Tuesday, December 13, 2022 at 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm Eastern
Location: Virtual
Please register in advance.

The Ocean Policy Committee (OPC) is developing an Ocean Climate Action Plan (OCAP), which will promote ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes-based activities that can provide climate solutions. The OCAP will focus on topics like green shipping, blue carbon, biodiversity conservation and protection, ecosystem restoration, nature-based solutions, marine renewable energy, ocean-based carbon dioxide removal and sequestration, climate-ready aquaculture and fisheries, and other ocean-climate related actions. The OCAP will include current and planned federal, ocean-based climate mitigation and adaptation activities, identify gaps in climate and ocean science and management capabilities, and recommend new or enhanced ocean science and policy actions to tackle climate change. For more information about the OCAP and for details on a Federal Register Notice that was recently published seeking public input for developing the OCAP, see: https://www.noaa.gov/interagency-ocean-policy/OCAP_Information.

The OPC is interested in hearing from Tribal Nations on this initiative, including feedback on place-based solutions and opportunities to improve engagement on these efforts. To gather input on the OCAP, we are scheduling the following Tribal consultation session. We welcome input on all aspects of the OCAP, and are specifically seeking input on the following topics. You may provide information related to as many of the following questions as you like; these questions are intended to inform the consultation and identify information that will help shape the OCAP:

1. How has climate change impacted your relationship with the ocean, coasts, or Great Lakes?
2. What ocean-based climate solutions should be addressed in OCAP and over what timescales?
3. What are specific examples of ocean-based climate mitigation and adaptation activities led by Tribal Nations that the federal government can learn from and support?
4. What are important questions, issues, and unknowns that need to be addressed?
5. How can the benefits of ocean-based climate solutions be shared more equitably?
6. What elements or ideas can the OCAP include to strengthen government-to-governmentrelations with Federally-recognized Tribal Nations in developing and implementing theplan?

In addition to or instead of joining the Tribal consultation session above, you may provide your written input by December 20, 2022. Please send your written submissions to Brendan Philip, Ocean Policy Fellow at the Council on Environmental Quality, at Brendan.T.Philip@ceq.eop.gov. Please identify your submission as “OCAP Tribal consultation.” If you have any questions regarding this effort, please feel free to contact Brendan Philip by email or by phone at (202) 881-9998.