The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released its wide-ranging 2013 high-risk series report to Congressional Committees. Through its continuous assessment and monitoring of the performance of major sectors of the U.S. federal government, the GAO found cause to include two new areas in the high-risk area list: the federal government’s fiscal exposure to climate change risks and potential gaps in weather satellite data.

According to the report, better management of the climate change risks is required to reduce fiscal exposure. The GAO cites climate change risks to agriculture, infrastructure, ecosystems, and human health. The United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has observed that the impacts and costliness of weather disasters will increase in significance as what have been considered rare events become more common and intense due to climate change. Weather related disasters have cost the nation tens of billions of dollars in damages in the past decade. The report gives the example of Superstorm Sandy, where the administration requested $60.4 billion USD for recovery efforts. The GAO’s assessment finds the federal government not well positioned to address the ensuing fiscal exposure because of what it terms the complexity and crosscutting nature of the issue. Based on these challenges and the federal government’s precarious fiscal position, it has added Limiting the Federal Government’s Fiscal Exposure by Better Managing Climate Change Risks to its high-risk area list. On mitigating the gaps in weather satellite data, a GAO analysis of data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revealed potential gaps in environmental satellite data beginning as early as 2014 and lasting as long as 53 months (see figure 1). This has led to concerns that future weather forecasts and warnings of extreme events such as hurricanes, storm surges, and floods will be less accurate and timely. As a remedy, the GAO authors recommend establishing and implementing contingency and continuity plans.