Chapter 17. U.S. Climate Change Science Program

Many scientific endeavors are conducted jointly by two or more federal agencies. "The Climate Change Science Program  (CCSP) is conducted by thirteen departments and agencies: USAID, USDA, NOAA, DoD, DOE, NIH, USGS, DOS, DOT, EPA, NASA, NSF, and theSmithsonian Institute.

The CCSP was established in 2002 to empower the Nation and the global community with the science-based knowledge to manage risks and opportunities of change in the climate and related environmental systems. CCSP incorporates and integrates the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) with the Bush Administration’s  U.S. Climate Change Research Initiative  (CCRI)."

"In its Strategic Plan, the CCSP adopted five overarching scientific goals. By developing information responsive to these goals, the program will ensure that it addresses the most important climate related issues.

• Goal 1: Improve knowledge of the Earth’s past and present climate and environment, including its natural variability, and improve understanding of the causes of observed variability and change.
• Goal 2: Improve quantification of the forces bringing about changes in the Earth’s climate and related systems.
• Goal 3: Reduce uncertainty in projections of how the Earth’s climate and related systems may change in the future.
• Goal 4: Understand the sensitivity and adaptability of different natural and managed ecosystems and human systems to climate and related global changes.
• Goal 5: Explore the uses and identify the limits of evolving knowledge to manage risks and opportunities related to climate variability and change."

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The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is the largest interagency initiative that focuses on environmental research. It "was established by the Global Change Research Act of 1990 to enhance understanding of natural and human-induced changes in the Earth’s global environmental system; to monitor, understand, and predict global change; and to provide a sound scientific basis for national and international decisionmaking." The program seeks to "provide a sound scientific understanding of the human and natural forces that influence the Earth's climate system--and thus provide a sound scientific for national and international policy on global change issues."

The USGCRP Research Elements give an overview of U.S. Research on climate and global change, as well as other research focus areas in:

• Atmospheric Composition "focuses on how human activities and natural phenomena affect atmospheric composition, and how those changes relate to societally important issues such as climate change and ozone layer depletion. Emphasis is on developing the research and observing framework that will provide timely scientific information for decisionmakers in the climate arena, both in the United States and abroad."
• Climate Variability & Change "research has made significant advances in understanding the causes of climate variations. Substantial progress has also been made in incorporating this new knowledge into frameworks for predicting future climate variability on seasonal-to- interannual time scales and for investigating the effects of human activities on climate."
• Global Carbon Cycle research "addresses the scientific questions of how large and variable the dynamic reservoirs and fluxes of carbon within the Earth system are, and how carbon cycling might change and be managed in future years, decades, and centuries. This research will help human societies evaluate their options for managing carbon sources and sinks to achieve an appropriate balance of risk, cost, and benefit."
• Global Water Cycle research "integrates the complex physical, chemical, and biological processes that sustain ecosystems and influence climate and related global change. New understanding of these processes will be essential to developing options and responses to the consequences of water cycle variability and change."
• Ecosystems research aims to "increase the knowledge necessary to evaluate the potential effects of global change on ecosystems in order to help society respond effectively to changes that affect the goods and services provided by ecosystems. Research focuses on changes in ecosystem structure and functioning, potential changes in the frequency and intensity of climate-related disturbances that may have significant consequences for society, and the effects of ecosystems on climate."
• Land Use/Land Cover Change research includes "the exchange of greenhouse gases between the land surface and the atmosphere, the radiation balance of the land surface, the exchange of sensible heat between the land surface and the atmosphere, and the roughness of the land surface and its uptake of momentum from the atmosphere. Because of these strong links, changes in land use and land cover can be important contributors to climate change and variability."
• Human Contributions & Responses research aims "to inform public discussion of climate-related issues and scientifically assess and expand options for mitigation of and adaptation to climate variability and change."
  

In FY 2009, the USGCRP requested a budget of $2.1 billion distributed across nine federal agencies (Table 17-1). The USGCRP is coordinated by the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR) of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) under the auspices of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The activities and plans of the USGCRP are summarized in an annual report to Congress entitled Our Changing Planet: The U.S. Global Change Research Program for FY 2009 [PDF download]  .

"The Global Change Research Act 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.' This recognizes the profound socioeconomic and ecological implications of global environmental change. The USGCRP focuses on four sets of interacting changes in the coupled human-environment system, a system changing at a pace unprecedented in human history:

• Changes in the natural and human-induced forces affecting the Earth system, such as solar variability, volcanic eruptions, water vapor and clouds, atmospheric composition (such as carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases, and aerosols), socio-economic characteristics and activities (such as population growth, consumption patterns, and technological choices), and changes in land use and land cover;
• Changes and variability in Earth system attributes that directly affect natural and human activities, including temperature, precipitation, oscillations and modes of climate (e.g., El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the less well-understood North Atlantic Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation), sea level, extreme weather events, air quality, water availability and quality, and many others;
• Changes in ecosystems, from the relatively pristine to the intensively managed, including potential effects on the productivity of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and the ability of natural systems to absorb or adapt to new conditions; and
• Changes in human communities, organizations, societies, and economies triggered by the above changes, as well as by our responses.
  

These changes are occurring on many time and spatial scales, but are linked by many interdependencies. The existence of many types of forces complicate efforts to understand the interactions of human and natural systems and how these may affect the capacity of the Earth to sustain life over the long-term. Indeed, the interactions between changes in external (solar) forcing, human activities, and the intrinsic variability of the Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere make understanding and projecting atmospheric and oceanic circulation, global energy and water cycles, and biogeochemical cycling among the most demanding scientific challenges."

"The USGCRP was established as a multiagency effort to:

• Develop and coordinate a comprehensive and integrated program, in order to increase the overall effectiveness and usefulness of global change research supported by the U.S. Government;
• Address key scientific uncertainties about changes in the Earth system, both natural and human-induced;
• Observe, understand, predict, evaluate, and communicate the implications of global change for society and the environment; and
• Provide a sound scientific basis for policymaking and resource management decisionmaking on issues related to global change.

The basic questions of how human activities and natural variability may affect the capacity of the Earth to sustain life and provide environmental resources for society call for an integrated scientific approach, yet the issues are so complex and wide-ranging that they extend beyond the mission, resources, and expertise of any single agency. Through collaboration, the USGCRP agencies are able to support scientific research more effectively."

Opportunities for Funding

USGCRP Funding Opportunities for Climate Research

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Eco-Logical Grant Program