Regional Environment and Health Office

U.S. Resources On Environment

State Department Bureau of Oceans, Environment, and Scientific Affairs
The Bureau of Oceans, Environment, and Science (OES) promotes transformational diplomacy through advancing environmental stewardship, encouraging economic growth, and promoting social development around the globe to foster a safer, more secure and hopeful world. 

State Department Climate Change Information
This site from U.S. Department of State provides access to important documents about U.S. communications under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, recent speeches and testimony related to climate change, as well as general information on international environmental affairs.

White House Climate Change Policy
This page describes White House initiatives and policies on climate change. 
 
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
In 1976, OSTP was created to provide the President with timely policy advice and to coordinate science and technology investment. OSTP has assumed a prominent role in advancing fundamental science, education and scientific literacy, investment in applied research, and international cooperation. 

USAID Environment and Climate Change Program
Addressing the causes and effects of climate change has been a key focus of USAID’s development assistance for over a decade. USAID has funded environmental programs that have reduced growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while promoting energy efficiency, forest conservation, biodiversity, and other development goals. This ‘multiple benefits’ approach to climate change helps developing and transition countries achieve economic development without sacrificing environmental protection. 

USDA Global Change Program Office
This U.S. Department of Agriculture Office serves as USDA's focal point for climate change issues and is responsible for coordinating activities with other Federal agencies, interacting with the legislative branch on climate change issues affecting agriculture and forestry, and representing USDA on U.S. delegations to international climate change discussions. The Office ensures that USDA is a source of objective, analytical assessments of the effects of climate change and proposed response strategies. 

DOE's Office of Policy and International Affairs, Presidential Initiatives
The Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs (PI) is the primary advisor to the Secretary and the Department on energy and technology policy development, analysis and implementation, and leads the Department's international energy initiatives. PI primarily performs energy and environmental analysis, conducts international negotiations on energy issues, and leads, coordinates and implements key aspects of the President’s National Energy Policy (NEP) and other energy-related Presidential initiatives.

EPA Climate Change Division
The Climate Change Division (CCD) is the EPA lead on domestic and international climate change policy. CCD pursues programs to further the Administration's broader climate policy and objectives. Some of the division's main functions include: compiling and reporting the U.S. greenhouse gas inventory under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); managing several non-CO2 voluntary programs such as the Landfill Methane Outreach Program, and the international Methane to Markets Partnership; tracking emerging issues in climate science, impacts, economics and innovative technologies; and supporting U.S. bilateral and multilateral partnerships. 

U.S. Climate Change Technology Program
The mission of the CCTP is to focus R&D activities more effectively on the President's climate change goals, near- and long-term. The CCTP provides a forum for interagency exchange of information on ongoing R&D activities. The CCTP is chartered by the President to review the Federal R&D portfolio and make recommendations. The CCTP's structure provides an opportunity to develop, across the Federal government, a comprehensive, coherent, multi-agency, multi-year R&D program plan for the development of climate change technology, tied to specific climate change goals and objectives.

Global Change Data and Information System (GCDIS)
GCDIS is a collection of distributed information systems operated by government agencies involved in global change research. 

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
DOE is a leading science and technology agency whose research supports our nation's energy security, national security, environmental quality, and contributes to a better quality of life for all Americans. 
 
DOE: Solar America Initiative
The Solar America Initiative will accelerate the development of advanced solar electric technologies, including photovoltaics and concentrating solar power systems, with the goal of making them cost-competitive with other forms of renewable electricity by 2015. 

Energy Information Administration 
The Energy Information Administration develops emission inventories of U.S. greenhouse gases and manages a program for the voluntary reporting of greenhouse gases. 
 
EPA Coal Combustion Products Partnership
The Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C2P2) program is a cooperative effort between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, American Coal Ash Association, Utility Solid Waste Activities Group, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Federal Highway Administration to help promote the beneficial use of Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) and the environmental benefits that result from their use. 
 
EPA Coalbed Methane Outreach Program
The Coalbed Methane Outreach Program helps the coal industry identify the technologies, markets, and finance sources to profitably use or sell the methane that coal mines would otherwise vent to the atmosphere.

EPA Excessive Heat Events Guidebook
Designed to help community officials, emergency managers, meteorologists, and others plan for and respond to excessive heat events, the guidebook highlights best practices that have been employed to save lives during excessive heat events in different urban areas and provides a menu of options that officials can use to respond to these events in their communities.  
 
EPA Green Vehicle Guide
This guide rates only environmental performance when the vehicle is in use. It does not account for other environmental factors, such as recyclability of the vehicle, or for any other factors that people may consider when choosing a vehicle, such as safety, cost, or driving performance. 
 
EPA Methane Programs
This is a gateway to all of EPA's voluntary methane programs. Through these programs, companies work with EPA to achieve emissions reductions by implementing cost-effective management methods and technologies. The programs are designed to overcome a wide range of informational, technical, and institutional barriers to reduce methane emissions, while creating profitable activities for the coal, natural gas, landfill, and agricultural industries. 

EPA Natural Gas Star Program 
The Natural Gas Star Program is a voluntary partnership between EPA and the natural gas industry to find cost-effective ways of reducing emissions of methane (the primary component of natural gas). The program consists of two initiatives, one focused on the transmission and distribution sectors, and the other concentrating on the production and processing sectors. 
 
EPA: Carbon Sequestration in Agriculture and Forestry
This site provides information on carbon sequestration, agriculture and forestry practices that can sequester carbon, tools, resources, analyses, and more. 
 
NASA Global Hydrology and Climate Center
The primary focus of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC) is to understand and predict the Earth's global water cycle, its connections to climate variability and weather, and to assess the interactions between human society and the dynamic Earth system in which we live. The GHCC is a partnership comprised of organizational elements from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the State of Alabama's Space Science and Technology Alliance, and the Universities Space Research Association. 
 
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) GISS is a NASA research institute located near Columbia University in New York City. A subdivision of the Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Sciences Directorate in Maryland, GISS is primarily engaged in studies of global climate change.

National Academy of Sciences Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate
The Board seeks to advance understanding of the Earth's atmosphere and climate, to help apply this knowledge to benefit the public, and to advise the federal government on issues within the Board's areas of expertise. 
 
National Institutes of Health (NIH) 
Conducts research and analysis into environment-related diseases and associated health risks. 
 
NOAA Office of Global Programs
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency's Office of Global Programs sponsors focused scientific research aimed at understanding climate variability and its predictability. Through studies in these areas, researchers coordinate activities that jointly contribute to improved predictions and assessments of climate variability over a continuum of timescales from season to season, year to year, and over the course of a decade and beyond. 
 
NOAA: A Palo Perspective on Abrubt Climate Change 
Paleoclimatic information on rapid changes in climate that have occurred in the past.

U.S. Geological Survey Research Contributions to Climate Change Science
USGS Global Change Research activities strive to achieve a whole-system understanding of the interrelationships among earth surface processes, ecological systems, and human activities. Activities of the program focus on documenting, analyzing, and modeling the character of past and present environments and the geological, biological, hydrological, and geochemical processes involved in environmental change so that future environmental changes and impacts can be anticipated.  
 
U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) 
USGCRP was created as a Presidential Initiative in 1989 and formalized in 1990 by the Global Change Research Act of 1990. USGCRP research is organized around a framework of observing, documenting, understanding, and predicting global change; assessing the consequences of these changes; and producing assessments to synthesize and communicate this body of knowledge. 
 
U.S. National Assessment
To assure that the United States is prepared for future change, the United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) initiated a national assessment on the potential consequences of climate variability and change for the nation. The national assessment process aimed to analyze and evaluate what is known about the potential consequences of climate variability and change for the nation, in the context of other pressures on the public, the environment, and the nation's resources. The National Assessment Overview and Foundation Reports were produced by the National Assessment Synthesis Team, an advisory committee chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and were not subjected to OSTP's Information Quality Act Guidelines. The National Assessment was forwarded to the President and Congress in November 2000 for their consideration.