Confronting Climate Change in the US Northeast

The Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment (NECIA) is a collaboration between the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and a team of more than fifty independent experts to develop and communicate a new assessment of climate change, impacts on climate-sensitive sectors, and solutions in the northeastern United States. Launched in May, 2005, the goal of the assessment is to combine state-of-the-art analyses with effective outreach to provide policymakers, opinion leaders, and the public with the best available science upon which to base informed choices about climate change mitigation and adaptation.

In Phase I of the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment (completed in October, 2006) collaborating scientists developed a core set of climate projections for the Northeast region. These projections were used as the basis for Phase II of the assessment (completed in spring, 2007), which explored impacts of projected climate change on key climate-sensitive sectors.