Strategic Plan for the
Climate Change
Science Program
Review draft, November 2002

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See also the white paper:
International Cooperation in Climate Change Science
[PDF]
(posted 27 Nov 2002)

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Chapter 14:
International Research and Cooperation

From the first days of research on climate science, it has been recognized that change occurs on many scales -- from local to regional to global. Early research focused on change as it was manifest at the local level where scientific capabilities were also the strongest. The results of this early research indicated clearly to US scientists studying change that the processes that influence change at the local level could not be divorced from regional and global processes. To obtain first-hand knowledge and to develop comprehensive understanding of these processes -- under a broad range of geophysical and biogeochemical conditions -- requires scientists to cooperate across national boundaries on both a regional and global basis.

It was recognized that research and observational programs to study change at these levels should be carried out so as to assure the full and open exchange of data among participating scientists and between these scientists and the broader scientific community and those involved in the policy-making process. These research and observational programs also contribute substantively to the international assessment process, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion, as described in the preceding chapters of this plan. It is also important in conducting such programs, especially those involving developing countries, that ways be found to assist scientists in these countries to play a substantive role in the collection and analysis of data and to benefit from the results of these activities. Efforts in these areas have resulted in a comprehensive array of international global change research programs and projects that are steadily evolving as new scientific needs are identified.

When US scientists identify international collaboration necessary for them to address important scientific problems at the regional and global level, they are encouraged to address these to the maximum extent possible through direct scientist-to-scientist cooperation. US scientists studying global change thus work directly with colleagues in other countries in a number of key areas, as is highlighted in earlier sections of this plan.

The broad scope and complexity of US climate science research often also requires that the United States develop a broad, well-organized international framework within which:

US scientists, US funding agencies and the US Government and our colleagues and counterparts in other countries have developed such a framework to address both research and observational requirements.

This framework includes a series of global-scale research programs; non-governmental and intergovernmental international organizations at both the global and regional level; various networks for coordination of observing systems -- both in situ and remote sensing -- and data exchange and management; and organizations that focus on education, training, and capacity-building.

The United States is involved in numerous significant partnerships with other nations to develop and implement climate-related satellite programs. Such satellite remote-sensing systems require development of collaborative international ground-based networks, maintenance of these networks, and assurance of calibration relative to widely recognized standards. This cannot be accomplished only through collaboration of scientists from all nations. Such ground-based observations also form an important link for the calibration and validation of satellite data that are obtained by the space agencies that constitute the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS).

A few illustrative examples include the following:

In addition to their fundamental contribution to the mission flight success, these partnerships have substantially broadened the science and end-user communities for climate-related satellite observations.

Within the global-scale research programs, scientists from many countries address: the physics and related chemistry of global change, with a special focus on climate, through the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP); the biology and chemistry and related geosciences of global change, through the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP); the human dimensions of global change, through the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP); and biodiversity science, through the Diversitas program.

These programs link to international scientific unions through the International Council for Science (ICSU) and with ICSU committees, such as the Scientific Committee for Ocean Research (SCOR); the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE); and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).

These programs also provide a framework within which major field campaigns can be organized involving ships, aircraft, satellites, balloons, surface-based measurements, and laboratory studies. One example of such a campaign is the Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics program (GOFC-GOLD), an international effort to provide accurate, reliable, quantitative space-based and in situ observations of forests and other vegetation cover for sustainable development of terrestrial resources. This program also contributes to improving understanding of the terrestrial carbon budget.

In response to an initiative of President George W. Bush, the United States has recently undertaken to develop bilateral cooperation with a number of other countries that share US interests and capabilities in specific areas of climate change research and technology. Efforts are well underway with Italy, Japan, and Australia. Discussions are in progress with the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, Canada, India, seven Central American countries, and the European Union.

National agencies that fund global change research, satellite remote sensing systems, agricultural research, and development aid also coordinate their efforts with their counterpart agencies in other countries through a number of organizations and networks. These include the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA); the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS); and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Through IGFA, national agencies that fund global change research exchange information, identify issues of mutual interest, and develop approaches to resolving these issues that the agencies then implement nationally.

The United States is one of the largest donors to CGIAR, which sponsors sixteen international agricultural research centers devoted to improving food security, alleviating poverty, and improving the management of natural resources in developing nations. These centers are engaged in biological research that is intended to increase production of basic food crops and livestock and to maintain and enhance the natural resource base relating to soil, water, aquatic resources, agro forestry, and forestry.

The United States interacts at the intergovernmental level with partner countries in United Nations (UN) organizations that support global change research, both directly and indirectly. Preeminent among these are the World Meteorological Organization (WMO); the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the UN Environment Programme (UNEP); the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); the UN Development Programme (UNDP); and the World Health Organization (WHO). Through its participation in UNEP, the UNDP, and the World Bank, the United States also participates actively in and supports the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the primary international institution for transferring energy and sequestration technologies to the developing world.

Among other things, these agencies are involved in sponsorship of a number of the key scientific bodies involved in international cooperation in global change research, e.g., the World Climate Research Program. The WMO, UNESCO, IOC, UNEP and FAO, in cooperation with ICSU, also sponsor and oversee coordination of many of the observational systems that support global change research, including the Global Climate Observation System (GCOS), Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS), and the Global Terrestrial Observation System (GTOS).

Of special note, the WMO and the IOC have established a new Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) to which the two organizations have entrusted development, maintenance, coordination, and guidance of the operation of their global marine meteorological and oceanographic observing systems.

The United States also participates in and supports regional cooperation in global change research, especially in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa. In 1990 President George H.W. Bush hosted a ministerial-level Conference on Scientific and Environmental Research Related to Global Change. At this conference, the United States proposed -- and the Conference agreed -- to establish three hemisphere-scale regional global change research networks.

The first of these, the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), was set up in 1992, and the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) soon followed. In Africa the SysTem for Analysis, Research, and Training (START) has established a Pan-African START Regional Committee (PACOM). START and PACOM are involved in designing and implementing regional cooperative research in such areas as climate variability and climate change; water and food security; and land use change, ecosystems, and biodiversity. Regional networks directed at GOFC-GOLD objectives have also been established in Central Africa and the Miombo region in southern Africa.

The United States hosts two organizations that emphasize cooperation with developing countries in global change research. The first is the START program cited above, an international non-governmental organization that was established under the aegis of ICSU. START is co-sponsored by the IGBP, the WCRP, and the IHDP. Its purpose is to build capacity in developing countries to conduct research on global environmental change and the challenges these changes pose for human health, agriculture, water, and food security, and to apply the results of such research in decision-making.

The second is the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI), an innovative science institution working to accelerate the ability of societies worldwide to cope with climate fluctuations, especially those that cause devastating impacts on humans and the environment, thereby reaping the benefits of decades of research on the predictability of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon and climate variations.

The United States also actively promotes global change research in the Antarctic and Arctic, the former through cooperation with other parties to the Antarctic Treaty and SCAR, and the latter through the Arctic Council; the International Arctic Sciences Committee (IASC); and the Arctic Ocean Sciences Board (AOSB).

The overall framework for international cooperation in global change research and observations has been responsive to the needs of US global change science. However, this framework should be broadened and strengthened to keep pace with the evolving needs of this science with respect to both research and observations.

Climate modeling capabilities have improved dramatically in recent years and can be expected to continue to do so. As a result, US scientists are now able to model Earth system processes and their coupling on a regional and global scale with increasing precision and reliability. To continue to improve such modeling will require substantial expansion of Earth observing systems, both remote and in situ, in order to fill gaps in existing databases, especially in those areas of the world for which existing data is sparse. Such data-sparse regions include remote regions, especially those with harsh environments, and areas where existing capabilities to make observations and collect data are limited, such as the oceanic and interior land areas of the Southern Hemisphere and both polar regions.

To expand cooperation internationally, the President has announced that the United States intends to:

The Climate Change Science Program also intends to: