CCSP Announces New Release
Date for Revised Strategic Plan
Press release from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program
dtd 27 March 2003

The U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) has scheduled June 25, 2003 for release of its revised Strategic Plan. Although later than originally planned, this revised schedule will allow sufficient time for full consideration of the wide array of useful suggestions received by CCSP from many sources since publication of its November 2002 Discussion Draft Strategic Plan.

CCSP received extensive comments and suggestions during the Climate Science Workshop attended by more than 1,300 climate specialists in December 2002. In the weeks following the Workshop, CCSP also received 270 sets of written public comments, involving nearly 900 pages of text. The most recent set of comments, from a CCSP-requested evaluation by the National Research Council (NRC), was released in late February 2003. The November 2002 Discussion Draft Strategic Plan and all of the response comments (from the Workshop, the public comment period, and the NRC report) are available on the CCSP web site www.climatescience.gov .

"We welcome the wide range of useful comments, which will help to substantially strengthen the revised plan," said Dr. James R. Mahoney, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and CCSP Director. "Since climate change is such a critical issue, we must understand and reconcile the diverse comments, including those that provide conflicting recommendations for future research and decision support activities."

The revised CCSP Strategic Plan will guide the concerted U.S. effort to understand the nature and implications of changes in global climate and related environmental systems. It describes high-level program objectives, specific research questions, and analyses that will support decision making on global and regional climate issues.

"All of the input has been supportive of the open, inclusive and transparent approach taken to develop the plan. We viewed the CCSP Discussion Draft Strategic Plan as a starting point, and made every effort to provide a forum that would encourage suggestions for improvement," Mahoney said. "We value all of the comments and believe that the tremendous response to the draft is proof of the importance of our efforts."