

“This is just another step we are taking to guarantee that we make space for people of all backgrounds and in our climate resilient future,” Lynk added. 

The Biden administration, which has set an ambitious target of reducing U.S. carbon emissions by half by the end of the decade, has frequently enlisted housing and construction policy as part of the push. The administration announced in September that it will put $975 million in funds from the Inflation Reduction Act toward energy efficiency upgrades to federal buildings.

The impacts of climate change are projected to have major implications for housing. Multiple home insurers have announced they will stall or end the issuance of new policies in states like Florida and California due to the risks associated with extreme events like wildfires and hurricanes.