Projects

 
DOE Climate Change Projects:

• The U.S. Department of Energy has researched energy solutions through its Energy Innovation Hubs where some of the top scientists from academia, industry, and government are charged to collaborate and overcome known barriers in energy technology. So far they have focused on how to build more efficient nuclear reactors, design more energy efficient buildings, and produce biofuel from the sun, all in the hope of reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
• The Better Buildings Case Competition challenges university teams to tackle persistent, real-world barriers to energy-efficiency, helping to prepare the next generation of leaders in the clean energy space.
• The 2012 Energy Innovation Summit gathered nearly 2,500 of the nation’s brightest minds from across the energy ecosystem outside Washington, DC to share ideas about how we can advance technologies to address America’s energy challenges, including continuing to develop the breakthrough technologies needed to lead the clean energy race and create jobs here at home.
• The ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit Technology Showcase features projects covering everything from grid-scale storage to building efficiency to advanced carbon capture and electrofuels. Leaders from across research, business, and government were able to meet with the researchers and entrepreneurs behind these innovative clean energy startups.

• The EPA is developing standards  for greenhouse gas emissions from mobile and stationary sources under the Clean Air Act through identification of dangerous greenhouse gases, efforts to produce a new generation of clean vehicles, implementation of regulations ensuring a minimum volume of renewable transportation fuel, the proposal of a Carbon Pollution Standard for power plants, reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, and other related actions.
• The EPA has developed many programs and projects that partner with industry and others  to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, playing a significant role in these partnerships by providing technical expertise and encouraging voluntary reductions from the private sector.
• The EPA analyzes the anticipated economic effects of proposed standards and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These analyses have shown that there are a variety of cost-effective policies available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• The EPA participates in bilateral (two-country) and multilateral (more than two-country) international partnerships  to address the global challenge of climate change, providing leadership, technical expertise, and capacity-building support.
• The EPA's  State and Local Climate and Energy Program  provides technical assistance, analytical tools, and outreach support to state, local, and tribal governments. 

• The Atmospheric Physics, Chemistry, and Climate Group  develops and employs computer models—alongside a wide range of atmospheric chemical and meteorological measurements—to advance our understanding of the earth's past, present, and future atmospheric climate and composition. The findings and results of its research are posted here.
• The Climate and Ecosystems Group  studies the impacts of climate changes on ecosystems, and the influence of ecosystem changes on climate. It also includes interactions between human activities, ecosystems, and climate. The findings and results of its research are posted here.
• The Climate Diagnostics Group  works to enhance our knowledge of the phenomena associated with, and physical processes contributing to, the stationary and time-varying states of the Earth's climate system, through analysis of data collected from various observational platforms, and experimentation with numerical climate models.
• The Climate Change, Variability, and Prediction Group  develops and uses coupled ocean-atmosphere climate models to increase our understanding of climate variability and change on seasonal to centennial time scales, to assess the predictability of the climate system, and to make experimental climate predictions.
• The Oceans and Climate Group  consists of scientists focused on studying the fundamental mechanisms setting the large scale climate of the World Oceans. For this purpose, they employ a hierarchy of numerical and analytical models.
• The Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Group   aims to improve our understanding of atmospheric circulations ranging in scale from hurricanes to extratropical storms and the general circulation, with an emphasis on extreme weather events and the interplay between weather phenomena and climate variability and change, using comprehensive high resolution atmospheric modeling and idealized dynamical studies.
• Today, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center collects climate data  from not only land-based stations but also from ships, buoys, weather balloons, radars, satellites, and even sophisticated weather and climate models. With increasing sophistication of data collection equipment, such as new satellites and radars, data is expected to exceed 15 petabytes by 2020.

• IPCC Working Group I (WG I)  assesses the physical scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change.
• IPCC Working Group II (WG II)  assesses the vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change, negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to it.
• IPCC Working Group III (WG III)  assesses options for mitigating climate change through limiting or preventing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing activities that remove them from the atmosphere.
• The Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI)  develops and refines a methodology and software for the calculation and reporting of national GHG emissions.
• One of the main IPCC activities is the preparation of comprehensive assessment reports about the state of scientific, technical and socioeconomic knowledge on climate change, its causes, potential impacts and response strategies. 
• The Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impacts and Climate Analysis (TGICA)  was established to facilitate cooperation between the climate modeling and climate impacts assessment communities.

• In keeping with its mission to "enhance the energy and environmental security of the nation," LLNL promotes many climate and carbon science research and development efforts  . These efforts involve teams of both environmental and computer scientists, as well as diverse support personnel, who work together to achieve scientific and technical innovations directed toward pressing national and international problems in these fields.
• The goal of energy research  at LLNL is to advance security in the U.S. through the discovery, development, production and deployment of cost-effective and sustainable energy systems—while protecting the environment. Researched technologies include carbon capture and storage, hydogen fuel, wind forecasting, and more.

• NASA  provides information on solar activity, sea level rise, the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans, the state of the ozone layer, air pollution, and changes in sea ice and land ice, employing more than a dozen Earth science spacecraft/instruments in orbit to study all aspects of the Earth system (oceans, land, atmosphere, biosphere, cyrosphere), with several more planned for launch in the next few years.
• Here is an alphabetical list of NASA Earth science satellites and instruments> equipped to provide more and better climate data.

• The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Earth System Laboratory  promotes and facilitates atmospheric and earth-systems research areas within NCAR. Research within NESL is highly collaborative with specialties focused in three major research divisions.
• The High Altitude Observatory   conducts fundamental and applied research in solar-terrestrial physics using observational, theoretical, and numerical methods. Research at HAO extends from the solar core to the surface of the Earth.
• The Earth Observing Laboratory provides state-of-the-art atmospheric observing systems and support services to the university-based research community for climate and weather research.
• The Integrated Science Program  promotes the scientific frontiers that are dependent on an integrated approach, across NCAR laboratories and across disciplines.
• The Advanced Study Program  focuses on fostering the professional development of early career scientists, promoting advanced scientific educational opportunities at NCAR through visitor programs, directing attention to emerging areas of science, and facilitating interactions between NCAR, universities, and the broader community.
• The Research Applications Laboratory  conducts directed research and engineering toward the solution to problems relevant to society, and facilitates the transfer of the information, expertise, and technology developed to the public and private sectors.
• NCAR's Computational & Information Systems Laboratory  is a world leader in supercomputing and cyberinfrastructure, providing services to over 60 UCAR member universities as well as NCAR and the larger geosciences community.

• The Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts, and Adaptation (PROVIA)  is an exciting new global initiative, a joint collaboration between UNEP, WMO, and UNESCO. Launched with the support of leading scientists and decision-makers, PROVIA responds to the urgent call for a more cohesive and coordinated approach to harmonize, mobilize, and communicate the growing knowledge base on VIA.
• UNEP takes a multifaceted approach towards climate change mitigation —reducing or preventing greenhouse gas emissions—in its efforts to help countries move towards a low-carbon society. Efforts underway around the world range from high-tech subway systems to bicycling paths and walkways. Protecting natural carbon sinks like forests and oceans, or creating new sinks through silviculture or green agriculture are also elements of mitigation.
• UNEP's Reducing Emissions from Deforestations and forest Degradation (REDD+)  program seeks to address the issue of forest loss by finding ways to curb its alarming rate.
• UNEP is exploring how to adapt to climate change through science and assessments, knowledge and policy, ecosystem-based adaptation, economics and finance, and access to adaptation finance.
• UNEP's Outreach programs seek to increase awareness of climate change among the general public, through the projects Ready, Willing, and Able; What Can You Do?; and the Kilimanjaro Initiative.

• UNESCO is working with Member States and communities in addressing the risks that climate change poses to them and their futures through the UNESCO Climate Change Initiative

• The Hadley Centre Climate Programme  provides up-to-date, robust, and traceable scientific evidence to government on climate variability and climate change. This evidence helps inform key policy areas with a focus on climate monitoring and attribution; dangerous climate change (its potential impacts, vulnerabilities and risks); and advice to inform UK and international policy for renewable energy, mitigation and adaptation.
• Metcalf Institute’s training model   places journalists in the field and in laboratories for hands-on experience in environmental research. Their programs provide the links between research, scientific publications, and environmental policy and afford scientists and journalists opportunities to explore and understand the challenges of both research and communication.
• The National Science Foundation's public investment in science, engineering, education, and technology  helps to create knowledge and sustain prosperity, supporting many discoveries and innovations in the field of climatology.
• Penn State University has premier researchers working in the poles  on different aspects of the melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. These areas offer unprecedented opportunities for researchers in remote sensing, high energy physics, biology, atmospheric chemistry, etc.
• SUDPLAN will link existing environmental simulation models, information and sensor infrastructures, spatial data infrastructures (SDI), and climatic scenario databases , providing visualization of long-term forecasts of environmental factors for urban subsystems such as building and architecture, traffic and transport, landscape planning, and local water runoff.