Congress: Restore Funding for National Climate Assessment

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you in the strongest possible terms to oppose funding cuts for the National Climate Assessment, required and funded by Congress. This administration's recent decision to cut funding and staffing for the Global Change Research Program is a flashing red light to all sorts of climate science, and puts in jeopardy the ability to produce the annual congressionally-mandated National Climate Assessment. This vital report analyzes the impacts of rising temperatures across various sectors of the U.S. economy, providing invaluable data and projections that inform preparedness and response efforts by state and local governments as well as private entities. Climate is a big issue to study, and requires lots of agencies to contribute and make the assessment with data from thousands of sources. The previous National Climate Assessment in 2023 served as a critical resource, yet with climate change accelerating, it is imperative that we have up-to-date assessments to track emerging threats and the data will help guide policymaking. This assessment is mandated by Congress precisely because it provides objective scientific analysis that transcends political cycles. Allowing its defunding would constitute a dereliction of duty and leave our nation ill-prepared to confront the climate crisis. Slashing support for this program undermines our ability to thoroughly evaluate climate risks and make evidence-based decisions to safeguard communities, infrastructure, and industries nationwide. Attribution science is giving us a clearer and clearer picture of how erratic our climate patterns have become: Rising temperatures, including the ocean, caused by the trapped greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuels, have altered our climate, and is at least partly to blame for the extreme fire, drought, rainfall and weather whiplash we have begun to see in the last decade. To say nothing of lives lost, farmers and all aspects of our economy and supply chain rely upon understanding what’s going on, or you can’t plan at all: Failure to plan is a plan for failure. Instead I urge you to reinstate full funding and staffing for the Global Change Research Program to ensure the 2027/2028 National Climate Assessment can be completed. Robust funding for this program is essential to upholding our obligation to current and future generations, and to save lives, and the economy. There’s no Planet B.