The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group II, will release its report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change in Brussels, Belgium on April 6, 2007. This report assesses the science produced over the last five years on current and future impacts from climate change in regions around the world and in sectors including water, coasts, ecosystems, agriculture and human settlements. The report discusses climate change in the context of other socio-economic change and assesses possible remedies to future changes through adaptation.

NOAA individuals and expertise contributed significantly to this report. Roger Pulwarty, a NOAA scientist with OAR, was a lead author of the chapter on adaptation. Additionally, many NOAA-funded activities contributed data and research to the growing body of literature on impacts and adaptation assessed by this report. For example, a number of scientists supported by NOAA's Regional Integrated Science and Assessment (RISA) program contributed research on impacts expected for different regions of the U.S.

"NOAA's climate research and related work extends far beyond its contributions to IPCC, and adds direct benefit to the nation and to the world through various products that are used in commerce, government and the every-day lives of ordinary people," said retired Navy VADM Conrad Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "Climate helps shape both human and natural systems worldwide. NOAA delivers reliable climate information in useful ways to help minimize risks and maximize opportunities for informed decisions in agriculture, public policy, natural resources, water and energy use, public health and an ever-expanding list of constituencies that are realizing the importance of climate in their activities."

As the nation's Earth science agency, NOAA conducts cutting edge, innovative research that generates insights, observations, data and decision support resources that are used by resource managers, policy makers and the general public to understand and cope with climate variability and change. NOAA's efforts related to impacts and adaptation harness the physical, social and natural sciences, and address climate and its impacts across multiple spatial scales, ranging from global, to regional, to local. NOAA is also active around the world, working with partners to improve the collective understanding of the Earth's systems, through observations and scientific endeavor, sharing of data and information, and building capacity to use this information for management decisions. NOAA provides technical assistance to other countries in the use and application of this knowledge to decision-making in support of sound integrated resource management and economic decisions.

NOAA also collaborates with other Federal agencies through the U.S. Climate Change Science Program in providing focused, goal-specific research products that answer questions that are key to our understanding of climate. Some of the products that are in progress will shed light on climate's role in extreme weather, ecosystems, transportation, energy production and human health.