As you may have heard, the draft 2013 U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA) is currently out for public review and comment. But you may be asking yourself, what is this document, and why should I participate in the review period? Let’s start with “why” you should become a reviewer of the NCA.
At its core, the NCA process is about aggregating climate change information into a format that’s understandable and useful to decision-makers; people such as you. We need Climate Access members, as well as your colleagues, to review the Assessment and let the authors know what’s missing, what could be improved, what you really like, and what you want to make sure stays in the report. One thing most people don’t know about the Assessment is that your proposed changes can only be made if they are formally submitted as part of the public review process. So the time is now to make sure your thoughts are integrated into the Assessment, as the three-month public comment period ends on April 12.
Another reason you should review the NCA is because the report will very likely shed critical insights into the types of research and real-world projects that need to take place over the next few years. For example, the Adaptation Chapter, one of the chapters I contributed to, highlights a number of barriers that are inhibiting or slowing down progress in building societal preparedness to climate change and variability. Barriers identified in the chapter include: future climate change projections that are not aligned with the needs of decision makers; lack of financial and human resources to begin and sustain climate adaptation efforts; uncertainty about costs of action and inaction; institutional constraints; leadership; and differing values, cultures, and risk perceptions. While the NCA is not policy prescriptive, it is clear that future research and policy efforts will be needed to remove or lessen barriers such as these in order to advance national preparedness. As such, the very nature of the NCA provides a mechanism from which research and policy actions can be identified and prioritized. Your review of the Assessment will help ensure that the real-world barriers you and your stakeholders face are fully integrated into the report, thereby increasing the likelihood that future research and policy efforts focus on strategies to ameliorate these barriers.
These are just a few of the reasons “why” it’s important you participate in the NCA public review process. But you might also be asking yourself, “what” really is the NCA? The simplest answer to this question is that the NCA is a Congressionally mandated report to the President, Congress, and the American people on the state of climate change science and observed and projected climate impacts across sectors and regions of the United States. By its nature, the NCA is a summary report, focused on analyzing the current state of climate change science, impacts, and action (both mitigation and adaptation) across sectors and scales of the U.S. economy. The 2013 report is slightly different than the two previous reports released in 2000 and 2009 due to the addition of chapters on cross-cutting issues such as energy-water-and-land-use, and the addition of chapters on adaptation and decision support (Figure 1 provides a full list of chapters in the draft 2013 NCA).
Development of the various chapters of the NCA is done pro-bono by experts from academia, private, nonprofit, and governmental sectors. More than 240 individuals from around the U.S. helped author the draft 2013 NCA, putting in hundreds of hours of research, analysis, and writing. Suffice it to say, the NCA process has been a herculean task aimed at summarizing the national consensus on climate change.
Although this is not a primary objective of the report, the NCA does create an educational, communication, and engagement tool to help ensure that climate change is kept on the radar of the public and elected officials. Using the results from the NCA process provides an opportunity to have more meaningful and deep conversations about the reality of climate change and what it means across regions and sectors of the U.S. economy. While the NCA matters, we must remember that the final report is just another tool in our toolbox. Our job as climate communicators, practitioners, and concerned citizens is to add the NCA findings to our existing knowledge base and have open and frank discussions with elected officials, the public, and our families about why this issue matters.
These are just some of the ways that 2013 U.S. NCA is relevant for you and for me. In summary, it presents a snapshot of the current state of climate science, impacts, and actions. If done correctly, the report will help communicate technical information into accessible formats for various stakeholders throughout the U.S., provide a platform from which to build future policy and research efforts, and provide a much-needed reminder that the realities of climate change are too large to ignore. After the conclusion of the public comment period on April 12, the authors of the various chapters will work to address as many comments as possible before mid-summer. Once completed, a revised version of the report will be shared with federal agencies and the NCA Development and Advisory Committee for the final report. Any additional revisions will then be made and ideally by the end of this year a completed document will be presented to the President and Congress.
As someone who is professionally and personally committed to addressing climate change, I want to applaud the various authors who contributed to the NCA. I thank them for taking time out of their other jobs to focus on this report and for caring enough about this issue to realize the imperative we have for addressing climate change. And now it’s your turn. It’s your turn to ensure that this report is not only scientifically rigorous, but practically useful, usable, and understandable. Your voice, your thoughts, and your opinions are critical in meeting this objective. So on behalf of all the authors of the NCA chapters, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us during the public comment period and thank you for your tireless efforts to build a healthier, more livable, cleaner, more resilient, and sustainable society.
Missy Stults is a science fellow and doctoral student at the University of Michigan working on urban resilience. She is a contributing author to the adaptation chapter of the 2013 US National Climate Assessment.
