The Climate Science Special Report is Volume I of the Fourth National Climate Assessment.

Report development was overseen by the Subcommittee on Global Change Research (SGCR) through a Federal Science Steering Committee (SSC), made up of representatives from USGCRP agencies and appointed by the SGCR. NOAA serves as the administrative agency for CSSR (i.e., NOAA established the procedures for the report and released Federal Register Notices).

The SSC selected three Coordinating Lead Authors, all of whom were Federal employees during the development of this report. Following a public call (via Federal Register Notice) for technical contributor nominations in March 2016, the SSC endorsed writing team selections, consisting of scientists representing Federal agencies, national laboratories, universities, and the private sector. Contributing Authors were selected based on specific needs identified by the authors. Review Editors were chosen from the technical contributor pool and endorsed by SSC to ensure that authors adequately responded to all comments received during the public and National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine review periods.

Planning for the report began in early 2015 with a prospectus developed in the summer of that year. That was followed by the development of process guidance and the naming of author teams.  Writing began in April 2016 and an initial draft was made available for public comment in December 2016. A series of technical expert reviews were conducted throughout the report’s development.  SGCR was responsible for its final clearance and, ultimately, its public release.

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• Our globally changing climate
• Physical drivers of climate change
• Detection and attribution of climate change
• Climate models, scenarios, and projections 
• Large-scale circulation and climate variability
• Temperature changes in the United States
• Precipitation changes in the United States
• Droughts, floods, and wildfires
• Extreme storms
• Change in land cover and terrestrial biogeochemistry 
• Arctic changes and their effects on Alaska and the rest of the United States
• Sea level rise
• Ocean acidification and other ocean changes
• Perspectives on climate change mitigation
• Potential surprises: Compound extremes and tipping elements
• Plus several Appendices

Timeline

2015

• Fall: SGCR approves report prospectus

2016

• March: Federal Register Notice call for technical contributor nominations
• Spring/Summer: First Order Draft development
• Summer: SSC review, author revision and editorial cleanup (Second Order Draft)
• Fall/Winter: SGCR review, author revision, editorial cleanup and SSC signoff (Third Order Draft)
• Winter 2016/Spring 2017: Third Order Draft released for public comment and National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine review

2017

• Spring: Author revision and editorial cleanup (Fourth Order Draft)
• Spring/Summer: SGCR review, author revision and editorial cleanup (Fifth Order Draft)
• 21 July: Fifth Order Draft sent to SGCR agencies for clearance
• 18 August: Deadline for SGCR agency clearance
• Fall: Final production, layout and website development
• November 2017: Public release