Obama Administration Issues Draft of Major Comprehensive Report on Actions U.S. is Taking to Address Climate Change

The U.S. government late today (7 April 2010) issued the public review draft of its fifth "national communication" required under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  U.S. Climate Action Report 2010 is the single most important and comprehensive statement so far from the Obama Administration on actions the U.S. is taking at all levels to address climate change. 

A Federal Register notice tomorrow [see notice here] will announce the beginning of a 28-day public review period that will close on 6 May.  An advance copy of the notice [PDF] posted today says:

"The draft Fifth CAR [Climate Action Report] provides a detailed report on U.S. actions to address climate change. This report contains descriptions of specific measured and verified actions, outlines of broad policy initiatives, and summaries of activities conducted by the U.S. since the fourth CAR, principally at the federal level. It also explains U.S. Government efforts to increase scientific understanding of climate change, and provide foreign assistance to help other nations mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change."

Here is the draft report in its entirety (PDF format)

As time allows, we will review selected portions of the report in future postings.

Background

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) requires periodic “national communications” from industrialized countries listed in Annex I of the convention.

So far, all Annex I countries have each submitted four reports over the years. The fifth national communications were due 1 January 2010.  All but these four countries have submitted reports: U.S., Monaco, Slovenia and Turkey. See this table for a listing of the reports that have been submitted; all are available online.

In  the U.S., the State Department is the lead agency in producing the report, and the report here is typically referred to as the “Climate Action Report.”  Four have been produced so far and are often referred to as CAR-1, CAR-2, CAR-3 and CAR-4; or by the year published (Climate Action Report 2006, etc).  The first two were produced under Clinton and the 3rd and 4th reports were published under Bush. They have been the only routine and comprehensive statements to the world community of what the U.S. is doing on climate change.

The reports are important summaries of actions countries are taking to address climate change and to meet their commitments under the convention.  They follow a required format which allows the UNFCCC Secretariat – and others – to compare actions across countries. The required chapters include:

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

II. NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES RELEVANT TO GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AND REMOVALS

III. GREENHOUSE GAS INVENTORY INFORMATION
A. Summary tables (or as an annex to the national communication)
B. Descriptive summary

IV. POLICIES AND MEASURES
A. Policy-making process
B. Policies and measures and their effects
C. Policies and measures no longer in place

V. PROJECTIONS AND THE TOTAL EFFECT OF POLICIES AND MEASURES
A. Projections
Diagrams
B. Assessment of aggregate effects of policies and measures
C. Methodology

VI. VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS AND ADAPTATION MEASURES
A. Expected impacts of climate change
B. Vulnerability Assessment
C. Adaptation measures

VII. FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY
A. Provision of ‘new and additional’ resources
B. Assistance to developing country Parties that are particularly vulnerable to climate change
C. Provision of financial resources
D. Activities related to transfer of technology

VIII. RESEARCH AND SYSTEMATIC OBSERVATION
A. General policy on research and systematic observation
B. Research
C. Systematic observation

IX. EDUCATION, TRAINING AND PUBLIC AWARENESS

Once reports are issued, the Secretariat organizes “in depth reviews” of each report (which are publicly available) and ultimately produces a “compilation and synthesis” report.  The most recent one (for CAR-4) is here.

The next U.S. report, called “U.S. Climate Action Report 2010” also will be very late.  The process started with a Federal Register notice announcing that the production of the CAR had begun, soliciting comments and providing a rough schedule. That notice was issued on 30 July 2009 and indicated that the draft would be available “in fall of 2009.” That schedule obviously slipped. The FR Notice that will be published tomorrow, 8 April, finally marks the release of the draft and the beginning of the public review process.  One the review is over, the report will be revised and released in final form late this spring or during the summer.

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