ASA Advisory Committee on Climate Change Policy (ACCCP)

Charge:

In cooperation with the Director of Science Policy, advise Congress on climate change issues, with special emphasis on the roles of statistics and statisticians in advancing science and informing policy

 

Members:

See Roster.

 

Activities:

• Committee helps organize special CHANCE issue, The Role of Statistics in Climate Research, December 2017.
• Committee writes letter with ASA President to National Center for Atmospheric Research expressing deep concern for the elimination of its Institute for Mathematics Applied to the Geosciences, 10/23/17.
• Committee organizes session for ISI's 61st World Statistics Conference, “Statistical Developments in Climate Science Research”, July 19, 2017.
• Committee organizes 2017 JSM session, Climate Change, Extremes, and Impacts.
• Committee has four members participate in Seventh Climate Science Day, March 21: Peter Bloomfield, Noel Cressie, Dorit Hammerling, and Leonard Smith; with support of Statistics and the Environment section
• JSM 2016 Session: Uncertainty Quantification in Climate Science:
  • L Mark Berliner, The Ohio State University
  • Dan Cooley, Colorado State University
  • Noel Cressie, University of Wollongong
  • Leonard Smith, The London School of Economics and Political Science
• Joint TIES/ASA ACCCP session, Statistical Developments in Climate Science Research, accepted for 61st World Statistics Congress - ISI 2017.
• ASA and Royal Statistical Society send letter to Australian Government about cuts to climate research at CSIRO.
• ASA Joins 30 Societies on Letter to Congress with Consensus Scientific View of Climate Change.
• ASA signs onto letter to House leadership discouraging provisions that might limit federal government's access to the best available climate science, 4/24/15.
• ASA Participates in 6th Annual Climate Science Day on Capitol Hill, February 10, 2016.
• ASA Participates in 5th Annual Climate Science Day on Capitol Hill, February 11, 2015; Photo of Michael Stein with Congressman Bill Foster
• Informing ASA position on letter to Congress regarding access to best available climate science, 4/24/15.
• JSM 2014 Session: Treatment of Uncertainty in Climate Change Assessments
• Statistical Science: Contributions to the Administration's Research Priority on Climate Change, ASA White Paper, April 2014.
• Climate Science Day on Capitol Hill, February 27, 2013: Photo of Richard Smith with Senator Hagan (NC); Robert Lund with his CSD team; AAAS story on CSD13; Climate Science Day Successful, Educational.
• JSM 2013 presentations by committee members:
  • Rick Katz, Design Life Level: Quantifying The Risk Of Extreme Events In A Changing Climate;
• 2013 AAAS annual conference presentations:
  • Murali Haran: Using models and data to learn about the future of the climate; Penn State press release
  • Mark Berliner: Informing Climate Policy-Makers (Video); Ohio State press release
• JSM 2012 presentations by committee members:
  • Peter Guttorp, Introductory Overview Lecture: Statistics and Climate (www.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2012/onlineprogram/ActivityDetails.cfm?SessionID=207986)
  • Peter Craigmile, Water and Climate (www.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2012/onlineprogram/ActivityDetails.cfm?SessionID=207434)
  • Rick Katz, Economic impact of extreme climate events: An approach based on penultimate extreme value theory (www.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2012/onlineprogram/ActivityDetails.cfm?SessionID=207508)
  • Montserrat Fuentes, Statistics and Regional Climate Models (www.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2012/onlineprogram/ActivityDetails.cfm?SessionID=207433
• Climate Science Day on Capitol Hill, February 1, 2012: "Statisticians Participate in 2nd Annual Climate Science Day"; Photo of Peter Guttorp with Congressman Jim McDermott (WA);
• JSM 2011 Invited Session: "Addressing the Evidence for Anthropogenic Climate Change"
  • Mark Berliner, Ohio State University, slides
  • John R. Christy, University of Alabama at Huntsville, slides
  • Ross McKitrick, University of Guelph, slides
  • Richard L. Smith, The University of North Carolina, slides
• Climate Science Day on Capitol Hill, February 17, 2011: "Statisticians Participate in Climate Science Day on Capitol Hill"
• May 11, 2010 Climate Science briefing, "Climate Science: Key Questions and Answers", with ASA fellow, Richard L Smith
• The group has been meeting with congressional staffers to discuss the contribution statistics can make and to learn more of their needs and developing materials for the staff.
• Review of Health Impacts of Climate Change
• Committee members publish a piece in March 2010 AMSTAT News: "Statisticians Comment on Status of Climate Change Science". On March 31, the authors also participated in an online q&a on the article: http://magazine.amstat.org/2010/03/climatemar10/2/#transcript.
• The group helped review the October 21, 2009 joint science organization letter on climate change science and provided advice to ASA President Sally C Morton on signing it.
• Review of the paper, "On Modeling and Interpreting the Economics of Catastrophic Climate Change", by Martin L. Weitzman
• Produced short documents for its visits to the Hill. StatisticiansHelpingPolicyMakers.pdf, StatisticiansRole.pdf
• Mark Berliner’s documents on this committee’s activities and climate change overview

 

Links:

• Online catalog of data sources and computer code
• Latest report on observations since the IPCC Fourth Assessment  from the UN Environment Programme
• The IPCC Fourth Assessment Working Group 1 report: The Physical Science Basis

      The ASA endorses conclusions of the UN IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change: statement; news release

      2007 workshop on climate change science; news release

 

Contact: Steve Pierson, ASA Director of Science Policy, pierson@amstat.org; 703.302.1841.