The Department of Environmental Quality is partnering with North Carolina’s leading climate science experts to support the development of the State Climate Science Assessment. DEQ is leading the effort to produce the climate risk assessment and resiliency plan, as directed by Gov. Cooper’s Executive Order 80, to help the state cabinet agencies evaluate the potential impacts of climate change.
Scientists and staff from the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies (NCICS), also known as the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Climates and Satellites- North Carolina, helped prepare the Fourth National Climate Assessment released in 2018. Their climate science knowledge, data, expertise and experience is a valuable resource as the state works to support communities and sectors of the economy that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
On Monday, April 8, Dr. Kenneth Kunkel and Jenny Dissen of NCICS, along with Dr. Jessica Whitehead from NC Sea Grant at NC State University, worked with designees of the NC Climate Change Interagency Council, to explain the climate assessment process, the NC available data and to begin identifying climate information needs to determine the specific concerns of each state agency. These working sessions will help refine the climate science assessment to create a targeted document to aid the state’s resiliency and mitigation efforts.
Dr. Kunkel and his team are scheduled to present at the April 26 Climate Change Interagency Council meeting in Raleigh as their work on the state climate assessment gets underway.