Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences
1993 Report on the U.S. Global Change Research Program
Subcommittee on Global Change Research Program
ELECTRONIC BOOKSHELF
The Subcommittee on Global Change Research manages the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) on behalf of the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences (CEES) [which has been replaced by the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Research (CENR)] and the USGCRP member agencies. The SGCR meets on a monthly basis. In 1993, the functional architecture for the organization consisted of four science working groups (one for each of the major program components listed below), a working group on International Coordination and Development, and a task group on Global Change Education.
Policy Goal
The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was conceived to provide the scientific understanding of global change, and developed to be policy-relevant and hence to support the timely needs of the United States and, in cooperation with other nations, to address the scientific uncertainties related to natural and human-induced changes in the Earth's environment.
Scientific Goal
The scientific goal of the USGCRP is to gain a predictive understanding of the interactive physical, geological, chemical, biological, economic and social processes that regulate the total Earth system and, hence, help establish a scientific basis for national and international policy formulation and decisions relating to natural and human-induced changes in the global environment and their regional impacts. The scientific program of the USGCRP addresses Earth system processes that vary on time scales ranging from seasonal to many decades, even over several centuries.
Strategic Priorities
The key strategic priorities of the USGCRP are to address uncertainties important to policy issues, including:
- Determining if human-induced global changes have been observed;
- Predicting future regional and global changes with improved levels of confidence;
- Determining the impacts associated with predicted changes; and
- Assessing likely responses of economic, social, and other human systems to changing environmental conditions.
Implementation Plans
The primary responsibility for developing and implementing the projects and program elements of the USGCRP resides with the participating agencies. The primary responsibility of the Subcommittee on Global Change Research (SGCR) of the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences (CEES) [now the CENR] is coordination of total Program development, integration of scientific elements, and overall program evaluation and review. In accordance with the provisions of the Global Change Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-606), specific responsibilities of the CEES [CENR] include: (1) developing the research plan and overseeing its implementation; (2) improving cooperation among participating agencies; (3) providing budgetary advice; (4) working with non-Federal parties to provide public and peer review of the program; (5) providing representation at international meetings on global change research and coordinating U.S. activities on global change with other international programs; (6) providing scientific bases for policy decisions; and (7) providing regular reports on the progress and needs of the Program. The primary organizational arrangement within the CEES[CENR]/SGCR is based on four Program Working Groups, one for each of the four scientific streams of activity of the program: documenting, understanding, predicting and assessing global change. The Office of the USGCRP has been established to support the coordination of USGCRP program activities across all USGCRP agencies.
Major Program Components
To fulfill the goals and address the strategic priorities of the USGCRP, four parallel but interconnected streams of national and international activity have been developed:
- Observations and Data Management: the establishment of an integrated, comprehensive, long-term program of Earth system observations and data management on a global scale;
- Process Research: the development of a program of focused studies to improve knowledge of the physical, geological, chemical, biological, and social processes that influence and govern Earth system behavior and our knowledge of the impact of global change on human health and activities;
- Integrated Modeling and Prediction: the development and application of integrated conceptual and predictive Earth system models; and
- Assessments: the documentation and assessment of the state of scientific knowledge and uncertainties and the implications of the science of global change to support national and international policymaking activities over a broad spectrum of global and regional environmental issues.
The SGCR is currently adding additional working groups on Analyzing Global Change Consequences and Mitigation Strategies, and on Developing Methodologies for Assessing Policies and Options for responding to global change.
International Cooperation
International global research aspects of the USGCRP are actively coordinated with those of other countries through a broad range of international arrangements. U.S. scientists work directly and very closely with their foreign counterparts in the planning of specific global change research programs of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), core projects of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP), and national and international programs in the human dimensions of global environmental change. These programs are undertaken in close cooperation with intergovernmental organizations such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). A particular focus in these efforts is the creation of global change research institutes, particularly to address regional implications of global change. The first of these institutes, the Inter-American Institute (IAI) for Global Change Research, was established in 1992.
Significant SGCR Activities for FY93
- The SGCR began to implement an expansion of the scope of the USGCRP, as requested by John H. Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, in a memo to Fred Bernthal dated July 8, 1993. The expansion includes enhanced research in the areas of socio-economic impacts/effects studies, mitigation/adaptation strategies and technologies, environmental biology, and social and policy sciences.
- The SGCR conducted a review and prioritization of all USGCRP programs. The prioritization process was experimental in nature, and resulted in USGCRP agencies re-evaluating their USGCRP programs in light of the new areas of emphasis recommended by Gibbons.
- The assessment function of the USGCRP was significantly enhanced through a series of defining workshops and meetings designed to promote the development of integrated assessment tools and mechanisms for improved communication with the policy community.
- USGCRP research provided policy-relevant information which served as a scientific underpinning for development of the Climate Change Action Plan, released in October by President Clinton.
- The SGCR agencies continued to participate fully in the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) activities. Dr. Robert Watson, SGCR Member, was selected to serve as a Co-Chair for Working Group II of the IPCC.
- The SGCR sponsored a summer workshop held by the Office of Interdisciplinary Earth Sciences (OIES) on the current understanding of the global carbon cycle. The three topics studied in depth were "the missing sink," "paleo-CO2 variations," and "modeling CO2 changes."
- The SGCR sponsored a fall workshop held by the Board on Global Change of the National Academy of Sciences to review the current USGCRP programs in selected global change issues, and make recommendations for long range scientific research in the issue areas which will help the USGCRP provide information needed by the policy community.
- The USGCRP established an Office of the USGCRP, with staff provided by SGCR agencies, to assist in supporting the activities of the Subcommittee. The establishment of this office was announced in the report "FCCSET Initiatives in the FY 1994 Budget," published in April 1993.
- The SGCR provided support for establishing the Global Change Research Information Office (GCRIO), required by the Global Change Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-606). The GCRIO will facilitate information access to the global change information holdings of the member SGCR agencies.
- The SGCR supported the first phase of an education initiative, project "Earthlink," to support the development of infrastructure for improving communication about global change to the public.
- The SGCR sponsored a bilateral U.S. and Japan workshop on Mitigation and Adaptation Technologies held as the Third U.S./Japan Workshop on Global Change under the U.S./Japan Science and Technology Agreement. The Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture co-chaired and provided financial support for the workshop.
SGCR FY 1993 Reports
Our Changing Planet: The FY 1994 U.S. Global Change Research Program
Earthquest, issued quarterly by the Office for Interdisciplinary Earth Studies, supported by the SGCR
A Report from the Second U.S./Japan Workshop on Global Change Research: Environmental Response Technologies (Mitigation and Adaptation)
1993 Status Report of Focused and Contributing Global Change Education Activities Among CEES [CENR] Agencies
U.S. Federal Government-Wide Ultraviolet-B (UVB) Research Activity Status Report: A Working Document