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Second Major U.S. Climate Change Science Program Report Issued
On July 10, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) announced the release of the second in a series of 21 Synthesis and Assessment (S&A) reports.  Coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), this report is presented in two parts.  Part A, “Scenarios of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Atmospheric Concentrations,” uses computer-based scenarios to evaluate four alternative stabilization levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the implications to energy and the economy for achieving each level.  Part B, “Global-Change Scenarios:  Their Development and Use,” examines how scenarios have been developed and used in global climate change applications, evaluates the effectiveness of current scenarios, and recommends ways to make future scenarios more useful.Press Release For CCSP information arrow
Climate and Environmental Sciences Division

The Climate Sciences Program includes process research and modeling efforts to (1) improve understanding of factors affecting the Earth's radiant-energy balance; (2) predict accurately any global and regional climate change induced by increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols and greenhouse gases; (3) quantify sources and sinks of energy-related greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide; and (4) improve the scientific basis for assessing both the potential consequences of climatic changes, including the potential ecological, social, and economic implications of human-induced climatic changes caused by increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the benefits and costs of alternative response options. Research is focused on understanding the basic chemical, physical, and biological processes of the Earth's atmosphere, land, and oceans and how these processes may be affected by energy production and use, primarily the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion. A major part of the research is designed to provide the data that will enable an objective assessment of the potential for, and consequences of, global warming. The program is comprehensive with an emphasis on the radiation balance from the surface of the Earth to the top of the atmosphere, including the role of clouds and on improving quantitative models necessary to predict possible climate change at the global and regional levels. The Environmental Processes subprogram is DOE's contribution to the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, a program that integrates federal research on global change and climate change.

The Environmental Sciences Program provides fundamental scientific information and understanding to address the impacts of the nation’s energy production on the environment. DOE is responsible for what has been described as the largest, most complex, and diverse collection of environmental remediation challenges in the nation. While some of the problems are tractable and require only time and money to resolve, a large fraction of them cannot be resolved with existing knowledge and technology. It is the need for solutions to this subset of environmental remediation problems that drives this research program. Research focuses on (1) understanding the processes that influence and control the environmental mobility of DOE-relevant contaminants; (2) using that understanding to identify and develop novel approaches to remediation; and (3) developing the tools and technologies needed to advance science in these areas.