USAID Receives Recognition for Leadership on Climate-Related Risk Disclosure in Financial and Performance Reporting, Enhancing Climate Resilience
As the world grapples with climate change, many organizations are following growing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) trends. This includes navigating the evolving regulatory landscape to more transparently disclose and reduce their climate-related risks in their annual financial and performance reporting, as well as to improve their climate resilience.
As part of “Doing Our Part” via its 2022-2030 Climate Strategy, USAID has focused on transparently disclosing its climate-related risks in its annual reporting — and has been recognized as a U.S. government leader in this space. In May, AGA recognized USAID with a prestigious Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting (CEAR) Award and a special Best-in-Class Award for integration of climate-related risk information in performance reporting in its FY 2023 Agency Financial Report (AFR). AGA, formerly the Association of Government Accountants, is the primary association of government financial-related professionals and plays a key role in fostering government accountability and transparency. This was the first year AGA awarded this Best-in-Class award and the 10th consecutive year that USAID has received a CEAR Award.
As a result of its leadership on climate-related risk reporting, AGA also invited USAID to present at its annual conference in Denver, Colorado, in July. At the conference, Greg Shanahan, a performance manager and USAID’s lead for climate change and sustainability in operations, spoke on a panel on The Evolution of Climate Reporting for Government Decision-Making, alongside a facilitator from KPMG and fellow panelists from the Department of the Treasury and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Greg presented how USAID is approaching climate change, outlined key enablers for USAID, and highlighted how USAID transparently disclosed information on its climate-related risks, progress, challenges, and opportunities — as the leading U.S. government agency example for others to follow.
USAID has explicitly and publicly acknowledged that climate change threatens the Agency’s ability to deliver on its humanitarian and development mission. Furthermore,the Agency has publicly described in its FY 2023 AFR how it has integrated climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience into its strategic plan, priority goals, policies, programs, organizational health framework, enterprise risk management program, climate risk management process, acquisition and assistance, asset management, and more.
USAID has also disclosed its own operational GHG emissions and targets to reduce those emissions by 65 percent by 2030 and to achieve net zero by 2050, in line with the broader U.S. government’s goals and the Federal Sustainability Plan. Moreover, USAID has publicly described the various lines of effort it is implementing to reduce its emissions across its operations — and has unequivocally stated that USAID believes leading by example is a key way to reduce its own climate-related risk.
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Via its Climate Readiness Plan, USAID has also published information about its efforts to increase its operational climate resilience, including by integrating climate considerations into how the Agency does business; enhancing climate staffing, training, and capacity building to ensure a climate-ready workforce; and deploying a variety of tools and scientific data to ensure both climate-ready sites and facilities, as well as a climate-ready supply of mission-critical products and services. USAID last published updates on its Climate Readiness Plan implementation progress in 2022 and reported internally to the White House in 2023, per Administration guidance.
USAID plans to publish updates on its climate-related risks and operational climate change mitigation efforts in its FY 2024 AFR, which USAID anticipates releasing on its website in November.
Greg Shanahan
Greg Shanahan (he/his) works in USAID’s Bureau for Management as a performance manager and the Agency’s lead for climate change and sustainability in operations. In these roles, Greg leads several of USAID’s annual performance improvement and reporting projects, supports operations senior leaders, and coordinates implementation of USAID’s Climate Strategy Special Objective on “Doing Our Part”.
