U.S. Global Change Research Program

The Global Change Research Act of 1990 defines global change as: "Changes in the global environment (including alterations in climate, land productivity, oceans or other water resources, atmospheric chemistry, and ecological systems) that may alter the capacity of the Earth to sustain life."{{Cite web |url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d101:SN00169:@@@D&summ2=3& |title=Bill Summary & Status - 101st Congress (1989 - 1990) - S.169 - CRS Summary - THOMAS (Library of Congress) |access-date=2013-08-09 |archive-date=2016-07-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160704104835/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d101:SN00169:@@@D&summ2=3& |url-status=dead }}

Fifteen U.S. federal agencies—the USDA, DOC, DOD, DOE, HHS, DHS, HUD, DOI, DOS, DOT, EPA, NASA, NSF, Smithsonian Institution, and the USAID—participate in the USGCRP.{{Cite web |title=Agencies {{!}} GlobalChange.gov |url=https://www.globalchange.gov/agencies |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=www.globalchange.gov |language=en}}

On December 4, 2023, Dr. Arati Prabhakar, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, named the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as the 15th member of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP).{{Cite web |title=Department of Housing and Urban Development Becomes 15th Member of the U.S. Global Change Research Program {{!}} GlobalChange.gov |url=https://www.globalchange.gov/our-work/announcements/department-housing-and-urban-development-becomes-15th-member-us-global |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=www.globalchange.gov |language=en}}

{{main|National Climate Assessment}}

The USGCRP has produced five National Climate Assessments: NCA1 entitled "Climate Change Impacts on the United States: the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change" in 2000,{{citation |title=Climate Change Impacts on the United States: the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change |url=https://archive.org/details/climatechangeimp0000unse/page/541 |format=PDF |access-date=November 23, 2018 |isbn=0521000750 |author=National Assessment Synthesis Team |series=Report for the US Global Change Research Program |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge UK |pages=[https://archive.org/details/climatechangeimp0000unse/page/541 541] |date=2001 |url-access=registration }} The report was submitted in October 2000 and published in 2001. NCA2 entitled "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States" in 2009,{{cite report |title=Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States |editor-first1=Thomas R. |editor-last1=Karl|editor-first2=Jerry M. |editor-last2=Melillo |editor-first3=Thomas C. |editor-last3=Peterson |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2009 |isbn=978-0-521-14407-0 |pages=196}} NCA3 entitled "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States" in 2014,{{cite report |editor-last1=Melillo |editor-first1=Jerry M. |editor-first2=Terese (T.C.)|editor-last2=Richmond |editor-first3=Gary W. |editor-last3=Yohe |date=2014 |title=Climate Change Impacts in the United States |series=The Third National Climate Assessment |department=U.S. Global Change Research Program |pages=841 |doi=10.7930/J0Z31WJ2}} NCA4 (in two volumes)—Volume 1 entitled "Climate Science Special Report" (CSSR) released October 2017{{cite report |date=October 2017 |title=Climate Science Special Report (CSSR) |series=Fourth National Climate Assessment |volume=1 |editor-last1=Wuebbles |editor-first1=D. J. |editor-first2=D. W. |editor-last2=Fahey |editor-first3=K. A. |editor-last3=Hibbard |editor-first4=D. J. |editor-last4=Dokken |editor-first5=B. C. |editor-last5=Stewart |editor-first6=T. K. |editor-last6=Maycock |publisher=U.S. Global Change Research Program |location=Washington, DC |url=https://science2017.globalchange.gov/downloads/CSSR2017_FullReport.pdf |pages=470 |doi=10.7930/J0J964J6}} and Volume 2 entitled "Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States" released on November 23, 2018,{{cite report |series=National Climate Assessment |volume=2 |title=Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States |date=November 23, 2018 |access-date=November 23, 2018 |url=https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/}} and NCA5 entitled "The Fifth National Climate Assessment" released on November 14, 2023.{{Cite report |url=https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/ |title=Fifth National Climate Assessment |last=Crimmins |first=Allison R. |date=2023-11-14 |publisher=U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC |language=en-US}}

The USGCRP's National Nature Assessment will take stock of U.S. lands, waters, wildlife and the benefits they provide to the economy, health, climate, environmental justice, and national security. The Assessment will also look ahead at how nature might change in the future, and what those changes may mean for our economy and our lives.{{cite web |title=National Nature Assessment|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250120170357/https://www.globalchange.gov/our-work/national-nature-assessment |publisher=USGCRP}}

The First National Nature Assessment is in the early stages of development and is anticipated to be released in 2026. As with other USGCRP assessments, the National Nature Assessment will draw on expertise from the Federal Government, Indigenous communities, academia, non-profit organizations, and the private sector. The Assessment team will hold an array of public engagement opportunities to ensure the report answers questions that are important to every American’s life, and is informed by the best available evidence.

At the end of January 2025, the Trump administration shut down the program and removed information about it from the website; the authors of the report are attempting to find other ways to publish their findings.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/climate/nature-assessment-trump.html|title=Trump Killed a Major Report on Nature. They’re Trying to Publish It Anyway.|work=New York Times|author=Catrin Einhorn|date=Feb 10, 2025}}

The USGCRP Strategic Plan for 2022-2031 lays the foundation for meeting a new set of challenges and demands for useful, accessible, and inclusive data and information alongside advancements in understanding of a rapidly changing environment. It was developed by the Subcommittee on Global Change Research and draws on feedback from Federal agencies, the public, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This plan meets the requirements set forth in the U.S. Global Change Research Act of 1990 (Section 104) to provide a 10-year plan establishing goals and priorities for Federal global change research.{{Cite web |title=The U.S. Global Change Research Program 2022–2031 Strategic Plan {{!}} GlobalChange.gov |url=https://www.globalchange.gov/reports/us-global-change-research-program-2022-2031-strategic-plan |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=www.globalchange.gov |language=en}}

The USGCRP has been guided over time by the following strategic plans:

• 2022: The U.S. Global Change Research Program 2022–2031 Strategic Planhttps://downloads.globalchange.gov/strategic-plan/2022/USGCRP_2022-2031_Decadal_Strategic_Plan.pdf
• 2012: National Global Change Research Plan 2012-2021National Global Change Research Plan 2012-2021: A Strategic Plan for the U. S. Global Change Research Program
• 2008: Revised Research Plan: An Update to the 2003 Strategic Plan{{Cite web|url=http://www.globalchange.gov/about/strategic-plan-2003/revised-research-plan|title=About USGCRP|accessdate=26 April 2025}}
• 2003: Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program{{Cite web|url=http://www.globalchange.gov/about/strategic-plan-2003/2003-strategic-plan|title=About USGCRP|accessdate=26 April 2025}}
• 1989: Our Changing Planet: The FY 1990 Research Plan{{Cite web|url=http://www.globalchange.gov/images/documents/planning/ocp1990.pdf|title=1989 Our Changing Planet: The FY 1990 Research Plan|accessdate=26 April 2025}}
• 1989: Our Changing Planet: A U.S. Strategy for Global Change Research{{Cite web|url=http://www.globalchange.gov/images/documents/planning/OCPstrategy1989.pdf|title=1989 Our Changing Planet: A U.S. Strategy for Global Change Research|accessdate=26 April 2025}}

In 2003, the program undertook a series of "listening sessions"{{Cite web|url=http://www.globalchange.gov/about/strategic-plan-2003/listening-sessions|title=About USGCRP|accessdate=26 April 2025}} with a variety of stakeholder groups around the country to gain a better understanding of the emerging needs for climate information and ways in which federal research might be shaped to meet those needs. Stakeholder engagement that is a central element of the program's national assessment[http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/nacc/default.htm Link to First National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change]

The USGCRP's fifteen participating agencies coordinate their work through Interagency Working Groups (IWGs) that span a wide range of interconnected issues of climate and global change. The IWGs address major components of the Earth’s environmental and human systems, as well as cross-disciplinary approaches for addressing issues under the purview of the USGCRP. The IWGs are composed of representatives from federal departments and agencies responsible for activities in each area. The IWGs are overseen by the Subcommittee on Global Change Research.{{Cite web |title=Interagency Groups {{!}} GlobalChange.gov |url=https://www.globalchange.gov/our-work/interagency-groups |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=www.globalchange.gov |language=en}}

Interagency Working Groups:

:* Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group (CCIWG)

:* Climate Engagement and Capacity-Building Interagency Group (CEC)

:* Climate Services Technical Working Group (CS-TWG)

:* Coasts Interagency Group (CoastsIG)

:* Federal Adaptation and Resilience Group (FARG)

:* Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Monitoring Interagency Working Group (GHG IWG)

:* Indicators Interagency Working Group (IndIWG)

:* Integrated Observations Interagency Working Group (ObsIWG)

:* Integrated Water Cycle Group (IWCG)

:* Interagency Crosscutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health (CCHHG)

:* Interagency Group on Integrative Modeling (IGIM)

:* Interagency Task Force on Sea Level Change (TF-SLC)

:* International Activities Interagency Working Group (IAIWG)

:* Social Sciences Coordinating Committee (SSCC)

:* Sustained Assessment Working Group (SAWG)

:* Urban Interagency Group (UrbanIG)

:* Working Group on National Security (WGNS)

Decision support activities---including the development of assessments and other tools and information to support adaptation and mitigation decision making---are coordinated in a distributed fashion across the program and are part of the mandate of all IWGs and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research.

National Climate Assessments have been integral components of USGCRP since its inception. Along with its strategic role as coordinator of Federal global change research, USGCRP is required by the Global Change Research Act of 1990 to conduct a National Climate Assessment (NCA). The NCA is an important resource for understanding and communicating climate change science and impacts in the United States.

The United States Global Change Research Information Office or GCRIO provides access to data and information on climate change research and global change-related educational resources on behalf of the various US Federal Agencies that are involved in the USGCRP. The GCRIO handles requests for documents related to USCRP. They also have outreach services to both domestic (Federal, state, and local) and international target audiences (including governments, institutions, researchers, educators, students, and the general public) in an effort to showcase relevant activities and results of the US Global Change Research Program and to help increase the awareness of the availability of data and information resources of the participating Federal Agencies.{{cite web|url=http://www.gcrio.org/about/index.htm|title=About the Global Change Research Information Office (GCRIO)|date=6 February 2004|work=About GCRIO|publisher=GCRIO|accessdate=2009-04-12}}

• Global Change Information System

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