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Overview

Recent Accomplishments

Near-Term Plans

Related Sites

CCSP / USGCRP International Working Group Members

The United States — through CCSP, individual agency, and multi-agency efforts — participates in and supports a wide range of international cooperative activities related to global change and climate change research. These activities include support of key international climate change science research programs, especially those under the aegis of the International Council for Science (ICSU), and their regular review; support of ongoing international assessments; support of regional global change research networks; participation in informal organizations that foster global change research; and support of international efforts aimed at improving and coordinating observations of the Earth.

These enable U.S. scientists acting in cooperation with their colleagues in other countries across the globe to aggregate the critical mass of scientific and financial resources necessary to conduct well-directed comprehensive studies of Earth system processes and their variability and change on both regional and global scales; to provide guidance to CCSP and its participating agencies; to suggest balance to our national research efforts; and, in many cases, to facilitate the exchange of scientists, facilities, and data needed for climate change research.

Individually, CCSP-participating agencies support international activities that correspond with specific agency goals or missions, and/or for which they have been given the lead for the Federal government. In the latter case, and where appropriate, CCSP also provides a centralized structure for soliciting, communicating, coordinating, compiling, and transmitting U.S. input to a variety to international organizations addressing climate and global change research issues of importance to the United States. This includes support to the Department of State regarding programs of the United Nations specialized agencies involved in climate and global change research, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and bilateral arrangements for cooperation in climate change science and technology.

CCSP provides appropriate U.S. shares of multilateral funding for centralized coordination of international research programs that are critically important to international cooperation. This centralized coordination of these programs allows the international programs to collaborate with national research networks on disciplinary and interdisciplinary scientific endeavors and allows for the coordination of important synthesis reports. CCSP, through distributed costs, supports the activities of the IPCC’s Working Group I Technical Support Unit and the partner programs of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) including the SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START). Long-term and active participation in and contributions to regional research networks including the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), and the burgeoning African cooperation in global change research fosters global change research in developing countries, develops research-driven capacity in those countries, and fosters research partnerships that ultimately support global goals in research into and observations of the Earth system.

The United States, through CCSP, also actively participates in and regularly contributes to a variety of informal activities that are dedicated to coordinating and fostering national global change research programs. Through these informal partnerships, such as the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA), CCSP has an opportunity to interact informally with their counterpart national funding agencies with lead responsibilities for funding of climate and global change research in their countries and regions. IGFA also provides a forum through which ICSU and international global change research programs can interact and exchange information and views on the current state of global change research funding, future directions in global change research, important changes in national and regional programs, and a host of other issues.

The United States, through CCSP, also participates in a variety of programs that promote cooperation with other countries, directly enhance research capabilities in developing countries, and enhance climate forecasting and thereby adaptive capacity to respond to climate change in developing countries.

Updates of key international activities and CCSP interaction with and support of these activities follow. For more detailed information, see Chapter 15 of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.

See also: International Research and Cooperation [also available: PDF Version].  Chapter 15 from the Strategic Plan for the Climate Change Science Program (July 2003).See also the draft white paper, International Cooperation in Climate Change Science  [PDF] (posted 27 Nov 2002) International Collaboration.  Presentation from Breakout Session 12 of the US Climate Change Science Program: Planning Workshop for Scientists and Stakeholders, 3-5 December 2002, Washington, DC.