Access a range of climate-related reports issued by government agencies and scientific organizations. Browse the reports listed below, or filter by scope, content, or focus in the boxes above. To expand your results, click the Clear Filters link.
This is the FY22 edition of the U.S. Gllobal Change Research Program's annual report to Congress mandated by the the Global Change Research Act. The report provides an overview of the Program’s progress in delivering on its strategic goals as well as a summary of agency expenditures under USGCRP’s budget crosscut.
While all people living in the United States are affected by climate change, some communities and some populations are more vulnerable to changing climate conditions than others. This final report from a NOAA-funded project in New Jersey highlights current evidence regarding impacts of changing climate-related coastal hazards on socially vulnerable populations, identify opportunities to address needs of socially vulnerable populations as part of coastal community climate resilience planning, and outlines possible options for coastal management policy that may enhance efforts to address needs of socially vulnerable populations as part of coastal community resilience efforts.
The world continues to emit greenhouse gases while the planet's climate is changing faster than ever. This report intends to take up the latest and most essential scientific findings published in an extraordinary year—the climate science year in review.
The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida) is a federally recognized Indian Tribe that serves 20 villages and communities stretching over 43,000 square miles within the Alaska Panhandle. The Tlingit and Haida membership is among the largest, most isolated, and most geographically dispersed of Native or Tribal populations nationwide. The region encompasses a 525-mile strip of coastline and interior waterways, bordered by Canada on the north, south, and east, with the Gulf of Alaska on the west.
The Central Council recognizes that wild salmon, berries, clams, herring, halibut, yellow cedar and other species important for subsistence, cash and culture are at risk. In response, they have released a 53-page climate change adaptation plan. The document is a roadmap for prioritizing, monitoring, and responding to threats stemming from warming air and ocean temperatures, caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere.
This user-friendly summary is based on the 2015 report “City of Long Beach Climate Resiliency Assessment Report" and “Appendices” prepared by the Aquarium of the Pacific at the request of Mayor Robert Garcia. The report includes clear infographics that describe current and projected conditions in the city. It also describe what the city is currently doing and what else the city and its residents can do.
In January 2015, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia asked the Aquarium of the Pacific to take a lead in assessing the primary threats that climate change poses to Long Beach, to identify the most vulnerable neighborhoods and segments of the population, and to identify and provide a preliminary assessment of options to reduce those vulnerabilities. Over the course of 2015, the Aquarium hosted and participated in meetings and workshops with academic and government scientists, business and government leaders, local stakeholders, and Long Beach residents to discuss key issues facing our community as the result of climate change. This report, completed in December 2015, represents the culmination of these efforts. The report offers detailed assessments of the five main threats of climate change to Long Beach: drought, extreme heat, sea level rise and coastal flooding, deteriorating air quality, and public health and social vulnerability. It also provides an overview of what is currently being done to mitigate and adapt to these threats, and other options to consider. Finally, this report presents a series of steps and actions that city leaders and community stakeholders can use as a template for making Long Beach a model of a climate resilient city.
Successfully negotiating climate change challenges will require integrating a sound scientific basis for climate preparedness into local planning, resource management, infrastructure, and public health, as well as introducing new strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or increase carbon sequestration into nearly every sector of California’s economy. This Research Plan presents a strategy for developing the requisite knowledge through a targeted body of policy-relevant, California-specific research over three to five years (from early 2014), and determines California’s most critical climate-related research gaps.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is the grand confluence of California’s waters, the place where the state’s largest rivers merge in a web of channels—and in a maze of controversy. In 2009, seeking an end to decades of conflict over water, the California Legislature established the Delta Stewardship Council with a mandate to resolve long-standing issues. The first step toward that resolution is the Delta Plan—a comprehensive management plan for California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, developed to guide state and local agencies to help achieve the co-equal goals of providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the delta's ecosystem.
This report, the final in a series from the National Academies, makes the case that the environmental, economic, and humanitarian risks posed by climate change indicate a pressing need for substantial action to limit the magnitude of climate change and to prepare for adapting to its impacts. The report advocates for an iterative risk management approach to climate change and using strong federal climate policies to support and enhance existing local, state, and private-sector efforts.
In determining appropriate adaptation strategies, project staff worked with participants to survey a wide range of potential strategy options and develop a process for evaluation and prioritization of targeted strategies.
This assessment of ozone depletion, produced by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme every four years since 1985, is the work of over 300 scientists. The 2010 report highlights advances in the understanding of the role greenhouse gases play in ozone alteration. It also includes updated information for policymakers, including ozone projections for the 21st century.
This report quantifies the outcomes of different stabilization targets for greenhouse gas concentrations using analyses and information drawn from the scientific literature. Although it does not recommend or justify any particular stabilization target, it does provide important scientific insights about the relationships among emissions, greenhouse gas concentrations, temperatures, and impacts. The report emphasizes the importance of 21st century choices regarding long-term climate stabilization, and is a useful resource for scientists, educators, and policy makers, among others.
King County in Washington State has established a comprehensive program to prepare for climate change, and many of the tools and strategies that King County has employed can be applied in other communities. This memorandum from the King County Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Management, published by the American Planning Association, describes strategies developed in King County to direct local government efforts to address climate change.
This Executive Order requires that King County, Washington, municipal departments employ coordinated strategies of land use to mitigate and adapt to global warming.
