Sustaining Assessment and the Fifth National Climate Assessment: Recent Efforts by the U.S. Global Change Research Program

The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is a quadrennial assessment mandated by the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The report, led by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), evaluates the current state of the science of global change and analyzes the effects of global change on regions and sectors of the United States. To date, four NCAs have been released, the most recent in 2018. Work on the fifth assessment, NCA5, is currently underway.

The NCA is part of USGCRP's sustained assessment effort, which involves ongoing collaboration and engagement among the users and producers of climate information. Such efforts aim to build and maintain networks within and beyond the federal government, continuously evaluate the state of scientific knowledge, and provide decision-makers and other stakeholders access to actionable science in a timely manner. From a management perspective, sustaining the assessment process over time also means avoiding boom-and-bust cycles and ensuring that processes learn from and build on past efforts.

This talk will describe recent efforts by USGCRP to build on past assessments and advance the aims of sustained assessment. Specifically, the session will focus on plans for inclusive contributor and stakeholder engagement, efforts to continuously evaluate the science, and the development of tools that facilitate linkages between assessments. Ultimately such efforts are intended to ensure that the assessment is valuable to users and contributors alike. Audience members' feedback on opportunities to further these efforts are both welcomed and encouraged.