An Interagency Collaboration for Presenting Climate Indicators

Communicating the science of climate change is fundamental to building knowledge, awareness, education and for transitioning toward actionable planning and decisions. Indicators are an effective way to characterize patterns of observed change (such as the magnitude, rate, or timing of change) and also help people understand the relevance of these changes. The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is coordinating an interagency effort to highlight and compile climate-relevant indicators based on observational data to track conditions and trends. One of the primary goals of the indicators are to serve as a foundational element in USGRCP’s sustained National Climate Assessment (NCA) process. An interagency workgroup has been working toward highlighting various efforts across the federal government related to climate indicators and how they can be leveraged for communicating key aspects of climate change. The interagency workgroup has also been identifying and compiling indicators, as well as recognizing indicator platforms operated by its constituent agencies that can be used as input into the forthcoming NCA assessment report.

This presentation will detail some of the efforts that federal agencies are undertaking with respect to indicators and how this information informs the National Climate Assessment process. It will also discuss the importance of having a broad range of indicators across multiple sectors, scales, and impact areas including those with societal and economic implications. Other topics will include considerations for presenting, selecting and developing indicators such as data quality, transparency, and relevance to USGCRP’s priority areas.