Dr. William Solecki Contributing Author of Fourth National Climate Assessment Chapter on the US Northeast
Institute for Sustainable Cities Founding Director Dr. William Solecki Contributing Author of Fourth National Climate Assessment Chapter on the US Northeast
On November 23, 2018 the US Global Change Research Program released the second volume of the Fourth National Climate Assessment. NCA4 Volume II, Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States will assist decision makers in assessing, avoiding, and reducing risks from climate change.
NCA4 Vol II “places a strong emphasis on regional information, addressing the impacts of climate change on 10 regions of the United States.” Dr. William Solecki, Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainable Cities, served as contributing author of Chapter 18: Northeast, focusing on the climate risks, impacts, and adaptation challenges of the U.S. Northeast.
Dr. Solecki is a professor of geography at Hunter College and one of the world’s foremost experts on urban environmental change. As Co-Chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) Dr. Solecki has led efforts to understand the challenges that climate change poses to the New York City metropolitan region and to formulate the adaptive response to these challenges.
Dr. Solecki served as coordinating lead author of Third National Climate Assessment, Chapter 11: Urbanization, Infrastructure, and Vulnerability, released in 2014. Dr. Solecki was also coauthor of the IPCC Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5º C released earlier this year.
From the US Global Change Research Program press release announcing the report:
“NCA4 Vol II, Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States, assesses a range of potential climate change-related impacts, with an aim to helping decision makers better identify risks that could be avoided or reduced. The assessment follows Vol I, the Climate Science Special Report (CSSR), which was released in November 2017. Together, these reports meet the requirements of the Global Change Research Act, which mandates a quadrennial assessment of our understanding of global change and its impacts on the United States.
“NCA4 Vol II draws on the expertise of more than 300 authors from federal, state, and local governments, industry, academia, tribal organizations, and non-government organizations. Its findings are the result of an assessment of over 6,000 unique references, including the CSSR, which provides the climate science foundation for this volume.
“The assessment places a strong emphasis on regional information, addressing the impacts of climate change on 10 regions of the United States. It also evaluates the risks from climate change across 15 national-level topics, often using case studies to provide additional context and showcase community success stories. The report concludes with two response chapters discussing how climate-related risks could be reduced or avoided through adaptation action or emissions mitigation.”
