NOAA FY 2022 budget advances America’s response to the climate crisis

“This historic increase in NOAA’s budget will put American businesses, workers, and communities in a better position to respond to the climate crisis,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo. “Our economic competitiveness relies on our communities’ resilience and our ability to make informed decisions, especially when it comes to climate change and extreme weather. For decades, NOAA has provided critical weather and climate guidance that supports our economy, infrastructure, and security, and this historic investment will enable NOAA to deliver on its mission.”

For FY 2022, NOAA proposes a budget of $7.0 billion in discretionary appropriations, an increase of $1.5 billion from its enacted FY 2021 budget. NOAA provides 24x7 actionable information about climate change through a complex suite of oceanic, atmospheric, and space-based observing tools, using ships, planes, satellites and autonomous aerial and undersea vehicles. This budget increase will accelerate NOAA’s efforts to research, adapt to, and mitigate the impacts of climate change, in support of the Administration’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad, through $855.1 million in targeted investments in the following areas: 

• Research ($149.3 million increase): NOAA will strengthen core research capabilities for improved climate forecast products and services. These improved products and services will help communities prepare for and adapt to impacts of extreme weather and climate disasters that have become much more frequent and costly in recent decades.
• Observations and Forecasting ($368.2 million increase): NOAA will expand its delivery of the best available climate observations and information (physical, biological, social, economic) to understand, prepare for, and adapt to future conditions and support job creation in frontline and underserved communities that are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
• Restoration and Resilience ($259.3 million increase): NOAA will invest in ecological restoration and community resilience, and address an increasing demand for NOAA’s science and services needed to enhance natural and economic resilience along our ocean and coasts through our direct financial support, expertise, robust on-the-ground partnerships, and place-based conservation activities. NOAA will support the president’s goal to conserve at least 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030 and through the Civilian Climate Corps.
• Offshore Wind ($20.4 million increase): NOAA will further the Administration’s goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind in the U.S. by 2030, while protecting biodiversity and promoting ocean co-use in our nation’s Blue Economy.
• Equity ($57.9 million increase): NOAA will enhance its integration of equity across the organization, from management, to policies, to service-delivery. NOAA will cultivate a more diverse, climate-ready workforce of the future that builds upon NOAA’s long history of investments in graduate and postgraduate training, fellowships, and extension programs, an enterprise which already has an alumni base numbering in the thousands.

Communities across the country are struggling with the effects of extreme events like hurricanes, floods, droughts, wildfires, and fisheries collapse. In 2020, a record-setting 22 weather and climate disasters each caused over $1 billion in damage in the United States, including the worst wildfires in California history and several major hurricanes in a season that saw a record 30 named storms. With 2021 bringing massive, unprecedented winter storms to several southern states and predictions for another above-average hurricane season, investments in climate research to understand extreme events and provide services to help communities and businesses make smart climate resilience, adaptation, and mitigation decisions are more important than ever. 

“NOAA is the nation's 24x7 provider of trusted and life-saving environmental information. From your daily weather forecast to decades of climate monitoring, NOAA is always on call,” said Ben Friedman, acting NOAA Administrator. “NOAA’s focus on equity inside and outside the agency positions us well to increase our support for vulnerable communities, and ensure that we are helping all Americans better prepare for and respond to the increasing impacts of climate change and extreme weather.”

The FY 2022 budget also strengthens investments in NOAA’s vessels, aircraft, and satellites — the observational platforms vital for measuring and monitoring our environment — as well as space weather observation and prediction services that protect critical infrastructure such as the electrical grid, aviation, and satellite communications:

• Fleet Support ($101 million increase): NOAA will invest in key components of the nation’s environmental at-sea observation platforms and facilities, by enabling a single-phase mid-life maintenance on the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown and construction of a dedicated marine operations facility (Pier Romeo) in Charleston, South Carolina - homeport for NOAA Ships Ronald H. Brown and Nancy Foster. 
• NESDIS ($2.029 million): NOAA will make crucial, timely investments to ensure that the Nation’s next-generation satellite systems not only improve existing services, but that they also expand delivery of essential climate, weather, atmospheric, and oceanographic information to meet the needs of the American public. In support of Executive Order 14008, NOAA’s data and information infrastructure will expand the use of the best available observations, from NOAA and partner satellites and systems, to enhance the understanding of climate change-related trends and patterns, and deliver essential products, information, and climate services to inform decision makers.
• Space Weather ($5 million increase): NOAA will continue to build towards a space weather prediction capability that will ensure national and global communities are ready for and responsive to space-weather events.