The Once and Future National Climate Assessment: NCA5
In episode 263, host Doug Parsons revisits one of the podcast's most ambitious episodes: a comprehensive guide to the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), originally released in January 2024. With the Trump administration having halted work on the next assessment, dismissed its contributors, and proposed changes to NCA5 itself, this landmark scientific resource has taken on new significance. Doug is joined by Allison Crimmins, director of NCA5; Dr. Jesse Keenan of Tulane University; and Dr. Eric Tate of Princeton University. Together, they explore the assessment's major findings, the climate risks facing communities across the United States, and the progress and persistent challenges of climate adaptation. Jesse takes listeners through the assessment's major chapters, while Allison discusses the extraordinary effort behind producing NCA5 and Eric examines what the report reveals about adaptation in practice. The original conversations remain intact, framed by new commentary from Doug on the importance of preserving publicly funded climate science, keeping it accessible through resources such as climate.us, and ensuring the next National Climate Assessment is built to withstand political disruption. He also explores how foundations and private funders could help support the independent scientific and communications infrastructure needed to make America's climate knowledge more durable.
The central question: How do we protect what we've learned about climate change—and build something even stronger for the future?
Transcript of this episode available here.
Experts in this Episode:
Allison Crimmins - Director, National Climate Assessment
Dr. Jesse Keenan - Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning within the faculty of the School of Architecture at Tulane University
Dr. Eric Tate - Professor of Public Affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University
Topics Covered:
NEW: Why we're revisiting NCA5 amid the dismantling of federal climate science infrastructure.
NEW: Preserving the National Climate Assessment and building a more durable future for climate science, including the role of foundations and private funders.
Understanding NCA5: What's new, why it matters, and how practitioners and policymakers can use it.
Communicating climate science and keeping the National Climate Assessment relevant between editions.
Climate adaptation across sectors: Forestry, agriculture, fisheries, coastal communities, and rural America.
Managed relocation, extreme heat, and the difficult trade-offs involved in adaptation decisions.
Tribal and Indigenous leadership in climate resilience.
Financing adaptation: Costs, barriers, incentives, and the need for coordinated investment.
Measuring adaptation progress, evaluating effectiveness, and understanding unintended consequences.
Equity, institutional capacity, and the major findings of NCA5's adaptation chapter.
NEW: How listeners can access NCA5 through climate.us and help keep this publicly funded science in use.
Links in this episode:
Fired Government Scientists Are Finding New Ways to Spread the Word on Climate Change
Research Priorities for Robust Climate Assessments in the United States
Climate experts respond to the government’s plan to amend the Fifth National Climate Assessment
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