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.
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.
These five Resource Guides facilitate access to existing climate change learning materials and support the development of complementary learning resources. The guides are compiled for selected topics of climate change for which a wealth of learning resources is available and that have been identified as important topics from a country perspective.
The report provides a comprehensive overview of observed and predicted changes to Massachusetts’ climate and the anticipated impacts. It also describes potential adaptation strategies the state may take to prepare for climate change.
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.
A strong, credible body of scientific evidence shows that “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems,” concludes this America’s Climate Choices report from the National Research Council. The report recommends that a single federal entity be given the authority and resources to coordinate a national research effort integrated across many disciplines to improve understanding and responses to climate change.
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 publication is intended to assist public health officials, practitioners, and other stakeholders in their efforts first to understand and then to prepare for drought in their communities. It provides information about how drought affects public health, recommends steps to help mitigate the health effects of drought, identifies future needs for research and other drought-related activities, and provides a list of helpful resources and tools.
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 volume in the National Research Council's America's Climate Choices series describes and assesses different activities, products, strategies, and tools for informing decision makers about climate change, including education and communication, and information systems and services for helping them plan and execute effective, integrated responses. Information and reporting systems discussed include climate services and a greenhouse-gas accounting system.
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.
This strategy provides initial guidance on actions Virginia’s conservation community can implement immediately to enhance the conservation of wildlife and habitats in the face of climate change, even as more comprehensive adaptation strategies are developed. Conservation strategies include specific actions for conserving species and habitats, developing new data and climate modeling resources, and implementing new outreach efforts related to climate change.
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.
A tutorial for the climate analysis and decision-making communities on current best practices in describing and analyzing uncertainty in climate-related problems. Uncertainty is ubiquitous. Of course, the presence of uncertainty does not mean that people cannot act.
This reanalysis combines a diverse array of past observations together within a model to derive a best estimate of how the climate system has evolved over time. The goal is to provide consistent and reliable long-term datasets of temperatures, precipitation, winds, and many other climate variables. The report is a Synthesis and Assessment Product developed as part of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.
This comprehensive scientific assessment of past, present, and future global climate change represents the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group I's contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment report (AR4). The assessment confirms that the scientific understanding of the climate system and its sensitivity to greenhouse gas emissions is richer and deeper than ever before. The chapters forming the bulk of this report describe scientists' assessment of the then state-of-knowledge in their respective fields.
This Executive Order requires that King County, Washington, municipal departments employ coordinated strategies of land use to mitigate and adapt to global warming.
This report, a Synthesis and Assessment Product from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, addresses previously identified discrepancies between observations and simulations of surface and atmospheric temperature trends. It is an important revision to the conclusions of earlier reports from the U.S. National Research Council and the IPCC.
