United States of America

The US federal government and coastal states have played a key role in documenting and responding to OA, generating best practices and learnings domestically and internationally.

In 2023 the U.S. government released President Biden’s Ocean Climate Action Plan, followed by the U.S. National OA Action Plan.

NOAA invested $17 million in 2023 to directly support its Ocean Acidification Program (OAP)and advanced domestic climate-ocean communications through the collaborative project, “Exploring Our Changing Ocean: Impacts and Response to Ocean Acidification in the U.S.A,” supporting education, outreach and calls to action that associated aquarium partners and science institutions can utilize across larger climate change narratives and outreach efforts.

The U.S. State Working Group was formed in 2025 to advance U.S. leadership on climate-ocean change efforts and continue advancing ocean and coastal information that helps governments make better decisions about mitigation, adaptation, and resilience goals. It builds upon years of OA Alliance programming to support U.S. States in taking policy action on ocean acidification.

The Working Group includes 12 U.S. States, 6 domestic NGOs, 4 U.S. Coastal Acidification Networks and NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program.

The working group meetings every other month and programs short mini workshops to advance themes of interest to members including:

Exploring OA’s Role in Climate Change Communication.
Measuring Coastal Acidification as Part of Water Quality Management.
Evaluating and Funding Blue Carbon Habitats.
Developing Risk and Vulnerability Assessments That Account for Climate-Ocean Change.
Engaging in the Federal Policy Landscape.
Engaging in the International Policy Landscape

Working Group members are offered benefits and engagement pathways such as: (1) learning from and engaging with each other; (2) topical trainings and resources; (3) federal landscape assessments and engagement with partner groups like NGOs or state collaboratives that are working on climate-ocean and coastal policy and communications efforts in the U.S.; and (4) opportunities to participate in global activities like the UN Decade of Ocean Science and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.