A public review Draft National Climate Assessment report was released today by a federal advisory committee. The 60-member National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee, or NCADAC, reflecting a diverse range of expertise, oversees the development of the report. More than 240 authors have contributed to the 30 chapters in the report. As President Obama follows through on his post-election pledge on November 14 to lead a national “wide-ranging conversation” about climate change during the “next several months,” the draft National Climate Assessment provides a great deal of material to talk about.  

More on national climate assessments, past and present, to follow in subsequent posts.

The review draft is now posted at http://ncadac.globalchange.gov. Public comments on the draft may be submitted starting Monday, January 14, using an electronic comment-submission tool that will be available at that site. The 90-day comment period ends April 12. This is still a DRAFT report, and a product of the federal advisory committee (not a product of the federal government). It can be reasonably assumed that the draft will undergo substantial revisions during multiple reviews before a final report is issued next year. The report has already gone through multiple drafts before being approved for public review.

Following review by the National Academies of Sciences and by the public, the report will be revised by the NCADAC and then submitted to the U.S. Government for consideration in October 2013.  Following review by the federal agencies, a final report, which will be published as a U.S. Government document, is currently scheduled to be released as an e-book in March 2014.

John Holdren, the President’s Science and Technology Adviser and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Jane Lubchenco, Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), today posted a joint entry on the White House blog about the draft report: Expanding the Climate Change Conversation:

… While the specific findings of the draft NCA are still subject to revision in response to inputs from the public, the National Academies, and the 13 Federal departments and agencies that make up the USGCRP, the document released today deserves credit already for setting a new standard of scientific integrity, user relevance, and stakeholder inclusiveness. It was developed with input from more than 240 contributing authors under the leadership of 60 independent expert advisors. More than 1,000 volunteers across the Nation helped build it from the ground-up by organizing regional workshops and contributing technical reports.

In a parallel effort, USGCRP recently launched “NCAnet,” a growing network of more than 60 stakeholder organizations committed to engaging broad and diverse audiences on this important topic. NCAnet represents a major step toward building the “sustained assessment” process that has been articulated as a strategic goal for USGCRP—a process that will aim to inform climate-related decisions on continual basis, rather than just every four years. …

National Climate Assessment

NCA Development and Advisory Committee

U.S. Global Change Research Program

Earlier post: Obama says he will elevate national climate change ‘conversation’