Preview of Our Changing Planet:
The U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Year 2008

A Report by the Climate Change Science Program and The Subcommittee on Global Change Research
A Supplement to the President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2008

Appendix A. Climate Change Science Program

The Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) integrates federally supported research on global change and climate change, as conducted by 13 U.S. Government departments and agencies:

• Department of Agriculture (USDA)
  
• Department of Commerce (DOC)
  
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
  
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
  
• Department of Defense (DOD)
  
• Department of Energy (DOE)
  
• Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
  
• Department of the Interior / U.S. Geological Survey (DOI/USGS)
  
• Department of State (DOS)
  
• Department of Transportation (DOT)
  
• Agency for International Development (USAID)
  
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
  
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
  
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
  
• Smithsonian Institution (SI).

In addition, the Executive Office of the President and other related programs have designated liaisons that participate on the CCSP Interagency Committee, including:

• Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
  
• Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
  
• Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
  
• Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP)
  
• Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology (OFCM).

CCSP relies not only on the agency programs stated in its budget cross-cut, but also on agency activities that are not formally included in the CCSP budget. Examples of these directly related activities are NOAA’s long-term surface, balloon, and satellite-based meteorological observations; surface hydrologic and satellite land-cover observations from USGS; and NOAA’s future satellite measurement programs. Without input from activities such as these, CCSP would be unable to fulfill its mission.

CCSP is closely allied with other major interagency programs that observe and study particular aspects of the Earth system and related societal dimensions. Foremost among these is the CCTP, which develops and studies technological options for responding to climate change. CCSP is also closely linked to ongoing Federal ocean science and technology strategic planning under the auspices of the Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology, which recently released a set of integrating decadal-scale priorities in a document entitled Charting the Course for Ocean Science in the United States for the Next Decade: An Ocean Research Priorities Plan and Implementation Strategy. A key observational linkage is with the U.S. Integrated Earth Observation System, which contributes to the international Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Connections to programs such as these allow CCSP and its partners to leverage their resources to derive mutual benefits from advances in any one program.

The CCSP incorporates and integrates the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) with the Administration’s U.S. Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI). CCSP budget requests are coordinated through interagency research working groups and other mechanisms, but ultimate budget accountability resides with the participating departments and agencies. As a result of its interagency composition, the activities of CCSP-participating agencies are funded by Congress through nine of the 13 annual Appropriations bills. The CCSP budget will be described in the soon-to-be-released Federal Climate Change Expenditures Report to Congress for FY 2008. A more complete breakdown of the CCSP, CCRI, and USGCRP budgets will be provided in Our Changing Planet FY 2008 – Annual Report.