Weather Insider: The National Climate Assessment

The Global Change Research Act of 1990 requires the federal government to release a major, comprehensive report detailing how climate change will impact nearly every facet of American life. This report is called the National Climate Assessment and is used by countless federal, state, and local officials, as well as private businesses, to plan for the future. The 5th NCA came out in 2023 and was more than 1800 pages long. The report is meant to come out every four years.

In late April, President Trump suddenly fired approximately 400 volunteer scientists working on the report. Previously, the president has fired most of the employees in the U.S. Global Change Research Program, a Whitehouse office overseeing the report. It is unclear what will happen with the 6th NCA, set to come out in 2027, without the work of the hundreds of scientific experts. However, the report is congressionally mandated.