THE FOURTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT AND BEYOND: COMMUNICATING THE SCIENCE AND RISKS OF GLOBAL CHANGE

The Global Change Research Act of 1990 mandates the production of a quadrennial National Climate Assessment (NCA) that integrates, evaluates, and interprets global change science. The NCA analyzes observed and projected trends in global change and evaluates related impacts across a range of sectors and regions in the United States. The fourth assessment, NCA4, is currently in development and is scheduled for release in late 2018. This talk will focus on the progress of developing NCA4 and strategies for communicating the science of and risks associated with human-induced and natural global change to a diverse audience of technical and non-technical readers.

Since its early stages of development, contributors to the development of NCA4 have worked to solicit input from a range of stakeholders at the Federal, regional, and local levels. Over 300 volunteer authors, both Federal and non-Federal, have drawn on individual comments and feedback received from Federal Register Notices, workshops, listening sessions, and public webinars in shaping their chapters. Each NCA4 chapter provides Key Messages--concise summations of the risks from and impacts of climate change on each chapter topic--to facilitate easier communication of risks and impacts. Finally, authors were encouraged to employ a risk-based framework, drawing on public input to highlight those things of particular value to a region or sector and how they may be affected by climate change, both now and in the future. This extensive public engagement and writing process helps ensure that the assessment is responsive to the evolving needs of its users.