Page updated
27 May 2005

Workshop Home

List of Participants.  (updated 12 Dec 2005)

Abstracts.  Includes links to most posters and to many presentations (updated 6 December 2005)

Posters (updated 6 December 2005)

Presentations (updated 2 December 2005)

Agenda.  Includes links to most presentations (updated 2 December 2005)

Newsroom

Background

Program and Events

Biographical Information

Call for Contributed Presentations

Sponsors

Registration and Rates

General Information

Climate Change Science Program to host public workshop
Program focuses on climate science in support of policy decisions

Contact: Kent Laborde
             202-482-5757

April 28, 2005

The U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) announced today that it will host a workshop to address the program’s progress and focus its future course in providing sound science for policy makers.

The workshop “Climate Science in Support of Decision Making” will be Nov. 14 – 16 in Arlington, Va., and will focus on three specific decision support approaches: preparing scientific synthesis and assessment products on key climate issues, developing and illustrating adaptive management and planning capabilities, and developing and evaluating methods to support climate change policymaking.

“One of the most fundamental and essential functions of our work is providing scientific products that are policy relevant,” said Dr. James Mahoney, assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and CCSP director. “We do so through the course of daily activities, but this workshop will facilitate a more robust interaction between the research community and those who rely on their products, such as resource managers and policy developers.”

The workshop will include discussion of decision-maker needs for scientific information on climate change, as well as expected outcomes of CCSP’s research and assessment activities that are necessary for sound resource management, adaptive planning and policy formulation.

Leading figures from international scientific community will speak during the workshop plenary sessions. Smaller work groups will provide interactions among those involved in producing CCSP decision support resources and representatives of the scientific, resource management, policy development and other stakeholder communities. Each work group is designed to focus on information needs of decision makers, advances in global climate research and observations and related data management systems, applications and uses of scientific information including uncertainties, and suggested priorities for future research in view of information needs and reducing uncertainties.

“CCSP makes every effort to ensure that all of its activities and plans are conducted in an open and transparent process. The workshop will be a valuable opportunity to hear from all who may be interested – from those who are conducting the research, to the end users who reference it,” Mahoney said. “We hope everyone who attends this workshop with leave with a clearer picture of the state of climate science and how to make the best use of our efforts to provide a useable suite of products from which policy can be guided.”

CCSP is the U.S. government organization that coordinates and integrates scientific research on changes in climate and related systems. The last CCSP-wide workshop was held in December 2002 to facilitate discussion of the draft CCSP Strategic Plan, which outlines the specific research goals and time lines for the Program. More than 1,300 scientists and members of various interested constituencies attended that workshop. The final CCSP Strategic Plan was released in July 2003 after an extensive public review period.

CCSP is composed of 13 federal scientific agencies and integrates the planning and budgeting of federal climate and global change activities. CCSP was formed by the Bush Administration to accelerate research that would reduce uncertainties surrounding climate change, and incorporates the Congressionally mandated U.S. Global Change Research Program. CCSP retains USGCRP responsibility for compliance with the requirements of the Global Change Research Act of 1990, including its provisions for annual reporting of findings and short-term plans, periodic assessments, scientific reviews by the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council, and periodic publication of a 10-year strategic plan for the program.

More information on CCSP and the upcoming workshop is available at www.climatescience.gov