The United States must invest in a strong climate science enterprise and expand Earth monitoring programs that form the basis for projections of climate-related risk. The long-term strength of climate science will also depend on investing in a talented and diverse STEM workforce and safeguarding scientific integrity and science-informed federal policy.
Sustain support for climate assessments through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the U.S. Global Change Research Program, considering the full range of high warming climate scenarios.
Strengthen climate science through robust federal funding support for research, observations, monitoring, and modeling to understand Earth’s climate system and the impacts of climate change on interconnected natural and human systems.
Expand federal Earth observation activities that underlie projections of climate-related hazards and inform the development of actionable climate risk information to guide community planning, emergency operations, and disaster recovery.
Enhance climate risk analyses to inform the development and use of resilience-based codes and standards and to deploy actionable information on current and future changes in flooding, wildfire, drought, extreme heat, and other climate-fueled hazards.
Invest in climate literacy and STEM education, including efforts to broaden participation in STEM for K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and the workforce.
Safeguard climate science against political interference by strengthening federal scientific integrity policies and ensuring that the best available science informs federal policies, including possible governance approaches for atmospheric climate intervention.
Revive the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment to provide Members of Congress with nonpartisan scientific and technology expertise.