The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is being conducted under the auspices of the Global Change Research Act of 1990, which requires a report to the President and the Congress that evaluates, integrates and interprets the findings of the $2.6 billion USGCRP every four years.

National climate assessments act as a status report on climate change science and impacts. They are based on observations made across the country and compare these observations to predictions from climate system models.  The NCA aims to incorporate advances in the understanding of climate science into larger social, ecological, and policy systems, and with this provide integrated analyses of impacts and vulnerability.  The NCA will help evaluate the effectiveness of our mitigation and adaptation activities and identify economic opportunities that arise as the climate changes.  It will also serve to integrate scientific information from multiple sources and highlight key findings and significant gaps in our knowledge.  The NCA aims to help the federal government prioritize climate science investments, and in doing so will help to provide the science that can be used by communities around our Nation as they try to create a more sustainable and environmentally-sound plan for our future.

The previous Assessments were completed in 2000 and 2009, and the final reports are available on the USGCRP website.