A major science group said on Friday that it will release the work for the country's flagship report on climate change. This is a project the Trump administration threw at Limbo by firing hundreds of scientists they had been working on.
The American Geophysical Union and the American Weather Society said that if the authors choose to do so, they would originally publish works intended for evaluation in their journals.
“It is mandatory for us to ensure that our community, our neighbors, our children are all protected and prepared for the increased risk of climate change,” Brandon Jones, program director for the National Science Foundation, said in a statement. “This collaboration provides an important pathway to bring together a wide range of researchers and deliver the science needed to support a global enterprise pursuing climate change solutions.”
The National Climate Assessment is a comprehensive review of the latest climate science that measures how climate change affects a country and what it can do to adapt and mitigate its effects. Five publications have been held since 2000. The sixth edition was scheduled to be released in early 2028.
The new initiative will not replace the federal reports mandated by Congress, a statement from the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Association said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When the authors of the National Climate Assessment, known as NCA6, were rejected, the email they received stated that “the scope of the report is currently being reassessed in accordance with the Global Change Research Act of 1990.” The law created the US Global Change Research Program in April, in which the administration cut staff and funding.
It is not clear whether the administration will proceed with the assessment in a revised form, avoid Congress and try to cancel it altogether, or pursue a different path.
“This effort cannot replace NCA6, which undergoes thorough public and government reviews,” said Jason West, an environmental scientist at the University of North Carolina who led the Air Quality chapter in a previous assessment. “Nottheless, it gives the team of authors who have already begun to work with the opportunity to complete and publish their work.”
The authors of the report had planned a chapter for about a year, covering topics such as climate model updates and urban adaptation to heat.
Scientists emphasized that national climate assessments are unique in their breadth, depth and rigor, and that government's role in publishing has provided weight and reliability in reporting in the past.
Scientists said they were disappointed that their volunteer roles were cancelled suddenly and immediately. For some, the presentation from the Science Association was a welcome sign that their work could continue, just as the authors of the first National Natural Assessment pressed for publishing their work.
“The AGU/AMS efforts can support climate science momentum after the recent set-off,” said Costa Samaras, civil engineer at Carnegie Mellon University, who was leading the Climate Mitigation chapter by email. It is a “remind of science that cannot be stopped.”
