In real dollar terms, adjusted for inflation, the Forest Service and Interior Department spent an average of $1.4 billion in annual wildfire protection from 1991 to 1999, according to a report by Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research group. But that spending has more than doubled — from 2002 to 2012, the agencies spent an average of $3.5 billion to fight wildfires.

In a conference call with reporters last summer, the agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, said: “When you take resources to suppress fires, you sometimes have to take it from the very resources that you would use to restore property or to prevent fires to begin with. And that just basically shifts the risk to a much longer-term and more serious risk.”

A series of scientific studies have warned that increasing carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels could cause the planet to warm by more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, leading to rising sea levels, stronger storms and more extreme droughts. A study published last year by Forest Service researchers concluded that wildfires were expected to increase 50 percent across the United States under a changing climate, and over 100 percent in areas of the Western United States by 2050.

In his second term, Mr. Obama has taken on the politically contentious challenge of tackling climate change. At the center of his climate policy is a set of controversial Environmental Protection Agency regulations to curb carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants — rules that could shutter hundreds of such plants. As he tries to build political support for the rules, Mr. Obama has sought to make the case that the costs of damage from climate change will be far greater than the costs of mitigating climate change.