By Leah Dunlevy

In 2017, President Donald Trump eliminated the 15-person Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment. The committee, established in 2015, was tasked with evaluating and providing guidance based on the National Climate Assessment, the newest information about climate that is published every four years. Documents released last year revealed that Trump eliminated the committee because he felt there wasn’t enough representation from industry experts.

After an invitation from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, members of the climate panel, in coordination with other experts, reconvened independently with support from the State of New York, Columbia University, and the American Meteorological Society. The new panel, the Science to Climate Action Network, put out a new report on Thursday that calls for better efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and provides advice for how to turn climate science into actionable policy.

The report heavily focuses on broader coordination and communication about climate strategies, and emphasizes the inclusion of governments that may not have the capacity to adapt to climate change.

While Yale reports that surging numbers of Americans believe in climate science, a poll by the Associated Press and University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute found, when asked how much they would be willing to pay as an additional part of their monthly electricity bill which would be allocated to combat climate change, 57 percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to pay at least $1, 23 percent said they’d pay at least $40, and 16 percent were willing to pay at least $100.

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Areas of Focus: Climate Change
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Climate Change
Climate change is an urgent global challenge. EPIC research is helping to assess its impacts, quantify its costs, and identify an efficient set of policies to reduce emissions and adapt...
Climate Economics
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Climate Economics
Climate change will affect every sector of the economy, both locally and globally. EPIC research is quantifying these effects to help guide policymakers, businesses, and individuals working to mitigate and...
Climate Law & Policy
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Climate Law & Policy
As countries around the world implement policies to confront climate change, EPIC research is calculating which policies will have the most impact for the least cost.