The Fourth National Climate Assessment and Beyond: Engagement and Communications

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 Third NCA made substantial efforts to both engage with a broad climate community and to communicate findings to the general public. The fourth assessment, NCA4, is currently in development and seeks to build on the success of its predecessor. This talk will focus on the progress of NCA4 and related engagement activities, as well as strategies for better communicating the risks from climate change.

Public outreach through Federal Register Notices, Regional Engagement Workshops, listening sessions, and several public webinars have provided valuable stakeholder feedback for the development of NCA4. Regional Engagement Workshops, held in over 40 locations across the US, were helpful in providing regional author teams with insights from stakeholders on local- to regional-scale risks, vulnerabilities, and adaptation efforts. Public review provides a transparent and inclusive means for the broader community to give additional feedback on the draft report.

In addition, this talk will discuss how NCA4 fits into the broader context of a sustained assessment process, designed to both smooth the effort required to produce a quadrennial assessment, as well as provide more frequent, sustained engagement with stakeholders with the goal of providing tailored products that are responsive to evolving user needs.