From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: High Risk: Climate Change

Description: As part of GAO's High-Risk series, Alfredo Gomez, a
director in GAO's Natural Resources and Environment team, describes why
GAO put the fiscal exposure of climate change on its list of programs
at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement.

Released: February 2013

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GAO's 2013 High Risk List
Climate Change
U.S. Government Accountability Office

>>I'm Alfredo Gomez, director with GAO's Natural Resources and
Environment team. Climate change poses threats to both environmental
and economic systems, including agriculture, infrastructure, and human
health. It also creates significant financial risks for the federal
government, which owns extensive infrastructure, such as defense
installations; insures property through the National Flood Insurance
Program; and provides emergency aid in response to natural disasters.
Changes in our climate, such as increases in the frequency and
intensity of extreme weather events, create significant financial
risks. For example, the administration requested $60.4 billion for
Superstorm Sandy recovery efforts. Federal exposure could grow if what
are considered rare events like Sandy become more common as projected
by some experts.

Currently, the federal government is not well positioned to address the
fiscal exposure presented by climate change partly because of the
complex nature of the issue. Given these challenges and the nation's
precarious fiscal condition, GAO has added limiting the federal
government's fiscal exposure to climate change to its 2013 list of
high-risk areas.

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