MITRE’s data-driven responses to a White House inquiry requesting input into the development of a national ocean climate action plan.
MITRE’s Response to the OSTP RFI on a U.S. Ocean Climate Action Plan
Download RFI Response
What’s the issue?
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), through the interagency Ocean Policy Committee (OPC), are developing a U.S. Ocean Climate Action Plan “that will help guide and coordinate actions by the Federal government and civil society to address ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes-based mitigation and adaptation solutions to climate change.”
What did we do?
The Center for Data-Driven Policy led a cross-MITRE analysis of questions posed in the Request for Information (RFI), seeking to uncover data and evidence (from our work in the public interest) that would help the Offices develop the Action Plan so that it will be evidence-based, actionable, and will lead to their desired outcomes.
What did we find?
We first recommended three areas for ocean-based climate mitigation: assessment and measurement of marine vegetation carbon sequestration, enhance fisheries conservation and adaptation at scale, and develop resilient coastal systems for tropical storm risk mitigation. We also discussed areas of needed research (such as impact on fisheries), recommended leveraging regional clusters to enhance public-private collaboration, and highlighted the new MITRE BlueTech Lab and NERVE Network as capabilities to leverage.